§ 42-72.4-1. Children under state care - Admission to public schools - Intra-state education identification card. (a) It is the duty of the director of the department of children, youth, and families to ensure that all children in the care of the state are allowed immediate admission, subject to the provisions of § 16-64-1 - § 16-64-8, to a public school in the city or town in which they are residing in an authorized placement. To facilitate the discharge of this duty, the director shall issue to every child in the state's care who has completed three (3) years of life and has not completed eighteen (18) years of life and to every other child in the state's care who is eligible to be enrolled in a public school, an intra-state education identification card. The intra-state education identification card shall include evidence of immunization as provided in § 16-38-2.

(b) It is the duty of the director to update the intra-state education identification card for each child in order to provide current information regarding the residence of the parent or guardian and evidence of immunization as provided in § 16-38-2 on an annual basis prior to and each time the child transfers to another school district. This card shall provide that each city or town be required to immediately enroll the child in its school system and for purposes of determining the school district financially responsible for the child's education in accordance with § 16-64-1.1, the parent's residence designated on the intra-state education identification card shall constitute prima facie evidence of the parent's residence in that district.

(c) It is the duty of both the receiving and sending school system to effect the immediate transfer of the child's school records without any additional documentation except as provided by the department of elementary and secondary education. The requirements of this section are in addition to the provisions of § 16-64-7, which empowers the department of children, youth, and families to authorize the transfer of school records in certain situations. The director of the department of children, youth, and families is authorized to promulgate rules and regulations necessary to the implementation of this chapter. The director shall comply with the terms of this chapter upon passage for all children in state care who are not then enrolled and/or registered in the school district within which they reside and shall comply with the terms of the chapter for children who are currently so enrolled or registered no later than the time of the children's next school transfer.

(d) All inmates in the training school, without regard to their age, must attend or participate in a school, vocational, general equivalency diploma program, or other training program, located on the training school grounds as part of the training school's programs while committed to the training school.

History of Section. (P.L. 1990, ch. 202, § 1; P.L. 1991, ch. 259, § 1; P.L. 1998, ch. 68, § 5; P.L. 2002, ch. 229, § 1.)