Bennett, 081011 INAGO, AGO 2011-7

• Case Date: August 10, 2011
• Court: Indiana

Dr. Tony Bennett AGO 2011-7 Official Opinion No. 2011-7 Indiana Attorney General Opinion August 10, 2011          Dr. Tony Bennett          Superintendent of Public Instruction          Indiana Department of Education          200 W. Washington St.          Indianapolis, IN 46204 RE: Right to Transfer into Local Public School After Attendance at Charter School          Dear Dr. Bennett:          In your letter of June 2, 2011, you advised that a superintendent of a local public school corporation has indicated that he will bar students attempting to transfer into the local public school corporation from charter schools after the annual count date for Average Daily Membership (ADM). According to your letter and the published accounts attached thereto, the superintendent of the local public school corporation intends to bar such students solely upon their having been enrolled in a charter school on the ADM count date, even though the students have legal settlement in the public school corporation.          According to your letter, the Indiana Department of Education (DOE) questions whether such an action by a superintendent of a public school corporation is contrary to Indiana law. Children of school age are required to attend school under the Compulsory School Attendance Act, Ind. Code Chpt. 20-33-2, and have the right to attend school in the school corporation where they have legal settlement, pursuant to Ind. Code Chpt. 20-26-11. In addition, the DOE asserts that school officials, including local superintendents, are required to enforce Indiana’s compulsory school attendance laws. See Ind. Code § 20-33-2-26, Ind. Code § 20-33-2-29. DOE’s questions whether the local superintendent’s intention to bar such students from enrolling is contrary to Indiana law in that it infringes upon a student’s right to an education as guaranteed by the Indiana Constitution and as provided for in statute. You asked our office to analyze these issues and offer a legal opinion regarding the school corporation’s proposed actions and questions raised by DOE with respect to those actions.          BRIEF ANSWER          A local public school corporation cannot bar a student from transferring to the school corporation based solely upon the student’s previous enrollment in a public charter school. Such an action is contrary both to the Indiana Constitution, Art. 8, § 1, and numerous statutory provisions.          ANALYSIS          The Indiana Constitution provides at Art. 8, § 1 as follows:

Knowledge and learning, generally diffused throughout a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government; it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual scientific, and agricultural improvement; and provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all.

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