Louisiana Administrative Code › Title 28 - EDUCATION › Part CLIII - Bulletin 133-Scholarship Programs › Chapter 13 - Criteria for School Participation in the Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program › Section CLIII-1303 - Participation Criteria for Nonpublic Schools

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024
A. To participate in the scholarship program,
				nonpublic schools shall satisfy the criteria within this Chapter in addition to
				criteria for participation already established in law. Schools that do not meet
				these criteria may be declared ineligible to participate in the program.
				Ineligibility to participate may result in the school enrolling no new students
				for one or more years, enrolling no new students permanently, or ending all
				participation immediately.
Focus Area
Standard
Enrollment
Participating schools shall indicate the number of
							 students they are able and willing to serve. If the increase to total student
							 enrollment would result in total student enrollment that is greater than 125
							 percent of their total student enrollment in the previous school year or 50
							 students more than were enrolled in the previous school year, including
							 pre-kindergarten enrollment, the LDE shall consider granting the request after
							 a review of parent demand (demonstrated through the student application
							 process) and the school's demonstrated capacity to effectively serve such
							 students.
Financial Practice
Participating schools shall comply with the
							 following rules regarding financial practice. Violations may result in a school
							 being declared ineligible to participate.
Use of Funds
-
Scholarship funds shall be spent only on
							 "educational purposes," as defined in the most recently approved Minimum
							 Foundation Program formula. Any expenditure of scholarship funds constituting
							 gross irresponsibility or gross individual enrichment is prohibited.
No officer, administrator, director, manager, or
							 employee of a participating school shall use the authority of his office or
							 position in connection with the school's participation in the scholarship
							 program, directly or indirectly, in a manner intended to compel or coerce any
							 person to provide himself or any other person with anything of economic value.
Tuition and Fees
-
Tuition and fees received through the scholarship
							 program for participating students shall not exceed tuition and fees charged to
							 enrolled students not participating in the program. Tuition and fees shall be
							 defined as the total payment charged to enrolled students not participating in
							 the scholarship program, and paid on behalf of those students. Scholarship
							 funds may not be used to pay tuition and fees for students not participating in
							 the scholarship program.
Annual Independent Scholarship Audit
-
The LDE shall publish guidance as to the contents of
							 the annual independent scholarship audit so as to ensure compliance with the
							 limits entailed in the law. The audit shall address rules of financial practice
							 contained in this bulletin. Failure to correct violations of the rules
							 contained in this bulletin, or evidence of gross fiscal irresponsibility, may
							 result in penalties including the school being declared ineligible to
							 participate. Schools that do not obtain an audit or do not submit the audit
							 according to a timeline established by the LDE may incur penalties including
							 being declared ineligible to participate.
Student Mobility
In participating schools, the LDE may investigate
							 instances in which the rate of students remaining enrolled from the beginning
							 of one school year to the next school year falls short of the average of all
							 participating schools by a significant percentage. Schools with exaggerated,
							 repeated, or uncorrected patterns of low relative rates of continued enrollment
							 may be instructed to enroll no new students for one year or to fully end
							 participation.
Health, Safety and Welfare of Students
Participating schools shall be in compliance with
							 all federal, state, and local laws and regulations pertaining to the health,
							 safety, and welfare of students for public or nonpublic schools, as applicable.
Participating schools shall not have an employee, or
							 any person having supervisory or disciplinary authority over children, who has
							 been convicted of or pled nolo contendere to any crime listed in
							 R.S.
							 15:587.1(C) except
							 R.S.
							 14:74 or has been convicted under the laws of
							 any state or of the United States or of any foreign government or country of a
							 crime which, if committed in Louisiana, would be an
							 R.S.
							 15:587.1 crime.
The state superintendent may immediately declare a
							 school ineligible to participate if the school's continued participation
							 endangers the academic welfare, health, or safety of children.
AUTHORITY NOTE:
				  Promulgated in accordance with
				  R.S.17:6
				  and
				  R.S.
				  17:4025.