Chapter 74, section 8A requires the school district of residence to provide transportation for all approved secondary students who are attending vocational schools as non-residents, as long as they live more than 1.5 miles from the school. Currently, transportation is not provided for students participating in school choice, although a study is being conducted to prepare a plan for providing transportation to needy students. Students may be admitted under the Chapter 74 non-resident process using the admissions policy approved for the vocational school. School choice students must be selected by lottery or some other random basis if the number of applicants exceeds the number of spaces available. Students are eligible for the Chapter 74 non-resident process only if the program area in which they wish to enroll is not offered by their city or town of residence.
All students are eligible to participate in school choice.
A Department task force has recently examined the issue of non-resident applications for exploratory programs. Therefore, the Department will continue its practice of not approving applications for exploratory programs if the city or town of residence offers an approved Chapter 74 exploratory program in its own school district or through membership in a regional vocational school district. The contact persons are Kevin Matthews at extension 441 and Maryellen McDonagh at extension 432. Once a student has been accepted to a vocational technical school with an approved secondary Chapter 74 nonresident application, the student is entitled to the same rights and privileges of students who reside in that vocational technical school district. If the student requires additional time to complete the program and a resident student would have been offered the right to continue until completion at the expense of member districts, the city or town of residence must pay nonresident tuition for the additional time.