Sec 15-782.02. Career and technical education and vocational education programs; fingerprint clearance card; expanded hours; tuition

A. School districts with career and technical education and vocational education programs may offer vocational educational services without regard to students' age or high school graduation status, except that vocational education services provided to persons over twenty-two years of age shall be offered only for the purpose of skill upgrading or skill retraining and shall not be offered for college level credit. Persons over twenty-two years of age shall not attend vocational programs in high school buildings during regular school hours, except that a person over twenty-two years of age may attend vocational programs other than massage therapy programs during regular school hours on a central campus that is owned and operated by a joint technical education district pursuant to section 15-393, subsection D, paragraph 4 if the vocational program has additional student capacity after the enrollment of persons who are twenty-two years of age or younger. A person over twenty-two years of age shall not be admitted to or attend a vocational program during regular school hours pursuant to this subsection unless the person has a valid fingerprint clearance card pursuant to title 41, chapter 12, article 3.1. The costs of the fingerprint clearance card shall be paid by the applicant. A joint technical education district shall immediately notify in writing the parent or guardian of each pupil under eighteen years of age in a vocational program during regular school hours when a person over twenty-two years of age enrolls in the vocational program.

B. The department of education shall distribute twenty-six dollars for every day that a full-time student attends an extended year or summer school program in a joint technical education district and thirteen dollars for every day that a part-time student attends an extended year or summer school program in a joint technical education district, subject to appropriation except that the department of education shall not distribute monies pursuant to this section for any student who has either graduated from high school or obtained a general education diploma or who has reached twenty-two years of age, whichever occurs first.

C. School districts with career and technical education and vocational education programs may operate those programs for more than one hundred seventy-five days per year, with expanded hours of service.

D. Career and technical education and vocational education programs run by school districts may charge tuition to offset expenses associated with serving adult students.