Section 5. (a) The parent or legal guardian of a student eligible to enroll in an English learner program may select any available English learner program offered by the school district; provided, however, that the program shall be appropriate for the age and grade level of the student; and provided further, that for any program selection that would require a student to transfer to a different school within the district, the transfer request shall be approved by the superintendent, in a form prescribed by the department. A school, under advisement of a teacher or guidance counselor, may request a program transfer for an individual child in writing, with notice of the transfer request provided to the child's parents, in a form prescribed by the department.
(b) If a school district or charter school receives requests from the parents or legal guardians of not less than 20 students to implement a specific program to provide language instruction in that school district or charter school, the school district or charter school shall, not later than 90 days after receiving the request, respond and provide: (i) a plan for implementation of the requested program; or (ii) a denial of the request, in writing, including an explanation of the denial.
Structure Massachusetts General Laws
Part I - Administration of the Government
Chapter 71a - English Language Education in Public Schools
Section 1 - Findings and Declarations
Section 4 - English Language Education
Section 6 - Legal Standing and Parental Enforcement
Section 6a - English Learner Parent Advisory Council
Section 7 - Standardized Testing for Monitoring Education Progress
Section 7a - On-Site Evaluations of English Learners
Section 8 - Community-Based English Tutoring
Section 11 - Benchmarks, Guidelines and Learning Success Templates for English Learner Programs
Section 12 - Duty to Inform Parents or Legal Guardians of English Learners of Their Rights