Title 59, Education

At the end of each semester, the State Department of Education shall provide student records, including course grades and performance on state assessments, to the Education Oversight Committee. The Education Oversight Committee shall monitor the impact of credits earned in the vi…

The implementation of the provisions contained in this chapter are contingent upon the appropriation of funds by the General Assembly.

Every school district is and shall be a body politic and corporate, by the name and style of __________ (a descriptive name may be designated by the county board of education or legislative act) School District No __________ (such number may be designated by the county board of e…

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, each school district of the State shall provide the State Department of Education each year with two copies of its audit report by December first following the close of the fiscal year.

In the event that any employee of any school district in South Carolina is prosecuted in any action, civil or criminal, or special proceeding in the courts of this State, or of the United States, by reason of any act done or omitted in good faith in the course of his employment, …

Bonds issued by a school district under the bonded indebtedness limitation of Article X, Section 15(7)(a) of the South Carolina Constitution and called before the maturity date only may be reissued if the amount required to service the reissuance and to pay off the called bonds d…

(A) The board of trustees of a school district may grant credit as a world language to a pupil who satisfactorily has completed a high school course in American Sign Language. Beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, American Sign Language awarded as a world language credit may …

(A) The General Assembly finds: (1) the schools of South Carolina must provide the safest environment possible for students to learn; (2) teaching positive character traits is essential to improving the learning environment, promoting student achievement, reducing disciplinary pr…

(A) Effective July 1, 2001, each school district during annual in-service training shall provide a program of instruction for teachers and administrators in the essentials of constitutional protections and prohibitions as they relate to religion and public school operations. Subj…

(A) Municipal and county governing bodies shall work with school districts located in their jurisdictions to identify barriers and hazards to children walking or bicycling to and from school. The municipalities, counties, and districts may develop a plan for the funding of improv…

(A) Subject to funding by the General Assembly or the South Carolina Department of Education, each school district and the board of each charter school shall develop and implement an automated external defibrillator (AED) program meeting the requirements of Chapter 76, Title 44 f…

(A) Prior to the beginning of the 2019-2020 School Year, the State Department of Education and the Office of the State Fire Marshal shall collaborate and develop model fire and safety policies and program guidelines that must be made available to each school district and charter …

(A) As used in this section: (1) "Cardiac Emergency Response Plan" or "CERP" means a written document that establishes the specific steps to reduce death from cardiac arrest in a school, workplace, sports facility, or any other school setting. (2) "Automated External Defibrillato…

(A) For the purposes of this section: (1) "Booster club" means a parent-led organization, not directly controlled by a school or school district, that is formed with the primary purpose of raising funds for the school, school district programs, interscholastic athletics, or after…

Unless otherwise expressly provided, the school districts of the various counties shall not be altered or divided except: (1) By act of the General Assembly relating to one or more counties; or (2) By authorization of the county boards of education under the following conditions:…

When any school district laid out under Section 59-17-20 shall embrace cities or towns already organized into special school districts in which graded school buildings have been erected by the issue of bonds, by special taxation or by donation, all the territory included in such …

All of the school districts of any county may be consolidated into a single school district embracing the entire county in the manner provided by Section 59-17-20 for the alteration or division of school districts, and, whenever territory embraced in two or more counties is propo…

A county board of education may consolidate schools and school districts, in whole or in part, whenever, in its judgment, such consolidation will promote the best interests of the cause of education in the county.

When two or more districts are consolidated under the provisions of Section 59-17-50, the county board of education shall file a copy of the order of consolidation in the office of the clerk of court and with the State Board of Education. Such filing shall complete the consolidat…

Upon consolidation of any two or more school districts, all property, real and personal, and all assets of the districts forming the consolidated school district shall become the property of the consolidated district and all liabilities of the consolidating districts shall become…

Any school district formed of parts of two or more counties under the provisions of Section 59-17-40 may be dissolved in the same manner as that by which it may have been formed, as provided in said section.

Any two or more school districts in this State may agree to provide special services, make purchases, share equipment, develop curriculum, and interchange pupils or educational services.

The General Assembly finds that South Carolinians have a commitment to public education and a conviction that high expectations for all students are vital components for improving academic achievement. It is the purpose of the General Assembly in this chapter to establish a perfo…

The system is to: (1) use academic achievement standards to push schools and students toward higher performance by aligning the state assessment to those standards and linking policies and criteria for performance standards, accreditation, reporting, school rewards, and targeted …

The State Board of Education, working with the division and the Department of Education, must establish the Palmetto Gold and Silver Awards Program to recognize and reward schools for academic achievement and for closing the achievement gap. Awards will be established for schools…

(A) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a school is given the flexibility of receiving exemptions from those regulations and statutory provisions governing the defined program provided that, during a three-year period, the following criteria are satisfied: (1) the school …

2025 Act No. 30, SECTION 4, provides that this section remains effective until June 30, 2030, unless extended by the General Assembly. (A) The Department of Education is directed to establish a five-year pilot program by May 1, 2025, that will permit a school to hire noncertified…

(A) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a school designated as school/district at-risk while in such status is given the flexibility of receiving exemptions from those regulations and statutory provisions governing the defined program or other State Board of Education reg…

(A) Notwithstanding another provision of law to the contrary, funds appropriated for professional development must be used for certificated instructional and instructional leadership personnel in grades kindergarten through twelve in the academic areas for which State Board of Ed…

As used in this chapter: (1) "Oversight Committee" means the Education Oversight Committee established in Section 59-6-10. (2) "Standards-based assessment" means an assessment where an individual's performance is compared to specific performance standards and not to the performan…

The State Board of Education, based on recommendations of the division, must develop regulations requiring that each district board of trustees must establish and annually review a performance based accountability system, or modify its existing accountability system, to reinforce…

The strategic plans and improvement reports required of the public schools and districts in Sections 59-18-1300, 59-18-1500, and 59-20-60 are consolidated and reported as follows: district and school five-year plans and annual updates and district programmatic reports, and school…

As used in this article: (1) "Chronically underperforming school" means: (a) a school that receives an overall rating of unsatisfactory for three consecutive years on its annual school report card, as provided in Section 59-18-900; or (b) in the absence of the annual school repor…

(A) The department shall implement a tiered system for providing technical and other assistance, professional development, and monitoring for schools and districts. By December thirty-first of each year, the State Superintendent of Education shall report to the General Assembly o…

(A) Upon a school's or district's designation as an underperforming school or district, the department shall immediately place the school or district into a tiered status to provide technical assistance. The department shall notify the underperforming school or district and the d…

Upon the release of the annual report card issued pursuant to Section 59-18-900, the department shall notify the appropriate legislative delegation of any school receiving an overall unsatisfactory rating. The local school board and district superintendent with jurisdiction over …

(A) The State Superintendent of Education may seek a state-of-education emergency declaration for a school that he has the capacity to serve under the following circumstances: (1) the school is chronically underperforming; (2) the school's accreditation is denied; or (3) the Stat…

(A) The State Superintendent of Education may seek a state-of-education emergency declaration for a district that he has the capacity to serve under the following circumstances: (1) the district is identified as underperforming for three consecutive years; (2) the district's accr…

(A) An on-going public information campaign must be established to apprise the public of the status of the public schools and the importance of high standards for academic performance for the public school students of South Carolina. A special committee must be appointed by the c…

Schools receiving below average or school/district at-risk designations may use technical assistance funds allocated pursuant to Section 59-18-1590 to provide homework centers that go beyond the regular school hours where students can come and receive assistance in understanding …

(A) The State Board of Education, through the Department of Education, shall establish a grant program to encourage school districts to pilot test or implement a modified school year or school day schedule. The purpose of the grant is to assist with the additional costs incurred …

The Education Oversight Committee shall provide for a comprehensive review of state and local professional development to include principal leadership development and teacher staff development. The review must provide an analysis of training to include what professional developme…

Working with the Education Oversight Committee, the State Department of Education shall design and pilot district accountability models that focus on competency-based education for a district or school or on regional or county economic initiatives to improve the postsecondary suc…

(A) The General Assembly recognizes the importance of having a state longitudinal data system to inform policy and fiscal decisions related to early childhood education, public education, postsecondary preparedness and success, and workforce development. (B)(1) The Revenue and Fi…

In measuring annual school growth, with approval of the State Board of Education and the Education Oversight Committee, the State shall use a value-added system that calculates student progress or growth. A local school district may, in its discretion, use the value-added system …

The State Board of Education is directed to adopt grade specific performance-oriented educational standards in the core academic areas of mathematics, English/language arts, social studies (history, government, economics, and geography), and science for kindergarten through twelf…