Arkansas § 6-10-108 - Twelve-month school year — Definition.

§ 6-10-108. Twelve-month school year — Definition.

It is found and determined by the General Assembly that public school facilities in the state are now effectively utilized only nine (9) or ten (10) months each year and that such facilities could be more efficiently utilized and educational opportunities in the various school districts could be enhanced by the establishment and operation of educational programs on a twelve (12) month per year basis. It is therefore the intent and purpose of this section to authorize public schools to initiate and maintain public school educational programs on a twelve-month basis. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires, “twelve-month year-round educational program” means an educational program in which all students attend school no less than the number of days required by the Standards for Accreditation of Arkansas Public Schools and School Districts between July 1 and June 30 of each school year and in which no vacation, including summer, lasts more than seven (7) weeks. The board of directors of any school district is authorized to initiate and maintain a twelve-month year-round educational program in any or all of the public schools in the school district. However, any school district which does not elect to operate on a twelve-month basis must start school in accordance with the provisions of § 6-10-106. The State Board of Education is authorized to establish appropriate standards, guidelines, and rules for the determination of average daily membership of school districts and for the distribution of state foundation funding and other forms of state aid and financial assistance to each local school district that elects to operate the public schools of the school district on a twelve-month basis, in order to provide the school district with an equitable share of the state foundation funds designated to equate a twelve-month school operation by the school district to the educational opportunities provided by a school district offering nine (9) months of public school instruction. However, the school district shall not receive any more state foundation funding for offering twelve (12) months of public school instruction than it would have received for offering nine (9) months of public school instruction.