CHAPTER 70

An Act to create a Pupil Placement Board and confer upon it powers as to
enrollment or placement of pupils in the public schools and determina-
tion of school attendance districts, and to provide for administrative
procedure and remedies for pupils seeking enrollment in a school or
a change from one school to another school. eS us

[ ]

Approved September 29, 1956
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. All power of enrollment or placement of pupils in and deter-
mination of school attendance districts for the public schools in Virginia
is hereby vested in a Pupil Placement Board as hereinafter provided for.
The local school boards and division superintendents are hereby divested
of all authority now or at any future time to determine the school to
which any child shall be admitted. The Pupil Placement Board is hereby
empowered to adopt rules and regulations for such enrollment of pupils
as are not inconsistent with the provisions hereinafter set forth. Such
rules and regulations shall not be subject to Chapter 1.1 of Title 9 of the
Code of Virginia, the short title of which is “General Administrative
Agencies Act”. The Pupil Placement Board and any of its agents herein-
after provided for shall have authority to administer oaths to those who
appear before said Board or any of its agents in connection with the
administration of this act.

§ la. There is hereby created a board to be known as the Pupil
Placement Board which shall consist of three residents of the State
appointed by the Governor to serve for terms to expire at the expiration
of the term of the Governor making the appointment. Members of the
Board shall receive as compensation for their services a per diem of
twenty dollars for each day actually spent in the performance of their
duties and shall be entitled to reimbursement for their necessary expenses
incurred in connection therewith.

§ 2. The Pupil Placement Board may designate, appoint and employ
such agents as it may deem desirable and necessary in the administration
of this act. It may authorize such agents to hold the hearings herein-
after provided for and take testimony and submit recommendations in
any and all cases referred to them by said Board.

§ 2a. For the conduct of such hearings and to facilitate the per-
formance of the duties imposed upon it and its agents under this act, the
Pupil Placement Board is authorized to promulgate all such rules and
regulations and procedures and prescribe such uniform forms as it deems
appropriate and needful and to require strict compliance with the same
by all persons concerned.

§ 3. The Pupil Placement Board in enrolling each pupil in a school in
each school district shall take into consideration:

(1) The effect of the enrollment on the welfare and best interests of
such child and all other children in said school as well as the effect on the
efficiency of the operation of said school.

(2) The health of the child as compared to other children in the school.

(3) The effect of any disparity between the physical and mental ages
of any child to be enrolled especially when contrasted with the average
physical and mental ages of the group with which the child might be placed.

(4) Availability of facilities.

(5) The aptitude of the child.

(6) Availability of transportation.

(7) The sociological, psychological, and like intangible social scientific
factors as will prevent, as nearly as possible, a condition of socioeconomic
class consciousness among the pupils.

(8) Such other relevant matters as may be pertinent to the efficient
operation of the schools or indicate a clear and present danger to the
public peace and tranquility affecting the safety or welfare of the citizens
of such school district.

§ 4. After the effective date of this act, each school child who has
heretofore attended a public school and who has not moved from the
county, city or town in which he resided while attending such school shall
attend the same school which he last attended until graduation therefrom
unless enrolled, for good cause shown, in a different school by the Pupil
Placement Board.

§ 5. Any child who desires to enter a public school for the first time
following the effective date of this act, and any child who is graduated from
one school to another within a school division or who transfers to a school
division, or any child who desires to enter a public school after the opening
of the session, shall apply to the Pupil Placement Board for enrollment
in such form as it may prescribe, and shall be enrolled in such school as
the Board deems proper under the provisions of this act. Such application
shall be made on behalf of the child by his parent, guardian or other
person having custody of the child.

§ 6. Both parents, if living, or the parent or guardian of a pupil
in any school in which a child is enrolled by action of the Pupil Placement
Board, if aggrieved by an action of the Board, may file with the Board a
protest in writing within fifteen days after the placement of such pupil.
Upon receipt of such protest the Board shall hold or cause to be held a
hearing, within not more than thirty days, to consider the protest and at
the hearing shall receive the testimony of witnesses and exhibits filed by
such parents, guardians or other persons, and shall hear such other
testimony and consider such other exhibits as the Board shall deem proper.
The Board shall consider and decide each individual case separately on its
merits. The Board shall publish a notice once a week for two successive
weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the city or county wherein
the aggrieved party or parties reside. The notice shall contain the name
of the applicant and the pertinent facts concerning his application in-
cluding the school he seeks to enter and the time and place of the hearing.
The Board shall, within not more than thirty days after the hearing,
file in writing its decision, enrolling such pupil in the school originally
designated or in such other school as it shall deem proper. The written
decision of the Board shall set forth the findings upon which the decision
is based. Any parent, guardian or other person having custody of any
child in the particular school in which a child is enrolled by action of the
Board shall be deemed an interested party and shall have the right to
intervene in such proceeding in furtherance of his interest.

§ 6a. Any party aggrieved by a decision of the Pupil Placement
Board under this act, or any party defined as an interested party in § 6
may obtain a review of such decision by filing an application in writing
for a review thereof with the Governor within fifteen days after such
decision. Such application shall be by a petition in writing, specifying
the decision sought to be reviewed, and the actions taken by the Pupil
Placement Board, together with a statement of the grounds on which
the petitioner is aggrieved or by reason of which he is an interested
party. The petitioner shall file with his petition a copy of the decision
of the Pupil Placement Board and a transcript of the proceedings before
the Pupil Placement Board, which shall be furnished to the petitioner
by the Pupil Placement Board within ten days after request therefor upon
payment of the costs of such transcript by the petitioner. Upon the
filing of a petition for a review with the Governor, the Governor shall
set the same for a hearing and within fifteen days after the petition has
been filed with him, he shall file, in writing, his decision, enrolling such
pupil in the school originally designated or in such other school as he
shall deem proper. The written decisions of the Governor shall set forth
the findings upon which his decision is based.
§ 7. Any party aggrieved by a decision of the Governor under this
act or any party defined as an interested party in § 6 may obtain a review
of such decision by filing in the clerk’s office of the circuit court of the
county or corporation court of the city in the jurisdiction of which such
party resides, within fifteen days after such decision, a petition in writing,
specifying the decision sought to be reviewed, and the actions taken by the
Governor, together with a statement of the grounds on which the petitioner
is aggrieved or by reason of which he is an interested party. The petitioner
shall file with his petition a copy of the decision of the Governor and a
transcript of the proceedings before the Governor, which shall be furnished
to the petitioner by the Governor within ten days after request therefor
upon payment of the costs of such transcript by the petitioner.

§ 7a. Any interested party, as defined in § 6 may, by petition, inter-
vene for the purpose of making known and supporting his interest, in any
proceeding for review of the Pupil Placement Board’s decision instituted
by an aggrieved party or by another interested party; and the court
having jurisdiction of such review proceedings shall hear the evidence of
as many interested parties, as defined in § 6, in any such review proceed-
ing, as in its discretion it may deem proper, whether or not such inter-
ested parties shall have petitioned for such review or petitioned to inter-
vene therein.

§ 8. Upon the filing of the petition the clerk of the court shall forth-
with notify the Pupil Placement Board, requiring it to answer the state-
ments contained in the application within twenty-one days, but failure to
do so shall not be taken as an admission of the truth of the facts and
allegations set forth therein. The clerk of the court shall publish a notice
of the filing of such application once a week for two successive weeks in a
newspaper of general circulation in the county or city for which the court
sits and shall, in addition, post the same at the door of the courthouse.
The notice shall contain the name of the applicant and the pertinent facts
concerning his application including the school he seeks to enter, and
shall set forth the time and place for the hearing. The proceedings shall
be matured for hearing upon expiration of twenty-one days from the
issuance of the notice to the Pupil Placement Board by the clerk of the
court and heard and determined by the judge of such court, either in term
or vacation.

§ 9. The findings of fact of the Pupil Placement Board shall be
considered final, if supported by substantial evidence on the record.

§ 10. From the final order of the court an appeal may be taken by
the aggrieved party or any interested party, as defined in § 6, to the
Supreme Court of Appeals as an appeal of right, in the same manner as
appeals of right are taken from the State Corporation Commission.

§ 10a. An injunction proceeding may be brought in any State court
of competent jurisdiction by the Commonwealth, or by any interested party
as defined in § 6, for the purpose of restraining the performance of any
act, or any intended or threatened act, which may be in evasion of, in
disregard of, or at variance with, any of the foregoing provisions.

§ 11. Neither the Pupil Placement Board nor its agents shall be
answerable to a charge of libel, slander or insulting words, whether
criminal or civil, by reason of any finding or statement contained in the
written findings of fact or decisions or by reason of any written or oral
statement made during the proceedings or deliberations.