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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
A move means a new
school district, tooQuestion: What is geographic exception, and does a public school principal have the right to move out your children because the parents bought a house and moved out of the district? We lived in Pearl Harbor for almost 12 years, and recently we moved to Royal Kunia. I want my children to stay in their current school, but the principal wants me to move them to the school in the Central Oahu District, saying space is unavailable. She gave approval for my sixth-grader to stay but denied my first-grader and my handicapped child. My children were among the original students in the school. How am I going to pick them up at different schools and drop them off at the same time? Is there a law that protects the rights of students and parents to choose to remain at a school as long as the parents are responsible for their children's transportation?
Answer: We know there has been a long and frustrating period of negotiations between your family wanting to keep the children at the school until they "graduate" to the next level and the principal wanting them to move immediately.
It looks like the most you can get is a compromise based on a Department of Education guideline.
Your children should at least be allowed to finish out the current school year at their present school, according to Education Department spokesman Greg Knudsen.
He noted the department's guideline on "Mid-Year Movement" states: "Even if space is not available at the school and there are students on a wait list, the student should be permitted to continue at the school for the duration of the present school year."
Knudsen said he sent a copy of his "Kokua Line" response to the school's principal and to the department's complex area office, after you contacted us.
As to what happens after this school year ends, Knudsen said your children would have to apply for geographic exceptions. They would not be given special consideration because they are current students.
"There is no special priority for this situation," Knudsen said.
Regarding your handicapped child, determination of placement would not fall under criteria or guidelines set for geographic exceptions, he said.
"Determinations on placement under Chapter 56 -- Provision of a Free Appropriate Public Education -- are made through the formal Individualized Education Program procedures," he said.
By state law, all school-age children attending public school are required to go to the school in the geographic area in which they live.
However, the Education Department is allowed to grant permission for a student to attend another school "with the welfare of the student as a major consideration," according to the philosophy of geographic exceptions under the department's administrative rules.
Geographic exceptions are covered under Title 8, Chapter 13, of the Hawaii Administrative Rules.
You can get information about the laws covering public school education by going to the Education Department Web site, doe.k12.hi.us. Click on "Board of Education," then on "document library."
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