§18-2-13f. Responsibility for administration and provision of educational services in state correctional institutions.

The state board is responsible for the administration of programs for the education of all institutionalized school-age juveniles within facilities operated by the department of corrections. School-age juvenile means in this article any individual who would, if not institutionalized, be entitled to attend the public schools in accordance with (1) section five, article two of this chapter; (2) sections fifteen and eighteen, article five of this chapter; or (3) section one, article twenty of this chapter. To strengthen the administration of educational programs, there shall be: (1) A full-time principal or lead teacher at each department of corrections facility having any school-age juveniles and (2) a full-time director of educational services for institutionalized school-age juveniles employed by the Department of Education. Such principal or lead teacher shall be employed by and responsible to the director of educational services.

Classroom teachers and other school personnel shall be hired and provided as necessary to all institutionalized juveniles by the state Department of Education to the extent necessary to provide adequate and appropriate educational opportunity. Adequate and appropriate educational opportunity requires education services for institutionalized school-age juveniles on a twelve-month basis, excepting only normal school holidays and those additional days determined by the state Board of Education in consultation with the appropriate department head to be necessary. School personnel shall be responsible to the principal or lead teacher while providing educational services but shall comply with rules established by the department of corrections to ensure security and safety in the facility. Educational personnel employed at and by correctional facilities and institutions shall be permitted to transfer to comparable positions as school personnel of the state Department of Education if those personnel meet the qualifications established for those positions by the state Department of Education. The daily rate of pay of educational personnel employed by the state Department of Education shall be equivalent to the daily rate of pay of the comparable position in the public schools of the county where the institution is located.

There shall be a separate line item account of the budget of the state Department of Education for the education of institutionalized school-age juveniles. All money that the Legislature may annually appropriate for that purpose shall be placed into this account. This account shall be used solely for the education of such juveniles. Money for education of juveniles in the department of corrections shall be deposited in that account and accounted for separately.