Alaska State Legislature
News from the House Majority

Jerry Ritter, House Majority Press Secretary
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
Phone: 907/465-4582
http://www.akrepublicans.org
Broadcast Actualities: 800/478-6540

House Passes Measure to Help Part Time Students

No Discrimination in Enrollment or Services

For Immediate Release: March 26, 1998 Contact: Rep. Fred Dyson at (907) 465-2199.

Juneau – The Alaska House of Representatives Thursday passed House Bill 367, which prohibits school districts from discriminating against part-time students by enrolling them only after full-time students have had the opportunity to enroll. This bill follows HB 158, passed last year, which requires schools to enroll as part-time students those who are being home-schooled, attending private schools, or who are correspondence students.

"From its inception, this bill was intended and discussed, both in committee and on the House Floor, as an anti-discrimination and equal access bill," said the bill's sponsor, Representative Fred Dyson (R-Eagle River). "At least three school districts have implemented policies which require part-time students to wait at the back of the line until full-time students have had the opportunity to enroll," Dyson said. "This is clearly discriminatory and this bill will put an end to such policies."

HB 367 would force a change in the regulation which now permits full-time students to be enrolled before part-time students. The bill was amended to ensure that its provisions do not apply to interscholastic or extracurricular student activities.

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Broadcasters note: An actuality from Rep. Dyson is available on the House Majority Actuality Line: 1-800-478-6540.
= Fred Dyson, 56 K