Chap. 115.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 1, as amended, of Chapter
377 of the Acts of Assembly of 1938, approved March 31, 1938, relating to sup-
port and maintenance of the public free schools, minimum terms thereof and
the apportionment of the State appropriation for such purposes. [fH B 233]

Approved March 6, 1946

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section one, as amended, of chapter three hundred seventy-
seven of the Acts of Assembly of nineteen hundred thirty-eight, approved
March thirty-one, nineteen hundred thirty-eight, be amended and re-
enacted, as follows:

Section 1. The school board of each and every county and city
in the State is hereby empowered and required to maintain the public
free schools of such county and city for a period of at least nine months or
one hundred and eighty teaching days in each school year. In order that
each county and city may have the funds necessary to enable the local
school board to maintain the elementary and high schools thereof for
such minimum terms, it is hereby provided that when any county or
city has legally complied with the existing laws with reference to local
school levies or cash appropriations there shall be allotted to such coun-
ties and cities the sum of money appropriated by the State for instruc-
tion, and transportation provided in the appropriation for these purposes,
so that: (1) an equal amount of money shall be distributed for each child
in average daily attendance in school; (2) funds for equalizing transpor-
tation costs or other expenditures in lieu of transportation shall be ap-
portioned towards the cost of transporting school children to and from
school when such children live farther from the school centers than is
prescribed in section six hundred eighty-three of the Code as now or
hereafter amended relating to compulsory attendance; (3) funds may
be apportioned for maintaining a minimum educational program in each
county and city when the county or city is not able to provide such a
program without additional State help. Apportionment of all funds
covered by this act shall be made under such rules and regulations as
may be set up by the State Board of Education; provided that a mini-
mum teachers salary schedule satisfactory to the State Board of Educa-
tion shall be maintained in each city and county; and provided further,
that with the consent of the State Board of Education the length of the
term of any school may be reduced to not less than eight months, in which
case the amount paid by the State for each child in average daily attend-
ance in such school shall be reduced in the same proportion as the length
of the term has been reduced from nine months.