Chapter 71

Section 1. Every town shall maintain, for at least the number of days required by the board of education in each school year unless specifically exempted as to any one year by said board, a sufficient number of schools for the instruction of all children who may legally attend a …

Section 10. If the school committee of a town of less than five hundred families or householders not maintaining a public high school offering four years of instruction, pays, with the approval of the department, for the instruction of a pupil who by reason of physical disability…

Section 100. The department shall encourage school districts to implement instruction in age-appropriate media literacy skills at all grade levels, including in any of the core subjects under section 1D of chapter 69, life skills programming or other subjects, to equip students w…

Section 101. (a) Public school districts and charter schools shall appoint or hire a diversity, equity and inclusion officer or establish a diversity team. The role and responsibilities of a diversity officer or team may be assigned to an existing school employee or existing scho…

Section 11. For the purposes of the six preceding sections, a ''high school'' is defined as that part of the school system which furnishes instruction in addition to that offered in the first eight grades and other than vocational instruction directly aided by the commonwealth.

Section 13. In every public school having not less than one hundred and fifty pupils, any course not included in the regular curriculum shall be taught if the parents or guardians of not less than thirty pupils or of a number of pupils equivalent to five per cent of the pupil enr…

Section 13D. Motor vehicle driving education may be incorporated as a phase of the safety education program in high schools of the commonwealth. The content of driver education courses shall be established by the registrar of motor vehicles. No school committee and no high school…

Section 13F. The course of study in elementary and high schools may include instruction by means of educational programs broadcast through the facilities of television stations. The cost of such programs may be shared by cities and towns within viewing range of such television st…

Section 13G. Subject to the approval of the board of education, the executive committee for educational television shall act in matters pertaining to educational television. Said committee may adopt rules for the conduct of its business. A majority of the members shall constitute…

Section 13H. The committee may establish and manage under such regulations as it may from time to time prescribe, a trust fund to be known as the Educational Television Program Fund. All funds received from school committees, organizations, or individuals for the purposes of sect…

Section 13I. In order to carry out its duties, said committee, from time to time and within the limits of appropriation therefor and of available trust funds, may— (a) Acquire, construct, hold, lease and dispose of real and personal property; (b) Prepare programs, enter into agre…

Section 14. Any town, either by a majority vote of its board of selectmen and a majority vote of the school committee or by vote in town meeting duly called therefor, may create a special unpaid committee to be known as a regional school district planning committee, to consist of…

Section 14A. It shall be the duty of the regional school district planning board to study the fiscal and educational advisability of establishing a regional school district, its organization, operation and control, and of constructing, maintaining and operating a school or school…

Section 14B. The said regional district planning board may recommend that there shall be established a regional school district which may include all the towns represented by its membership, or alternatively, any specified combination of such towns. If the said regional district …

Section 14C. The agreement made under section fourteen B, or any amendment to such an agreement, may contain provisions authorizing any member town to sell, lease or grant a license to use any school building and any land appurtenant thereto or used in connection therewith to the…

Section 14D. The agreement made under section fourteen B, or any amendment to such an agreement, may provide that the incurring of indebtedness by the district shall be approved by the registered voters in the member towns pursuant to the provisions of clause (n) of section sixte…

Section 14E. A regional school district may, by amendment to its regional school district agreement, provide for one of the following options concerning the members of its regional district school committee: (1) electing committee members by voters in member communities with each…

Section 15. The selectmen or council of each of the several towns shall, upon receipt of the recommendation that a regional school district should be formed and of a proposed agreement therefor submitted in accordance with the provisions of sections fourteen to fourteen B, inclus…

Section 16. A regional school district established under the provisions of the preceding section shall be a body politic and corporate with all the powers and duties conferred by law upon school committees, and with the following additional powers and duties: (a) To adopt a name …

Section 16A. The powers, duties and liabilities of a regional school district shall be vested in and exercised by a regional district school committee organized in accordance with the agreement. The committee shall choose a chairman and vice chairman by ballot from its membership…

Section 16B. The regional district school committee, by a two-thirds vote of all its members, shall annually determine the amounts necessary to be raised, after deducting the amount of aid such district is to receive pursuant to section sixteen D, to maintain and operate the dist…

Section 16C. The regional school district shall be subject to all laws pertaining to school transportation; and when the agreement provides for the furnishing of transportation by the regional school district, the regional school district shall be obliged to provide transportatio…

Section 16D. (a) A regional school district shall be entitled to receive state aid for construction of regional schools. Each city or town in a regional school district whether established under special or general law shall continue to receive such state aid for educational purpo…

Section 16E. A regional school district shall be considered a district for purposes of conducting periodic audits under sections 35, 38, 39, 40, 41 and 42 of chapter 44. Upon the completion of each audit, a copy shall be sent to the chief executive officer and the school committe…

Section 16F. The regional school district shall maintain a contributory retirement system for non-teaching employees of the district, subject in all respects to the applicable provisions of chapter thirty-two.

Section 16G. No town in a regional school district shall be liable for any obligation imposed on any other town in said district by authority of sections fourteen to sixteen I, inclusive, or of any agreement thereunder, any other provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding.

Section 16I. If any provision of said sections, or the application of such provision to any person or circumstances, shall be held invalid, the remainder of said sections and the application of such provisions to persons or circumstances other than those as to which it is held in…

Section 17A. In any city or town which accepts the provisions of this section and in any regional school district upon its acceptance by the school committee of said district and a majority of the cities and towns in said district by vote of the city council or board of selectmen…

Section 18. Any town may, and every town in which there are issued during any year certificates authorizing the employment of twenty or more persons who do not possess the educational qualifications enumerated in section one of chapter seventy-six, shall maintain for not less tha…

Section 19. Every city of fifty thousand inhabitants shall maintain annually an evening high school, in which shall be taught such subjects as the school committee considers expedient, if fifty or more residents, sixteen years or over, competent in the opinion of the committee to…

Section 1A. At the commencement of the first class of each day in all grades in all public schools the teacher in charge of the room in which each such class is held shall announce that a period of silence not to exceed one minute in duration shall be observed for personal though…

Section 1B. The school committee of any city or town may permit any child attending its public schools to participate in voluntary prayer with the approval of such child's parents before the commencement of each daily school session. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the co…

Section 1C. Each school district shall conduct, in cooperation with the local parent advisory council, at least one workshop annually within the school district on the rights of students and their parents and guardians under the special education laws of the commonwealth and the …

Section 1D. A school district, school committee, public school, nonsectarian school, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association or any equivalent school organization or an entity or board that provides athletic officials, including, but not limited to, referees and um…

Section 2. (a) In all public schools, history of the United States of America and social science, including civics, shall be taught as required subjects to promote civic service and a greater knowledge thereof and to prepare students, morally and intellectually, for the duties of…

Section 20. The school committee shall, two weeks next before the opening of each term of the evening schools, post in three or more public places in the town notice of the situation of said schools, the date of the beginning of the term, the evenings of the week on which they wi…

Section 20A. Any city, town or regional school district, located within such city or town, which accepts the provisions of this section may establish a fund to be known as the Instructional Materials Trust Fund, hereinafter in this section called the fund, and may appropriate mon…

Section 21. Every town which has accepted chapter three hundred and eleven of the General Acts of nineteen hundred and nineteen, and in which, in any year, two hundred or more minors under sixteen are employed not less than six hours per day by authority of employment permits des…

Section 22. Every minor described in the preceding section shall, subject to the laws relating to the public schools, attend said schools or courses in the town of his employment for not less than four hours per week; but the attendance of minors who have been required to attend …

Section 23. In the establishment and conduct of said schools or courses, a town may take advantage of established educational agencies, and may utilize any suitable quarters approved by the department; but, when established, the said schools or courses shall be a part of the publ…

Section 24. The town of residence of a person who is required by section twenty-two to attend a continuation school of another town shall pay to such other town a tuition fee to be fixed by the commissioner of education, and not to exceed the average annual maintenance cost per p…

Section 25. Any minor under sixteen who has been regularly employed in a town other than that of his residence, and who is temporarily unemployed, may be required, under conditions approved by the department, to attend a continuation school or course in the town of his residence.

Section 26. A town required by section twenty-one to establish and to maintain continuation schools or courses which refuses or neglects to appropriate money necessary therefor, shall forfeit from funds due it from the commonwealth a sum equal to twice that estimated by the depar…

Section 26A. If the school committee of a city, town or regional school district determines that sufficient need exists therein for extended school services for children, the school committee, subject to section 26B, may establish and maintain such services.

Section 26B. If said school committee, upon determination by it of sufficient need, votes that said services should be established by it, it shall submit in writing a plan of said services to the commissioner of elementary and secondary education for his written approval; provide…

Section 26C. The commonwealth and the school committee may accept funds from the federal government for the purposes of sections 26A to 26D, inclusive. The school committee may receive contributions in the form of money, material, quarters or services for the purposes of the sect…