No. V-0043.

• Court: Texas

Texas Attorney General Opinions 1947. No. V-0043. 1Feb. 25, 1947Hon. L. A. WoodsState Superintendent of Public InstructionDepartment of EducationAustin, TexasOpinion No. V-43Re: Application for reimbursement for special education, signature of County Superintendent, necessity for under Article 2922-3, Section 2, V.A.C.S.Dear Sir:We refer to your letter of recent date wherein you requested an opinion from this Department concerning the matters and questions submitted therein, in substance, as follows:

Articles 2922-2 to 2922-8, V.A.C.S., Acts 1945, 49th Legislature, Chapter 369, 38, provides for special education for exceptional children defined in the Act. Section 2, Articles 2922-3, providing for the filing of an application for such aid reads in part as follows: "... The tentative budget and all forms filed with the State Department of Education must be sworn to by the County Superintendent and the Superintendent Principal of the school making and filing said forms.

East Bernard, an Independent School District in Wharton County, with 387 filed an application for such aid 30, 1946, without the approval of the County Superintendent. The Superintendent of the school making said form for application has completed and signed the application form prescribed by this Department. The County Superintendent, however, has repeatedly refused to sign the prepared application giving as his reason that he is not in sympathy with the idea of instituting such a program in the county at this time, and that it would be quite some time before Wharton County would be ready for it. The application for2

reimbursement states that the School Board authorized a special class for exceptional children on July 7, 1946, and request is made therein for reimbursement aid for 23 exceptional children.

Question: Is the signature of the County Superintendent essential to the Department of Education's approving the application and making payment thereon, providing all other eligibility requirements are not?

Section 1 of Senate Bill 38, Acts 1945, 49th Legislature, which law is recorded as Articles 2922-2 to 2922-8 in Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes, states that the purposes of this Act is to provide competent educational services for the exceptional children in Texas between and including the ages of six and seventeen for when regular school...