E 

OF ?i?lEXAS 

i?mJsTnla- 1% Texan 

October 18, 1962 

Hon. J. W. Edgar 

Commissioner of Education 

Texas Education Agency 

Austin, Texas 

Opinion No. WW-1452 

Re: Whether a board of trustees 

of a school district which 

teaches only elementary grades, 

retain any rights to control 

or protest and the county 

school board has the authority 

to cancel applications for 

transfer of resident pupils 

who have attained high school 

Dear Mr. Edgar: status. 

Enclosed in your letter of September 20, 1962, is a 

copy of a ruling by your office, rendered on July 11, 1962, which 

holds that a resident school district that does not teach high 

school grades, is legally ineligible to invoke by protest or otherwise the jurisdiction of the county school board to annul or cancel parental applications for transfer of resident high school 

scholastics to a school district teaching high school grades. 

Article 2696, Vernon's Civil Statutes, reads in part: 

"Any child lawfully enrolled in any district 

or independent district may by order of the county 

superintendent, approved In writing, be transferred 

to the enrollment of any other district or lndependent district in the same county upon a written application of the parent or guardian or person having 

lawful control of such child, filed with the county 

superintendent, not later than June 1; provided that 

any district or independent district being dissatisfied with any transfers made by approval in writing 

of the county superintendent may appeal from such 

action to the county board of trustees of said 

county who shall have the right to annul and cancel the transfer allowed by the county superintendent. 

"The applicant shall state In said application 

that It Is his bona fide intention to send said child 

to the school to which the transfer is asked. 
Hon. J. W. Edgar, page 2 (WW-1452) 

0 11 

. . . 

Article 2697, Vernon's Civil Statutes, reads: 

"Any child specified in the preceding article, 

and its portion of the school fund, may be transferred to an adjoining district in another county, 

in the manner provided in said article. It must 

be shown to the county superintendent that the 

school in the district in which such child resides 

on account of distance or some uncontrollable and 

dangerous obstacle, is inaccessible to such child." 

Under Article 2696, supra, it is mandatory that the 

county superintendent approve an application for transfer when 

said application is roperly and duly filed. Attorney General's 

Opinion O-1073 (19397 and O-1129 (1939). In addition the Article 

sets forth a procedure whereby approval of the transfer by the 

county superintendent may be appealed to the county board of 

trustees. The jurisdiction of the county board may be inroked 

by any school district or independent school district dissatisfied 

with such transfer and upon obtaining jurisdiction of the matter 

the board shall have the right to cancel or annul the transfer. 

The provisions for appeal contained in Article 2696, 

supra, have been held to apply to Article 2697, supra, Attorney 

General's Opinion 0-6548 (1945). 

In Attorney General's Letter Opinions, Volume 382, p. 941 

(1938) we find the following language: 

II 

. . .pupils whose grades are not taught at 

home are entitled to transfer to districts where 

their grades are taught, and such pupils will be 

under the supervision and control of the school 

district to which the pupils transfer. 

.pupils whose grades are not taught in 

their home district may transfer to any high school 

of higher classification, under the language of this 

statute. It is our opinion that the local board of 

trustees has no authority to prescribe the district 

to which such pupils must transfer, this matter being 

within the discretion of the tranaferee.” . 

We are of the opinion that under the holding in Attorney 

General's Letter Opinions, Volume 382, p. 941 (1938), a school 
Hon. J. W. Edgar, page 3 (WW-1452) 

district which does not teach the high school grades, is not an 

interested or proper school district and has no standing to invoke 

the jurisdiction of the county board of trustees as provided in 

Articles 2696 and 2697, sup-a. 

This is not to say that the county board of trustees 

may never exercise its discretionary power to cancel or annul 

tranfers, but simply means that before the power can be employed, 

protest must be lodged by a proper school district. In absence 

of jurisdiction being properly invoked, the cancellation by the 

county board of an application for transfer is a nullity. 

Therefore, 

July 11, 1962. 

we are in full accord with your ruling of 

SUMMARY 

A school district which does not teach the high 

school grades has no standing to invoke jurisdiction 

of the county board of trustees under the provisions 

of Articles 2696 and 2697, Vernon's Civil Statutes, 

to cancel or annul the transfer of one of its resldent. scholastics to a school district which provides 

high school grades and in absence of proper jurlsdiction the cancellation of such transfer by the 

county board is a nullity. 

Sincerely, 

WILL WILSON 

Attorney General of Texas 

0LB:mkh 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

Howard W. Mays, Chairman 

Paul Phy 

L. P. Lollar 

Sam Stone 

Tom Peterson 

REVIEWED FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 

BY: Leonard Passmore