§16-39-4. Implementation of program.

Within 120 days after July 22, 1971, each school board in the State of Alabama shall take a careful and thorough survey of persons who (if thereafter certified by a specialist) would probably qualify as exceptional children residing in its school district, which survey shall show the name, age, sex and type of exceptionality of each exceptional child found by it. All such data descriptive of an individual person (as contrasted with compilations made therefrom which do not reveal information about specific individuals) shall be maintained in strict confidence and shall not be made available to anyone except to the survey-takers (in connection with those individuals who are reported by them), the appropriate superintendent and his staff, the appropriate school principal, the individual child's parent or guardian and such other persons as may be designated in regulations adopted by the State Board of Education and under such conditions as may be provided therein. Within 120 days after the completion of said census, each school board in the State of Alabama shall prepare and adopt an incremental five-year plan commencing with the school year beginning in September 1972 for the implementation of appropriate instruction and special services for exceptional children residing in its school district, including a reasonable procedure for obtaining certifications of exceptional children by a specialist. Such plan shall upon its preparation and adoption be submitted to the State Board of Education for its review and approval or disapproval in accordance with regulations promulgated hereunder by the State Board of Education. If approved by the State Board of Education, such plan shall be binding upon the school board submitting it and shall be adhered to unless subsequent modifications of said plan shall thereafter be approved by the State Board of Education, in which case such modified plan shall be adhered to. If the State Board of Education shall disapprove a plan submitted by a school board, representatives of the state school board shall consult and advise with said school board in an effort to formulate a plan which can be approved; provided, that disapproval of a plan or any amendments thereto shall be only because of failure of the plan to meet minimum standards set out in regulations of the state board adopted in accordance with Section 16-39-5, and any such disapproval must specify in detail the reasons for such disapproval. If no such plan can be agreed upon, the State Board of Education shall provide a plan which shall be adhered to unless the school board shall within 30 days thereafter file an action in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Alabama, to restrain the enforcement of such plan on the ground that it is arbitrary, impracticable, detrimental to the education of exceptional children, or invalid. Only the said court specified above shall have jurisdiction of such actions, and all such actions shall be given a preferred setting.

(Acts 1971, No. 106, p. 373, §4.)