(a) The department shall institute a statewide program for the education of children with disabilities to ensure that whenever possible children are educated in the state at locations in or near their resident school district.
(b) An identified child with a disability may be sent to an educational program or residential school outside the child's community or school district if the child resides in a community or school district where an appropriate educational program cannot reasonably be made available and if the school district determines that provision of special education and related services in another educational program or residential school is appropriate. If the school district approves the enrollment of a child with a disability in another educational program or residential school outside the child's community or school district and the child is enrolled, the child's education expenses shall be paid as follows:
(1) except as otherwise provided by (2) of this subsection, the sending district shall pay all costs associated with the transfer;
(2) the department may provide financial assistance to the school district for a child's education provided for in (1) of this subsection under regulations adopted by the department.
(c) [Repealed, § 19 ch 147 SLA 1984.]
(d) For the purposes of this section a child's education expenses are limited to the actual cost of necessary care, transportation, and special education and related services, including room and board.
(e) The educational assessment of a child with a disability that indicates that the educational program that is locally available is inappropriate for the needs of the child must conform to the standards set out in AS 14.30.191.
(f) A school district shall obtain informed consent of the child's parent before a child may be transferred to a school outside the district in which the child resides.
(g) The withholding of informed consent by a parent for the transfer of a child with a disability under this section does not relieve a school district of the obligation to provide special education and related services to the child.
(h) The department shall make available to school districts an electronic system for managing student information and tracking records relating to individualized education programs for children with disabilities. The system must, to the extent permitted by federal law, allow school districts to transfer special education records for a student when the student transfers to a different school district. If the governing body of a school district elects to use the system selected by the department, the department shall provide the school district with the system, including any software necessary to implement the system, at no charge to the school district. The department may not require a school district to use the system selected by the department.