Title 6 — Education

(1) The State Board of Education is authorized, to the extent that funds are available for that purpose, and in cooperation with other appropriate agencies and organizations, to:(1) Conduct studies of methods for improving and expanding school lunch programs and promoting nutriti…

The State Board of Education and any school district may accept any gift for use in connection with any school lunch program.

Pursuant to any power of school districts to operate or provide for the operation of school lunch programs in schools under their jurisdiction, school districts may use the funds disbursed to them under the provisions of this subchapter, gifts, and other funds received from sale …

There is authorized to be appropriated from time to time out of money in the State Treasury not otherwise appropriated such sums as may be necessary to enable the State Board of Education to provide for the establishment, maintenance, operation, and expansion of school lunch prog…

(a) In addition to following the dietary guidelines of the National School Lunch Program, each school district shall provide to the school district's school nutrition and physical activity advisory committee:(1) Information on the requirements and standards of the National School…

(a) The fund in the State Treasury known as the “Revolving Loan Fund” shall continue, under the exclusive jurisdiction of the State Board of Education, as the lending fund for the Public School Fund. (b) All unencumbered assets, both cash and securities, in the Revolving Loan Fun…

(1) Subject to the conditions and limitations contained in this subchapter, any school district may borrow and the State Board of Education may lend moneys in the Revolving Loan Fund for any of the following purposes:(1) The funding of its legally issued and outstanding postdated…

(a) The maximum amount of money a local school district may borrow from the Revolving Loan Fund shall be five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000). (b) Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, a school district participating in the Compressed Natural Gas School Bus Pilot Pr…

(a) (1) The board of directors of any school district desiring to borrow money from the Revolving Loan Fund, acting through its chair or president, and secretary, shall file a formal application with the State Board of Education.(2) The application shall contain the following inf…

(a) (1) Within a reasonable time after its receipt, each application shall be examined by the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education as to accuracy with respect to answers contained therein relating to fiscal matters.(2) A statement of the commissioner's findings, tog…

(a) (1) Each such loan that is to be amortized or paid in full, both principal and interest, within or at the end of ten (10) years from the date of its approval by the State Board of Education shall be evidenced by the school district's obligations that shall be designated and k…

(a) For the purpose of fully securing revolving loan bonds or revolving loan certificates of indebtedness, the issuing school district may pledge any one (1) or more of the following, as shall be determined by the State Board of Education, as a condition precedent to the making o…

(a) (1) In each instance in which a loan from the Revolving Loan Fund is to be secured in whole or in part from the proceeds of taxes to be collected from a continuing ad valorem tax levy to be approved by a majority of the qualified electors of the district voting on the proposi…

(a) In each instance in which a loan from the Revolving Loan Fund is to be secured in whole by funds derived from sources other than from a specifically voted continuing ad valorem tax levy on the taxable real and personal property within the bounds of the school district, the bo…

(a) Whenever all of the conditions required by this law have been met, the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education shall execute a certificate on each revolving loan bond or revolving loan certificate of indebtedness to the effect that the bond or certificate, and the …

(a) All such obligations shall be delivered to the State Board of Education, and coincident therewith the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education shall cause a state warrant to be drawn upon the Revolving Loan Fund or the Revolving Certificate Proceeds Account, payable…

(a) Subject to the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, all interest received on securities held in the Revolving Loan Fund shall be deposited into the State Treasury and credited to the Permanent School Revolving Loan Fund. (b) In the event of the sale of any school dis…

Principal and interest maturities of obligations issued under the provisions of this subchapter shall be a charge against the revenues of the school district for the fiscal year in which the maturities are respectively due.

(a) In the event of a default or threatened default in the payment of the principal of or interest on any revolving loan bonds or revolving loan certificates of indebtedness, the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education is authorized and directed to withhold from the ap…

(a) In order that the Revolving Loan Program may be kept on a sound financial basis, school districts having heretofore issued revolving loan bonds or revolving loan certificates of indebtedness are authorized to issue refunding bonds, in the case of revolving loan bonds, and ref…

(a) No fees of any nature, fiscal agent's, legal, or otherwise, shall be paid either directly or indirectly for any service performed with respect to any loan made under the provisions of this subchapter. (b) Any person who shall give or receive any such fee, or any person who sh…

All outstanding loans evidenced by revolving loan bonds and certificates of indebtedness made under the provisions of the laws or parts of laws repealed by this subchapter are validated, ratified, and confirmed; such evidences of debt are, respectively, found and declared to be t…

(a) Subject to the conditions and limitations of this section, any education service cooperative established under The Education Service Cooperative Act of 1985, § 6-13-1001 et seq., may borrow, and the State Board of Education may lend, moneys in the Revolving Loan Fund. (b) The…

(a) This subchapter shall be construed liberally. (b) In this regard, it is determined and declared that this subchapter is the sole authority necessary for the performance of the acts authorized including, without limitation, the issuance of the certificates. (c) There is confer…

(a) In order to obtain funds needed for the proper operation of its Revolving Loan Program, the State Board of Education is authorized to issue from time to time certificates of indebtedness. (b) The aggregate principal amount of all certificates outstanding at one time may not e…

(a) The certificates shall be executed by the manual signatures of the Chair of the State Board of Education and the Secretary of the State Board of Education. (b) In case any of the officers whose signatures appear on the certificates shall cease to be that officer before the de…

(a) The certificates shall be obligations of the State Board of Education only, secured by a pledge of the collateral and payable from the proceeds realized from the collateral, as specified in § 6-20-905. (b) The certificates shall not be obligations of the State of Arkansas and…

(a) The State Board of Education shall purchase out of the Revolving Certificate Proceeds Account and shall set aside as collateral revolving loan bonds of school districts that bear the same or greater rates of interest and, in the aggregate, equal the principal amount of the ce…

(a) The Board of Trustees of the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, hereinafter called the “Teacher Retirement Board”, is authorized to purchase certificates issued under this subchapter. (b) Payment may be effected in the State Treasury by charging the Teacher Retirement Fund w…

(a) The State Board of Education must receive no less than par and accrued interest for the certificates, which are called “proceeds”. (b) The proceeds shall not be deposited into the Revolving Loan Fund and the certificates shall not be considered obligations owned by the state …

The principal of and interest on certificates issued under the authority of this subchapter shall be exempt from all state, county, and municipal taxes; this exemption shall include income, inheritance, and estate taxes.

(a) The General Assembly finds that the use of a public school facility under this section:(1) Promotes the education, health, and well-being of the communities where schools are located; and(2) Is an intended purpose for the use of school property under Arkansas Constitution, Ar…

Any triple-beam balance or analytical balance or other laboratory equipment seized under Arkansas's drug paraphernalia law, or any other law, may be donated by the seizing authority to any public school in this state.

(a) Each school district board of directors in the State of Arkansas shall have authority:(1) To enter into contracts for the use of property and equipment for military training purposes;(2) To enter into any mutually agreeable contract incidental thereto as may be required by fe…

Upon the request of the State Board of Education and with the approval of the Secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration, the Department of Finance and Administration may administer the program of distribution of surplus commodities in the school lunch program unde…

(a) It is declared to be the duty of the Arkansas School for the Deaf and Blind to provide braille and large print textbooks for blind and visually impaired students attending public schools in this state. (b) The superintendents of school districts shall make application to the …

(a) (1) (A) At least seven (7) calendar days before the beginning of Christmas break, a local official of each public elementary and secondary school in this state shall request an inspection of the premises by the fire department providing fire protection to the school buildings…

(a) (1) The board of directors of each school district in this state shall develop and adopt a written policy concerning student and staff use of computers owned by the school district.(2) The written policy shall state that a system to prevent computer users from accessing mater…

(a) In addition to the authority of school districts under § 6-13-620, a school district board of directors may acquire and hold real estate, tenements, hereditaments, and other real property necessary for the education of students and the administration of the school district. (…

(a) The Commission for Arkansas Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation, after consulting with the Building Authority Division and any other entities, shall establish rules applicable to public educational entities for all public works projects when the public educat…

(a) As used in this section:(1) “Immediate family member” means an individual's spouse, children of the individual or spouse, a child's spouse, parents of the individual or the spouse, brothers and sisters of the individual, anyone living or residing in the same residence or hous…

(a) As used in this section:(1) “Harmful to minors” means that quality of any description, exhibition, presentation, or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse when the material or performance, taken as a whole, has…

(a) In order to ensure that substantially equal access to adequate educational facilities and educational equipment is provided for all public school students in Arkansas, the General Assembly finds that a division of public school academic facilities and transportation should be…

(a) To assist the Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation, there is established the Advisory Committee on Public School Academic Facilities to be composed of the following members who must be willing to devote adequate time to the work of the committee an…

(a) There is created the Commission for Arkansas Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation, which shall consist of the following:(1) The Secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration, or his or her designee;(2) The Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary E…

(a) The division established under § 6-21-112 within the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education shall be known as the “Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation”. (b) (1) The Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation shall ope…

(a) All building plans for new public school facilities may include a tornado shelter or a designated reinforced area designed to withstand tornadoes and high-speed winds. (b) (1) School districts shall be required to generate funds to meet the requirements of subsection (a) of t…

(1) An academic facility leased by a school district shall:(1) Not be entitled to facilities program funding under the Arkansas Public School Academic Facilities Funding Act, § 6-20-2501 et seq.;(2) Conform to the school facility standards defined in the Arkansas School Facility …

(a) As used in this section, “public school buildings” includes:(1) School buildings and apparatus used for school purposes by a public school district or open-enrollment public charter school; and(2) Libraries and grounds used exclusively for school purposes by a public school d…

(a) The General Assembly finds that:(1) Water plays an important role in maintaining the overall health of children;(2) Drinking water may positively impact children's cognitive performance in school;(3) Drinking water may improve children's fine motor skills and visual attention…