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who brought up the abuses of the school''s policy at a meeting in September. School administrators said last month that some parents have entered into provisional custody agreements with other Ascension residents just so their children could attend the school of that person''s choice. The previous policy allowed parents of the student in question to sign a notarized agreement transferring school-related custody of their children to residents who live in the school district where they want their children enrolled. Hillensbeck and Superintendent Robert Clouatre said last month that school principals reported to them that students from other fourthgradehomework and fourthgradehomework parishes, including St. James, Assumption and East Baton Rouge, were attending schools illegally in Ascension. Beginning in the 2001-2002 school year, no one will be allowed to attend school in Ascension outside his school district unless he shows proof of a court-ordered provisional custody agreement. In that year, which was some 40 years after the start of a massive effort by reformers to consolidate districts into larger administrative units, there were about 120,000 individual school districts in the U.S. This meant that on average there were only two schools per district. Now, that is really local control. Even now, after consolidation has continued for another 60 years, we still have about 15,000 separate school districts -- each with primary control over financing, staffing, and setting curriculum standards for our schoolsCertainly state governments have taken steps fourthgradehomework over the years to fourthgradehomework assert greater control over these matters in K-12 schooling, and even the federal government has made tiny and tentative moves in this direction. But all these efforts have been undertaken in the face of enormous resistance by local communities, which have vigorously fought to preserve the autonomy of their schools. The School Board''s new policy reflects the spirit and intention of the state''s original law allowing provisional custody in the first place, an issue involving the legal status of children whose parents are divorced. Board member Catherine Davis, chairwoman of the board''s Policy Committee, said parents or custodians with provisional custody agreements that are not court-ordered by the beginning of the next school year will have to take their children out of the school they are attending. For the last several years, homeschooling has been the fastest growing educational alternative in the country. Estimates of its growth rate typically range fourthgradehomework from 15-25% annually. Homeschoolers are notoriously difficult to count, however, the National Homeschooling Research Institute believes that currently 1.2 million children homeschool today. While this constitutes only about 2% of all school age children, it’s more than 20% of those outside the government educational system. And, with a 20% annual growth rate, another quarter million children will join the homeschooling movement this year.
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