(a)
For purposes of Section 42284, a necessary small high school is a high school with an average daily attendance of less than 287 pupils that comes within any of the following conditions:
(1)
The projection of its future enrollment on the basis of the enrollment of the elementary schools in the school district shows that within eight years the enrollment in high school in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, will exceed 286 pupils.
(2)
Any one of the following combinations of distance and units of average daily attendance applies:
(A)
The high school had an average daily attendance of less than 96 pupils
in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, during the preceding fiscal year and is more than 15 miles by well-traveled road from the nearest other public high school and either 90 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 20 miles or 25 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 30 miles one way from a point on a well-traveled road nearest their homes to the nearest other public high school.
(B)
The high school had an average daily attendance of 96 pupils or more and less than 144 pupils in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, during the preceding fiscal year and is more than 10 miles by well-traveled road from the nearest other public high school and either 90 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 18 miles or 25 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 25 miles one way from a point on a well-traveled road nearest their homes to the nearest other public high school.
(C)
The high school had an average daily attendance of 144 pupils or more and less than 192 pupils in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, during the preceding fiscal year and is more than 712 miles by well-traveled road from the nearest other public high school and either 90 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 15 miles or 25 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 20 miles one way from a point on a well-traveled road nearest their homes to the nearest other public high school.
(D)
The high school had an average daily attendance of 192 pupils or more and less than 287 pupils in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, during the preceding fiscal year and is more than 5 miles by well-traveled road from the nearest other public high school and either 90 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 10 miles or 25 percent of the
pupils would be required to travel 15 miles to the nearest other public high school.
(3)
Topographical or other conditions exist in the school district which would impose unusual hardships on the pupils if the number of miles specified in paragraph (2) were required to be traveled. In these cases, the Superintendent may, when requested, and after investigation, grant exceptions from the distance requirements.
(4)
The Superintendent has approved the recommendation of a county committee on school district organization designating one of two or more schools as necessary isolated schools in a situation where the schools are operated by two or more school districts and the average daily attendance of each of the schools is less than 287 pupils in grades 9 to 12, inclusive.
(b)
For purposes of Section 42284, a necessary
small high school also includes any of the following:
(1)
A high school maintained by a school district for the exclusive purpose of educating juvenile hall pupils or pupils with exceptional needs.
(2)
A high school maintained by a county office of education for the exclusive purpose of educating foster youth if the high school provided instruction in the 2012–13 fiscal year and the high school is the only one maintained by the county office of education that exclusively educates foster youth. Notwithstanding Section 42286, this paragraph shall become inoperative on July 1, 2017.
(3)
A high school maintained by a unified school district as the only comprehensive high school if the high school has an average daily attendance of less than 287 pupils and the school district has 50 or fewer pupils per square mile of
school district territory, as measured by the number of pupils residing in the school district. Notwithstanding Section 42286, this paragraph shall become inoperative on July 1, 2017.
(c)
For purposes of Section 42284, a necessary small high school does not include a continuation school.
(d)
For purposes of this section, “other public high school” is a public school, including a charter school, that serves any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive.