(1) The state board may provide for the establishment and operation of not more than one full-time residential pilot school and not more than three year-round nonresidential pilot schools pursuant to the following provisions: (a) The state board shall consider placement of the pilot schools in geographic areas of the state that shall provide the easiest access to the maximum number of expelled and at-risk students eligible to attend the pilot schools. The state board is urged to consider placement of one pilot school in the Denver metropolitan area; one in the southeastern part of the state south of the 39th parallel and east of the continental divide; one in the northeast part of the state north of U.S. Interstate 70, east of the continental divide; and one west of the continental divide. (b) A pilot school shall be a public, nonsectarian, nonreligious, non-home-based school. (c) A pilot school shall be administered and governed by a board of directors in a manner agreed to by the pilot school applicant and the state board. (d) (I) A pilot school is subject to all federal and state laws and constitutional provisions prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, religion, or ancestry. Enrollment decisions shall be made in a nondiscriminatory manner specified by the pilot school applicant in the pilot school application. (II) As used in this subsection (1)(d): (A) "Protective hairstyle" includes such hairstyles as braids, locs, twists, tight coils or curls, cornrows, Bantu knots, Afros, and headwraps. (B) "Race" includes hair texture, hair type, hair length, or a protective hairstyle that is commonly or historically associated with race. (2) Not more than three pilot schools shall each have a minimum of sixty students who do not reside at the school, approximately two-thirds of whom shall be expelled students, and the remainder of whom shall be at-risk students admitted by the pilot school in the manner specified in the pilot school application. (3) The residential pilot school shall have a minimum of sixty students, two-thirds of which shall be expelled students and one-third of which shall be at-risk students. The school shall make available full-time residential facilities for all expelled students who, in the determination of the pilot school, may benefit from an environment different from those conditions that may have contributed to the student's expulsion. The residential pilot school shall only admit expelled and at-risk students who are in the sixth grade or seventh grade if compelling circumstances exist for admitting such students to a residential facility. (4) A pilot school shall operate on a year-round basis and offer services for an extended period of more than eight hours during each educational day. (5) A pilot school shall be accountable to the state board for purposes of ensuring compliance with applicable laws and contract provisions and the requirement of section 15 of article IX of the state constitution. (6) A pilot school may require a parent or legal guardian and the student to enter into a mutual responsibility agreement according to the terms of which a parent, legal guardian, or student provides services to the pilot school or agrees to make a financial contribution to the pilot school. (7) The state board shall promulgate guidelines for assessing the ability of the parent or legal guardian of a student to make a financial contribution to a pilot school to cover part, or all, of the costs of tuition for that student at the pilot school. The guidelines shall provide for a process to be used by pilot schools to assess the financial resources of a parent or legal guardian that could be reasonably applied to offset the costs of a student's education without imposing a financial hardship on the parent, legal guardian, or family of the student attending the pilot school. (8) Pursuant to contract, a pilot school may operate free from specified school district policies, state statutes, state regulations, and contract requirements otherwise applicable to schools located in the school district where the pilot school is located. Upon request of the pilot school, the state board may release the pilot school from any school district policies, state statutes, state regulations, or contract requirements. Any waiver made pursuant to this subsection (8) shall be for the term of the contract for which the waiver is made. (9) (a) A pilot school shall be responsible for its own operation including, but not limited to, preparation of a budget, compilation of any data required by this article, contracting for services, and personnel matters. (b) A pilot school may negotiate and contract with a school district, the governing body of a state college or university, or any third party for the use of a school building and grounds, the operation and maintenance thereof, and the provision of any service, activity, or undertaking that the pilot school is required to perform in order to carry out the educational program described in its contract. A pilot school may contract with the state for the use of any available state facility in order to carry out the educational program described in its contract. Any services for which a pilot school contracts with the state board or any school district shall be provided to the pilot school at cost. (10) In addition to the students enrolled at each pilot school pursuant to section 22-38- 111, a pilot school may enter into an agreement pursuant to section 22-33-203 (2) with a school district or with a board of cooperative services to provide educational services to enable expelled students to either return to school or successfully complete the high school equivalency examination, as defined in section 22-33-102 (8.5). Students receiving such services are not be considered to be enrolled at the pilot school, and, if the pilot school provides full-time residential facilities, students receiving such services need not reside at the pilot school.
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