Chapter 15

Section 1. There shall be within the executive office of education a department of elementary and secondary education, in this chapter called the department, which shall be under the supervision and management of the commissioner of elementary and secondary education, in this cha…

Section 15B. There shall be established in the division of special education a library center for the acquisition, maintenance and distribution of books and other material deemed essential to the proper instruction and training of visually-handicapped children.

Section 16. There shall be a teachers' retirement board for the purpose of administering the teachers' retirement system established under the provisions of chapter 32. Such board shall consist of seven members as follows: the commissioner of education, or his designee, who shall…

Section 17. The members of the teachers' retirement board shall serve without compensation, but they shall be reimbursed from the expense fund of the teachers' retirement system for any expense or loss of salary or wages which they may incur through service on the board. All clai…

Section 18. The teachers' retirement board shall appoint and may remove an executive director and shall establish his salary. Subject to the approval of said board, the executive director shall employ other employees, prescribe their duties and fix their compensation; provided, h…

Section 18A. As used in this section, the words ''includible compensation'' and ''custodial account'' shall have the same meaning as in section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended; and the word ''premiums'' shall include contributions to a custodial account. T…

Section 1E. There shall be in the department a board of elementary and secondary education, in this chapter called the board, which shall consist of the chairman of the student advisory council established under this section, the secretary of education, in this chapter called the…

Section 1F. COMMISSIONER OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION; APPOINTMENT; DUTIES; SALARY Whenever a vacancy occurs in the position of commissioner, the board shall by a two-thirds vote of all its members submit to the secretary, for the secretary's approval, a recommended cand…

Section 1G. There shall be established advisory councils to the board in the following areas: school and district accountability and assistance; life management skills; home economics; educational personnel; fine arts education; gifted and talented education; math and science edu…

Section 1I. The board of education, in this section called the board, shall provide technical and other assistance in the formulation of plans to reduce or eliminate racial imbalance to be filed as provided by section thirty-seven D of chapter seventy-one, may approve such plans …

Section 1J. Within thirty days after (1) a school committee or regional district school committee declines to accept the recommendations made to it by the board of education, in this section called the board, (2) the board disapproves a revised plan filed with it by a school comm…

Section 1R. The board of education shall provide for the establishment of school library and nonprint media services, including: (1) the acquisition or rental of library and nonprint media materials, resources, and appropriate equipment. (2) supplementary library and nonprint med…

Section 52. The board shall establish an essential skills discretionary grant program. The board may make grant awards to school districts with high concentrations of low income students, high concentrations of students deficient in basic skills, or high concentrations of student…

Section 55. The board of education shall establish a program entitled Recognizing Educational Achievement, hereinafter referred to as REACH. The purpose of REACH shall be to recognize and reward public schools for noteworthy improvement and achievement in a variety of categories …

Section 55A. In order to support the commissioner, department and board in fulfilling their duties under the provisions of chapter 69, including sections 1J and 1K, there shall be within the department an office of school and district accountability, hereinafter referred to as th…

Section 57. The board shall establish an instructional materials grant program to provide financial assistance to school districts for the purchase of textbooks, workbooks, audio-visual materials, library books and materials, laboratory kits, and other instructional materials. Gr…

Section 58. The board shall establish a unit designated as the leadership academy which shall provide training to school principals and other supervisory personnel. Such training shall include, but not be limited to: training in personnel evaluation methods, techniques for develo…

Section 60. The commissioner of administration shall convene a working committee made up of his own designee, a designee of the commissioner of education and a designee of the local government advisory committee to establish guidelines for purposes of reimbursing cities and towns…

Section 63. There is hereby established a Carnegie school grant program for the purpose of encouraging the public schools of the commonwealth to plan and develop innovative organization and management systems at the school building level, aimed at empowering public school profess…

Section 64. As used in sections sixty-three to sixty-five, inclusive, the following words shall have the following meanings:— ''Carnegie school'', an individual public school, including a school operated by an educational collaborative established under section four E of chapter …

Section 65. The board may award planning and implementation grants to individual public schools which apply for approval as Carnegie schools. In order to be eligible for approval as a Carnegie school an individual public school, subject to the approval of the school committees ha…

Section 66. (a) It shall be the policy of the commonwealth to encourage students, teachers, administrators and educational policy makers to participate in international studies, international exchange programs and other activities that advance cultural awareness and promote mutua…