Rhode Island § 16-92-3 - Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children

§ 16-92-3. Definitions.

As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly requires a different construction:

(1) “Active duty” means full-time duty status in the active uniformed service of the United States, including members of the Space Force, the National Guard and Reserve on active duty orders pursuant to 10 U.S.C. § 1209 and 1211.

(2) “Children of military families” means a school-aged child or children, enrolled in kindergarten through twelfth grade, in the household of an active duty member.

(3) “Compact commissioner” means the voting representative of each compacting state appointed pursuant to § 16-92-9 of this chapter.

(4) “Deployment” means the period one month prior to the service members’ departure from their home station on military orders through six (6) months after return to their home station.

(5) “Education or educational records” means those official records, files, and data directly related to a student and maintained by the school or local education agency, including, but not limited to, records encompassing all the material kept in the student’s cumulative folder such as general identifying data, records of attendance and of academic work completed, records of achievement and results of evaluative tests, health data, disciplinary status, test protocols, and individualized education programs.

(6) “Extracurricular activities” means a voluntary activity sponsored by the school or local education agency or an organization sanctioned by the local education agency. Extracurricular activities include, but are not limited to, preparation for and involvement in public performances, contests, athletic competitions, demonstrations, displays, and club activities.

(7) “Interstate Commission on Educational Opportunity for Military Children” means the commission that is created under this chapter, which is generally referred to as interstate commission.

(8) “Local education agency” means a public authority legally constituted by the state as an administrative agency to provide control of and direction for kindergarten through twelfth grade public educational institutions.

(9) “Member state” means a state that has enacted this compact.

(10) “Military installation” means a base, camp, post, station, yard, center, homeport facility for any ship, or other activity under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense, including any leased facility, which is located within any of the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas Islands and any other U.S. Territory. Such term does not include any facility used primarily for civil works, rivers and harbors projects, or flood control projects.

(11) “Non-member state” means a state that has not enacted this compact.

(12) “Receiving state” means the state to which a child of a military family is sent, brought, or caused to be sent or brought.

(13) “Rule” means a written statement by the interstate commission promulgated pursuant to § 16-92-13 of this chapter that is of general applicability, implements, interprets or prescribes a policy or provision of the compact, or an organizational, procedural, or practice requirement of the interstate commission, and has the force and effect of statutory law in a member state, and includes the amendment, repeal, or suspension of an existing rule.

(14) “Sending state” means the state from which a child of a military family is sent, brought, or caused to be sent or brought.

(15) “State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas Islands and any other U.S. Territory.

(16) “Student” means the child of a military family for whom the local education agency receives public funding and who is formally enrolled in kindergarten through twelfth grade.

(17) “Transition” means: (i) The formal and physical process of transferring from school to school; or (ii) The period of time in which a student moves from one school in the sending state to another school in the receiving state.

(18) “Uniformed service or services” means the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, Coast Guard as well as the Commissioned Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Public Health Services.

(19) “Veteran” means a person who served in the uniformed services and who was discharged or released there from under conditions other than dishonorable.