Chapter 69

Section 1. It is hereby declared to be a paramount goal of the commonwealth to provide a public education system of sufficient quality to extend to all children including English learners, as defined in chapter 71A, and also, including a school age child with a disability as defi…

Section 10. Expenditures for courses maintained under sections nine and nine A, with the approval of the department, shall be reimbursable under chapter seventy.

Section 10A. The department is charged with responsibility for leadership in the co-operative study and fuller use, in the public schools and teachers colleges of the commonwealth, of teaching materials and methods, student activities, and administrative and supervisory procedure…

Section 11. The division of immigration and Americanization shall employ such methods, consistent with law, as in its judgment, will tend to bring into sympathetic and mutually helpful relations the commonwealth and its residents of foreign origin, protect immigrants from exploit…

Section 1A. DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION; COMMISSIONER; DUTIES There shall be within the executive office of education a department of elementary and secondary education, hereinafter called the department, which shall be under the supervision and management of…

Section 1B. BOARD OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION; DUTIES BOARD OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION; DUTIES The board shall establish policies relative to the education of students in public early childhood, elementary, secondary and vocational-technical schools. The boar…

Section 1C. (a)(1) The board shall require all public schools to make lunches available to children. The board shall require all schools providing school lunch as provided in the National School Lunch Act, as amended, to also provide school breakfast as provided in the National C…

Section 1D. The board shall establish a set of statewide educational goals for all public elementary and secondary schools in the commonwealth. The board shall direct the commissioner to institute a process to develop academic standards for the core subjects of mathematics, scien…

Section 1E. The board shall direct the commissioner to institute a process for drawing up curriculum frameworks for the core subjects covered by the academic standards provided in section one D. The curriculum frameworks shall present broad pedagogical approaches and strategies f…

Section 1F. The board shall set standards for vocational-technical education and programs for school-to-work transition. The board shall give particular emphasis for setting standards for the integration of academic and vocational education and to the progress in educating studen…

Section 1G. The board shall establish the minimum length for a school day and the minimum number of days in the school year.

Section 1H. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the department, in coordination with other state agencies, shall develop a comprehensive system, subject to appropriation, for the delivery of adult basic education and literacy services that will ensure oppo…

Section 1I. The board shall adopt a system for evaluating on an annual basis the performance of both public school districts and individual public schools. With respect to individual schools, the system shall include instruments designed to assess the extent to which schools and …

Section 1J. (a) The commissioner of elementary and secondary education may, on the basis of student performance data collected pursuant to section 1I, a school or district review performed under section 55A of chapter 15, or regulations adopted by the board of elementary and seco…

Section 1K. (a) A district shall be deemed eligible for designation as chronically underperforming upon a determination by the board of elementary and secondary education, pursuant to regulations adopted by the board, that a school district, other than a single school district, h…

Section 1L. Subject to appropriation, the board shall establish a comprehensive interdisciplinary health education and human service discretionary grant program. Funds for this program may be appropriated from the Health Protection Fund established by section two T of chapter twe…

Section 1M. The board shall establish a discretionary grant program for the purpose of providing planning grants to assist in the development and establishment of charter schools pursuant to section 89 of chapter 71.

Section 1N. (a) The department of education, hereinafter referred to as the department, shall establish a grant program, subject to appropriation, to be known as the alternative education grant program for the purpose of providing grants to assist school districts and Horace Mann…

Section 1O. The department of elementary and secondary education shall adopt regulations establishing a truancy prevention program certification process, consistent with the behavioral health and public schools framework developed pursuant to section 19 of chapter 321 of the acts…

Section 1P. (a) As used in this section the term ''safe and supportive schools'' shall mean schools that foster a safe, positive, healthy and inclusive whole-school learning environment that: (i) enables students to develop positive relationships with adults and peers, regulate t…

Section 1Q. The board of elementary and secondary education shall establish a state seal of biliteracy to be awarded by school districts to students who have attained a high level of proficiency in English and not less than 1 other language in addition to English. To qualify for …

Section 1R. (a) Financial literacy standards established pursuant to section 1D shall promote an understanding of personal finances including, but not limited to: (i) loans; (ii) interest and interest accrual; (iii) credit card debt; (iv) online commerce; (v) rights and responsib…

Section 1S. (a) The commissioner shall establish statewide targets for addressing persistent disparities in achievement among student subgroups in the aggregate and within subcategories, including, but not limited to, subject matter and relevant grade levels. The targets shall in…

Section 1T. (a) The secretary of education, in consultation with the data advisory commission established in section 17 of chapter 70 and in conjunction with each public school district, the department of elementary and secondary education, the department of higher education and …

Section 2. On or before the first Wednesday of January of each year the commissioner shall present to the general court a statement of amounts expended previous to September first preceding by counties, cities and towns for maintenance of approved county, local or district indepe…

Section 30. (a) Any person or entity, regardless of its anticipated corporate form, which seeks to incorporate, register or operate as a college, junior college, university or other post-secondary educational institution with the power to grant degrees, and any person or entity, …

Section 30A. The board of higher education shall establish standards relative to faculty, equipment, courses of study, financial organization, facilities, physical plant and leadership which shall apply to any educational institution for which said council has approved the certif…

Section 31. Said board of higher education, in acting upon the certificate of organization in connection with the proposed incorporation of a junior college, with power to grant degrees, or in acting upon articles of amendment to the charter of any existing educational institutio…

Section 31A. An educational institution chartered, located, offering courses or otherwise doing business within the commonwealth shall not award degrees within the commonwealth unless authorized or approved to do so by the commonwealth. An educational institution chartered, incor…

Section 31B. (a) As used in this section the following terms shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:- ''Accrediting agency'', an organization recognized by the United States Department of Education to provide accreditation to an institut…

Section 31C. Any college, university, community college, junior college and other school of higher education, whether public or private, shall, upon accepting any applicant for admission to such institution, notify said applicant in writing whether or not said institution has bee…

Section 36. As used in this section the following words and terms shall have the following meanings:— ''Community organization'', a charitable or educational organization incorporated under the provisions of chapter one hundred and eighty to meet the special social or educational…

Section 37. (a)(1) There shall be a competitive grant program, known as Green School Works, to provide financial support to eligible K–12 public schools or districts for projects to install or maintain clean energy infrastructure. The program shall be administered by the departme…

Section 38. (a) For the purposes of this section, ''military-connected student'' shall mean a student who is an unemancipated person whose parent or guardian: (i) is a current or reserve member of the United States Army, United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, United Stat…

Section 39. (a) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the department shall set measurable educator diversity goals for the commonwealth and shall collect and publicly report statewide educator diversity data in an online report. The data shall include, but n…

Section 4. The department, through its division of research and statistics, shall prepare, with due reference to the requirements of the federal office of education, and annually, on or before May tenth, send to every literary, scientific or professional institution of learning i…

Section 6. The department shall receive applications for the position of teacher from graduates of good moral character of any high school or state university in this commonwealth, or of any other school deemed by the department to be of equal grade, or of any reputable college. …

Section 8. For the purposes of such courses, the department may, with the consent of the school committee or other proper officials and subject to rules and regulations by them prescribed, use the school or other public buildings and grounds of a town, but without interference or…

Section 8A. (a) Each school committee and commonwealth charter school board of trustees shall ensure that every school under its jurisdiction has a written emergency response plan that addresses both medical and behavioral health crises to reduce the incidence of life-threatening…

Section 9. The department, with the cooperation of any town applying therefor, may provide for such instruction in the use of English for persons eighteen years of age or over unable to speak, read or write the same, and in the fundamental principles of government and other subje…

Section 9A. Upon application of twenty or more residents of any city or town who are eighteen years of age or over certifying that they desire to attend a class for instruction of the type described in section nine, the school committee of such city or town shall establish and ca…