Public schools including kindergartens shall be maintained in each town for at least one hundred eighty days of actual school sessions during each year, and for the school year commencing July 1, 2014, and each school year thereafter, in accordance with the provisions of section 10-66q. When public school sessions are cancelled for reasons of inclement weather or otherwise, the rescheduled sessions shall not be held on Saturday or Sunday. Public schools may conduct weekend education programs to provide supplemental and remedial services to students. A local or regional board of education for a school that has been designated as a low achieving school pursuant to subparagraph (A) of subdivision (1) of subsection (e) of section 10-223e, or a category four school or a category five school pursuant to said section 10-223e, may increase the number of actual school sessions during each year, and may increase the number of hours of actual school work per school session in order to improve student performance and remove the school from the list of schools designated as a low achieving school maintained by the State Board of Education. The State Board of Education (1) may authorize the shortening of any school year for a school district, a school or a portion of a school on account of an unavoidable emergency, and (2) may authorize implementation of scheduling of school sessions to permit full year use of facilities which may not offer each child one hundred eighty days of school sessions within a given school year, but which assures an opportunity for each child to average a minimum of one hundred eighty days of school sessions per year during thirteen years of educational opportunity in the elementary and secondary schools. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section and section 10-16, the State Board of Education may, upon application by a local or regional board of education, approve for any single school year, in whole or in part, a plan to implement alternative scheduling of school sessions which assures at least four hundred fifty hours of actual school work for nursery schools and half-day kindergartens and at least nine hundred hours of actual school work for full-day kindergartens and grades one to twelve, inclusive.

(1949 Rev., S. 1349; 1967, P.A. 288, S. 1; 1971, P.A. 370, S. 1; 442; 1972, P.A. 120, S. 1; P.A. 75-284; P.A. 77-614, S. 302, 610; P.A. 78-218, S. 9; P.A. 80-241; P.A. 88-123; P.A. 98-243, S. 12, 25; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 99-1, S. 36, 51; P.A. 11-85, S. 3; P.A. 12-116, S. 26; P.A. 13-247, S. 323.)

History: 1967 act included kindergartens and changed usual minimum age for entrance from 6 to 5; 1971 acts rewrote provision concerning studies of alcohol and narcotics effects to include nicotine, tobacco and all controlled drugs and their effect on citizenship and personality as well as on health and character and specified that rescheduled school sessions may not be held on Saturday or Sunday; 1972 act added provision allowing full year use of facilities “which may not offer each child one hundred eighty days of school sessions within a given school year” but which will average out as 180 days per year over 13-year course of education; P.A. 75-284 forbade discrimination on grounds of sex, religion or national origin and required equal participation opportunities for any child in any school activity, program or course of study; P.A. 77-614 substituted commissioner of education for secretary of state board of education, effective January 1, 1979; P.A. 78-218 deleted provisions dealing with age of students, discrimination and equal opportunity and deleted detailed prescribed course of study; P.A. 80-241 added provisions concerning alternate scheduling of school sessions; P.A. 88-123 added Subdiv. designations and in Subdiv. (1) added “for a school district, a school or a portion of school”; P.A. 98-243 added language to set different requirements for half and full-day kindergarten programs, effective July 1, 1998; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 99-1 authorized public schools to conduct weekend education programs to provide supplemental and remedial services to students, effective July 1, 1999 (Revisor's note: The phrase “... full-day kindergarten and grades one to twelve, inclusive.” at the end of the section was changed editorially by the Revisors to “... full-day kindergartens and grades one to twelve, inclusive.” for consistency); P.A. 11-85 authorized boards of education for low achieving schools to increase the number of actual school sessions during each year and the number of hours of actual school work per school session, effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 12-116 added “or a category four school or a category five school pursuant to said section 10-223e” and made a technical change, effective July 1, 2012; P.A. 13-247 added provision re number of days of actual school sessions each year in accordance with Sec. 10-66q for school years commencing on and after July 1, 2014, effective July 1, 2013.

What constitutes residence of a child for school purposes. 59 C. 491. Discretion of board of education to prescribe particular subjects is to be independently exercised. 127 C. 351. Cited. 135 C. 582; 147 C. 374; 152 C. 151; 218 C. 1; 238 C. 1.

Cited. 26 CS 123. When health instruction and physical education courses authorized. 29 CS 397. Plaintiff, eligible for public schooling, has standing to bring action for declaratory judgment that the distribution of funds for public schools do not meet constitutional standards. 31 CS 379.