2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 9A - Department of Education (1999) › Subchapter VI - The Secretary of Education (§§ 145r — 145w) › § 145t - Academic duties and obligations of the Secretary

The Secretary, as academic director of the Puerto Rico Public Education System, shall:
(a) Adopt a five (5)-year Integral Development Plan for the Puerto Rico Public Education System in order to set forth the short and mid term objectives of the Department. An institutional working plan, to be revised annually, shall be designed to achieve said objectives.
(b) Organize the study programs of the Public Education System pursuant to the pattern of grades and levels and taking into consideration the provisions of § 145h of this title.
(c) Establish a basic curriculum for the Public Education System that is flexible enough for the schools to adapt it to their needs. It shall include physical education courses as a curriculum requirement.
(d) Prescribe the corresponding plan of studies for each grade and level of the System.
(e) Establish a counseling program on criminality, the facts that constitute grounds for crime, the penalties they entail, and the regulations that are necessary to implement said program. In addition, the program may include the visit, of both high schools students of the public education system schools as well as those of private schools authorized by the Department of Education to operate as teaching centers, to the different correctional institutions of the country. The [visit] program shall be optional and always in coordination with the Secretary of the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. The counseling program shall be part of the formal academic curriculum and shall be an indispensable requirement for senior students to obtain their high school diploma.
(f) Establish a program at elementary, intermediate and high school level on moral and government ethics.— The Secretary shall adopt the regulations that are necessary to implement said program and may receive the cooperation and advice of the Office of Government Ethics, the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico, the Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico and of those persons or entities interested in collaborating with the implementation of the plan for the teaching of moral and government ethics. This program shall be implemented in all schools of the public education system as well as in private schools authorized by the Department of Education to operate as educational centers. In agreement with subsections (b), (c) and (d) of this section, said program shall be part of the formal academic curriculum and shall be an essential requirement for senior students to obtain their high school diploma.
(g) Ensure that students with disabilities receive the services provided by §§ 1351 et seq. of Title 18, known as the “Integral Educational Services for Persons with Disabilities Act” and its regulations, as well as the applicable federal laws and regulations.
(h) Establish the performance levels required for promotion to a next grade and level within the System.
(i) Establish, according to the general design prescribed in § 145n of this title, the length of the school year and day; the minimum annual and daily number of teaching hours; the sectional division of the school year; and the periods of academic recess, to allow the schools to increase the teaching hours and days according to their needs.
(j) Adopt the measures needed to ensure the best use of the teaching time.
(k) Establish the corresponding procedure for students to be duly oriented on the significance and origin of the name of the school they attend. Furthermore, it is hereby required that the Secretary with the collaboration of the Structures and Public Highways Naming Commission to include the information related to the name of schools in Puerto Rico [on] the web page of the Department of Education so that both the students and general community may access the same and obtain information on the significance and origin of the name of the school concerned.
(l) Approve the books, texts, equipment and materials required for teaching.
(m) Foster the academic excellence of the teachers and students by establishing special awards and incentives.
(n) Organize incentive programs to enhance the professional advancement of the teachers and the teaching support personnel.
(o) Establish regulations for the teaching personnel of the System.
(p) Establish student regulations pursuant to the provisions of § 144g of this title.
(q) Establish objective procedures to assess the progress of the students, the performance of the teachers, the endeavors of the school directors of the System, as well as to compare performance among the schools. Therefore, he/she shall adopt an assessment system and integrate the current technologies of tomorrow’s professional to the development program. The Secretary shall reform the standards and the curriculum in accordance with those technologies.
With respect to assessment, the Department of Education shall develop a balanced and standard general assessment system in order to measure the academic performance of our students. Among the means of assessment in the classroom, the evaluation of each student’s portfolio should be considered as an alternative, furthermore, the administration of standardized tests over the Internet should also be considered.
Furthermore, in order to develop tomorrow’s professional the Department of Education of Puerto Rico shall ensure that information and communication technologies are integrated into the professional development program. This integration is essential, since the instructor must be trained so as to be able to teach the content of tomorrow’s professional.
In order to achieve uniformity, the Department of Education shall update its standards and curriculum so as to be able to effectively integrate the current and new information and communication technologies.
(r) Shall adopt rules related to the nature of the nonacademic activities that schools may sponsor; Provided, That among such roles, he/she shall approve those that specifically prohibit the sponsoring or development of activities by the schools, their members, or the community, that expose the students who are minors to any activity that is harmful to their physical or mental health.
(s) Establish regulations for the composition and operation of the School Council pursuant to the provisions of §§ 143u—143y of this title.
(t) Provide resources to defray the cost of advanced study programs for high school students with high academic or vocational potential, as well as for those students at any academic level who show outstanding abilities.
(u) Designate those schools in the System to be regarded as exemplary and experimental and create special schools and programs to attend to the specific needs of particular groups of students.
(v) Establish through regulations a temporary administration system for those school[s] that have lost their certificate of recognition.
(w) Develop a two (2)-year plan, assigning the necessary funds, to establish physical education courses in all the schools of the System.
(x) Take steps to obtain resources from the government of the United States and from public or private organizations so as to develop projects to enhance the educational endeavor of the Puerto Rico Public Education System.
(y) Coordinate with the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and the municipalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, to offer library and mobile library or “Bibliobus” services throughout every town on the island and, to that effect, approve the needed rules and regulations jointly with the Board of Directors of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture.
(z) Provide, to students, as well as to teaching and nonteaching personnel in the System, ongoing training regarding the use and management of computers and electronic technology, in addition to a brief initial compulsory orientation on the responsible and ethical use of computers and their software, whose approval [sic] shall be required as a prior condition to the granting of access to the equipment.
(aa) The Secretary shall redirect the curriculum of all public schools in order to include in the course of History of Puerto Rico, the teaching of the history of the same municipality where each public school is located.
(bb) Establish, in coordination with the Office of the Women’s Advocate, a teaching curriculum that is directed toward promoting gender equality and preventing domestic violence. He/she shall also have the duty to implement this curriculum through the regular academic offerings, or integrating it into academic programs and other educational modalities.
(cc) Develop thematic modules at the middle and pre-vocational levels by integrating conflict management strategies, violence and abuse prevention, and effective communication at home and in the community.
(ee) Adopt within the formal school curriculum universal values such as trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship, without interfering with the objectives of the school, in order to achieve an integrated education, developing positive attributes in character, and emotional and social skills fundamental to daily life.
[(ff) Added by Act 213-2012. See editor's note.]
(gg) To design and conduct, in conjunction with the Secretary of the Department of Health, the Executive Director of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Emergency Management and Disaster Administration Agency, the Executive Director of the Governing Board of the 9-1-1 Service, the Chief of the Firefighters Corps, and the Chair of Fundación A-Mar, or any other non-profit organization that shares the purposes of this subsection, insofar as their financial resources allow, an education, prevention, and awareness campaign on safety measures to prevent burn injuries during the month of February of each year, also known as the “Burnt Children and Burn Prevention Month.”
History —July 15, 1999, No. 149, § 6.03; Jan. 13, 2000, No. 23, § 1; Aug. 10, 2000, No. 146, § 5; Dec. 19, 2000, No. 429, §§ 1, 2; June 25, 2001, No. 46, §§ 1, 2; Dec. 31, 2001, No. 192, § 1; June 21, 2002, No. 88, § 1; Sept. 28, 2002, No. 237, § 1; Sept. 3, 2003, No. 242, § 1; May 26, 2006, No. 108, § 1; Nov. 2, 2007, No. 160, § 1; Aug. 16, 2009, No. 76, § 2; Nov. 21, 2011, No. 224, § 1; July 1, 2012, No. 110, § 1, eff. July 1, 2012; § 2.