General Admission Requirements

The District must provide free education for resident students between five and 21 years old.  Children seeking to enroll in a school district must meet all the residency, academic, age, immunization, and discipline pre-requisites.  Children who reach the age of five before August 1^st are eligible to enroll in Kindergarten.  Within two business days of a child’s enrollment, the District will request the academic and discipline records from each school the child attended in the last 12 months.  If a child has been placed in a foster home, residential care facility, or child-placing agency, within 48 hours of the child’s enrollment, the District will request the academic and discipline records from all schools and facilities previously attended by the student.  For these students, the District will also request academic and discipline records from the Department of Social Services, the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and any entity involved with the placement of the student within the last 24 months.

Student Enrolling while on Suspension 

At the time of enrollment, the District will require parents/guardians to provide a signed statement indicating whether the student has been suspended or expelled from any school and affirm that the student has not been convicted or charged with any Safe School Act violations.  The child will be denied enrollment if he/she is on suspension/expulsion from another school at the time of enrollment, and the child’s conduct would have resulted in suspension/expulsion in the District.  The District will honor the suspension unless the Superintendent or designee has determined otherwise.  The District will inform the parents/guardians that they may schedule a conference with the Superintendent or designee to discuss the student’s conduct and how the District would have disciplined the conduct.

Resident Student

Prior to admission, students must generally provide proof that they reside in the District.  A student is a “resident” of the District if they (1) physically reside in the District; and (2) are domiciled in the District – meaning the student’s parent/guardian physically resides in the District.  Numerous exceptions to the residency requirement exist under the law.  Students are exempt from the residency requirement by law if the student is:

• Homeless,
• Placed in a residential care facility within the District
• A participant in an inter-District, court-ordered desegregation program
• Assigned to the District by the commissioner of education due to an unusual or unreasonable transportation hardship (resident District pays tuition)
• Disabled and residing in the District for reasons other than accessing the District’s educational program
• An orphan, has only one parent living, or their parents do not contribute to their support as long as the students are between the ages of six and 20 years old and unable to pay tuition.
• A child of parents/guardians who pay school taxes on property in the school district but do not live in the District (may attend on a tuition basis and school taxes paid to the District by the parents/guardians will be deducted from the tuition charge)
• A child of parents/guardians who own real estate of which 80 acres or more are used for agricultural purposes and upon which their residence is situated (may attend school in any District in which a part of the real estate is contiguous to that upon which their residence is situated, lies, provided that 35 percent of the real estate is located in the District of choice
• Placed by the Missouri Department of Mental Health, the Missouri Department of Social Services or by court order in facilities or programs located within the District
• Reside in a District that has been declared unaccredited by the Missouri State Board and that is located in the same county or adjoining county as the District (resident District must pay tuition)
• Placed in the care of another person living in the District because one or both parents/guardians are stationed or deployed out of state or deployed within Missouri by the military or on active duty military service
• Placed in foster care outside the District, previously attended the District, and are placed in an adjacent District, and
• District policy may provide that the children of District teachers and/or employees are permitted to attend without payment of tuition.

Non-Resident Students

A non-resident student is one who does not meet the requirements to be a resident of the District, as defined by the law and the District’s policies.  The Board, in its discretion and unless otherwise required by law, may admit non-resident students not entitled to free instruction and prescribe the tuition fee to be paid by them.  The District will set the rate of tuition based upon the per-pupil cost for the previous school year, including operation, maintenance, and debt service.  In some circumstances, the District may also charge transportation costs.

For all school years beginning on or after July 1, 2023, any current owner of residential real property or agricultural real property or a named beneficiary of a trust that currently owns residential real property or agricultural real property and that pays a school tax in a district or districts other than the district in which such current owner or current beneficiary resides may send up to four of such owner's or beneficiary's children to a public school, excluding a charter school, in any district in which such owner or trust pays such school tax.  For purposes of this subdivision, "residential real property" shall not include any multifamily residential property which exceeds four units.  An owner or a named beneficiary of a trust that currently owns residential real property shall not be permitted under this subdivision to send their child to a district outside of the county in which they currently reside.  Such owner or beneficiary shall send thirty days' written notice to all school districts involved specifying which school district each child will attend.  Such owner or beneficiary shall also present proof of the owner's or trust's annual payment of at least two thousand dollars of school taxes levied on the real property specified in this subdivision within such school district and ownership of the specified real property for not less than the immediately preceding four consecutive years.  Neither the resident nor nonresident districts shall be responsible for providing transportation services under this subdivision.  The school district attended shall count a child attending under this subdivision in its average daily attendance for the purpose of distribution of state aid under chapter 163, except that such nonresident students shall not be counted in the district's average daily attendance for the purposes of determining eligibility for aid payments under section 163.044.

Residency Waivers

Students who live in the District but who do not meet the residency requirements because their parents/guardians do not physically reside within the District, and who want to attend a District school, may request a waiver of proof of residency.  Parents must submit requests for a residency waiver to the Superintendent or designee for review.

The review process should first establish if the student physically resides in the District and if the student resides in the District for reasons other than attending the District’s school.  The District must then determine if hardship or good cause exists for the request.  The District will grant the residency waiver based upon the applicable factors but will not grant a waiver based on a student’s athletic ability.

If the Superintendent/designee determines that a student is not entitled to a waiver, the Superintendent/designee will present the residency waiver to the Board for the Board’s review and consideration.  The Board will conduct this hearing to consider the request as soon as possible, but no later than 45 days after receipt of the request.  While a waiver request is pending Board review and determination, the District will conditionally enroll the student unless there is reason to suspect that admission of the student will create an immediate danger to the safety of other students or employees.  If there is reason to suspect admission of the student will create an immediate danger to the safety of other students or employees, then the Superintendent or designee must conduct a hearing within five (5) working days of the request for a waiver to determine if the student will be permitted to register and attend school.  If the Board does not hold a hearing within 45 days, the request is automatically granted and the student will be allowed to enroll and attend school.

Adoption Date(s): May 18, 2020