2023 Arizona Revised Statutes › Title 15 - Education › § 15-913.01 - Education program; county jails

15-913.01.
Education program;  county jails
A. Each county that operates a county jail shall offer an education program to serve all prisoners who are twenty-one years of age or younger,  who do not have a high school diploma or a general equivalency diploma and who are confined in the county jail. The county school superintendent and the sheriff in each county shall agree on the method of delivery of the education program.
B. The county school superintendent shall develop policies and procedures to transfer the educational records of any prisoner confined in a county jail who has been transferred from a juvenile detention center or from any other public agency that has provided educational services to that prisoner.
C. A county may operate its county jail education program through an accommodation school that provides alternative education services pursuant to section 15-308,  except that each pupil enrolled in the accommodation school county jail education program shall be funded at an amount equal to seventy-two percent of the amount for that pupil if that pupil were enrolled in another accommodation school program.
D. If a county chooses not to operate its county jail education program through an accommodation school,  the county school superintendent may establish a county jail education fund to provide financial support to the program. The county jail education fund for each program shall consist of a base amount plus a variable amount. For fiscal year 1999-2000,  the base amount is $14, 400 and the variable amount shall be determined pursuant to subsection E of this section. The base amount and variable amount for each county or counties served shall be funded with state general fund monies,  subject to appropriation. The county school superintendent must submit claims for payments to the superintendent of public instruction. The county school superintendent shall deposit the payments in the respective county jail education fund.
E. The variable amount shall be determined as follows:
1. Determine the number of days in the prior fiscal year that each pupil who is a prisoner and who had been in the county jail for more than forty-eight hours received an instructional program of at least two hundred forty minutes. A school district may not count a pupil as being in attendance in that school district on a day that the pupil is counted as a prisoner for the purposes of this paragraph.
2. Multiply the number of days determined under paragraph 1 of this subsection by the following amount:
(a) For fiscal year 1999-2000,  $10.80.
(b) For fiscal year 2000-2001 and each year thereafter,  the amount for the prior year adjusted by any growth rate prescribed by law,  subject to legislative appropriation.
3. For each pupil who is a child with a disability as defined in section 15-761,  who is a prisoner and who had been in the county jail for more than forty-eight hours:
(a) Determine the amount prescribed in section 15-1204,  subsection E,  paragraph 1 or 2,  multiply the amount by .72 and add $72 for capital outlay costs.
(b) Divide the sum determined under subdivision (a) of this paragraph by one hundred seventy-five.
(c) Subtract the amount prescribed in paragraph 2 of this subsection from the quotient determined in subdivision (b) of this paragraph.
(d) Determine the number of days in the prior fiscal year that the pupil received an instructional program of at least two hundred forty minutes.
(e) Multiply the amount determined in subdivision (d) of this paragraph by the difference determined in subdivision (c) of this paragraph.
4. Add the amounts determined in paragraph 3 of this subsection for all pupils with disabilities who are prisoners.
5. Add the sum determined in paragraph 4 of this subsection to the product determined in paragraph 2 of this subsection. This sum is the variable amount.
F. If a county jail education program serves more than one county,  the county school superintendents and the sheriffs of the counties being served shall agree on a county of jurisdiction. The county school superintendent shall deposit in the county jail education fund of the county of jurisdiction monies that are received from the superintendent of public instruction pursuant to this section for all counties served by the county of jurisdiction.
G. If a county operated a county jail education program through an accommodation school in the year before it begins to operate its county jail education program as provided in subsection D of this section,  for the first year of operation as provided in subsection D of this section,  the student count of the accommodation school shall be reduced by the average daily membership attributable to the accommodation school's county jail education program in its last fiscal year of operation.