Sections
Article 1 County School Superintendent 15-301 – 15-308
Article 2 Organizational Powers of School District Governing Boards 15-321 – 15-328
Article 3 Powers and Duties of School District Governing Boards 15-341 – 15-350
Article 3.1 Decentralization Process 15-351 – 15-354
Article 4 Establishment of Special Services 15-361 – 15-365
Article 5 Provisions for Insurance Coverage 15-381 – 15-388
Article 6 Career Technical Education Districts 15-391 – 15-398

Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 15 > Chapter 3 - Local Governance of Schools

  • Accommodation school: means either:

    (a) A school that is operated through the county board of supervisors and the county school superintendent and that the county school superintendent administers to serve a military reservation or territory that is not included within the boundaries of a school district. See Arizona Laws 15-101

  • Account: means withdrawable capital deposited with or invested in an association in accordance with any plan authorized by this chapter unless such term is otherwise designated or qualified. See Arizona Laws 6-401
  • Adult: means a person who has attained eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 1-215
  • Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • Appraisal: A determination of property value.
  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Association: means every association to which this chapter applies as defined in the section concerning scope of chapter. See Arizona Laws 6-401
  • Average daily membership: means the total enrollment of fractional students and full-time students, minus withdrawals, of each school day through the first one hundred days or two hundred days in session, as applicable, for the current year. See Arizona Laws 15-901
  • Base: means the revenue level per student count specified by the legislature. See Arizona Laws 15-901
  • Base support level: means the base support level as provided in section 15-943. See Arizona Laws 15-901
  • Budget year: means the fiscal year for which the school district is budgeting and that immediately follows the current year. See Arizona Laws 15-901
  • Career technical education board: means a career technical education district governing board. See Arizona Laws 15-391
  • Career technical education course: means a course that is offered by a career technical education district as part of a career technical education district program, that is approved by the career and technical education division of the department of education and that meets each of the following requirements:

    (a) Is taught by an instructor who is certified to teach career and technical education by the state board of education or by a postsecondary educational institution. See Arizona Laws 15-391

  • Career technical education district: means a district that is formed pursuant to this article and that offers career technical education courses. See Arizona Laws 15-391
  • Career technical education district program: means a sequence of courses that is offered by a career technical education district and that meets all of the following requirements:

    (a) Is taught by an instructor who is certified to teach career and technical education by the state board of education or by a postsecondary educational institution. See Arizona Laws 15-391

  • Charter school: means a public school established by contract with the state board of education, the state board for charter schools, a university under the jurisdiction of the Arizona board of regents, a community college district or a group of community college districts pursuant to article 8 of this chapter to provide learning that will improve pupil achievement. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Common school district: means a political subdivision of this state offering instruction to students in programs for preschool children with disabilities and kindergarten programs and either:

    (a) Grades one through eight. See Arizona Laws 15-901

  • Competency: means a demonstrated ability in a skill at a specified performance level. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Course: means organized subject matter in which instruction is offered within a given period of time and for which credit toward promotion, graduation or certification is usually given. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Course of study: means a list of required and optional subjects to be taught in the schools. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Current year: means the fiscal year in which a school district is operating. See Arizona Laws 15-901
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Deputy director: means the deputy director of the financial institutions division of the department. See Arizona Laws 6-101
  • Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. Source:
  • Eligible students: means :

    (a) Students who are transported by or for a school district and who qualify as full-time students or fractional students, except students for whom transportation is paid by another school district or a county school superintendent, and:

    (i) For common school students, whose place of actual residence within the school district is more than one mile from the school facility of attendance or students who are admitted pursuant to Section 15-816. See Arizona Laws 15-901

  • enrollment: means that a pupil is currently registered in the school district. See Arizona Laws 15-901
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
  • Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
  • Fiscal year: means the year beginning July 1 and ending June 30. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. Source: OCC
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • Governing board: means a body organized for the government and management of the schools within a school district or a county school superintendent in the conduct of an accommodation school. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • High school district: means a political subdivision of this state offering instruction to students for grades nine through twelve or that portion of the budget of a common school district that is allocated to teaching high school subjects with permission of the state board of education. See Arizona Laws 15-901
  • instructional time: means hours or time spent pursuant to an instructional time model adopted under Section 15-901. See Arizona Laws 15-901
  • Investment: means to put funds to use in order to secure profits. See Arizona Laws 6-401
  • Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
  • Lease: means an agreement for conveyance and possession of real or personal property. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
  • Parent: means the natural or adoptive parent of a child or a person who has custody of a child. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, association or public or private organization of any kind. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action and evidences of debt. See Arizona Laws 1-215
  • Private school: means a nonpublic institution where instruction is imparted. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Probation officers: Screen applicants for pretrial release and monitor convicted offenders released under court supervision.
  • public school: means any public institution established for the purposes of offering instruction to pupils in programs for preschool children with disabilities, kindergarten programs or any combination of elementary grades or secondary grades one through twelve. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Qualifying tax rate: means the qualifying tax rate specified in section 15-971 applied to the assessed valuation used for primary property taxes. See Arizona Laws 15-901
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
  • Revenue control limit: means the base revenue control limit plus the transportation revenue control limit. See Arizona Laws 15-901
  • School district: means a political subdivision of this state with geographic boundaries organized for the purpose of the administration, support and maintenance of the public schools or an accommodation school. See Arizona Laws 15-101
  • Small school district: means a school district that meets all of the following:

    (a) Has a student count of fewer than six hundred in kindergarten programs and grades one through eight or grades nine through twelve. See Arizona Laws 15-901

  • State board: means the state board of education. See Arizona Laws 15-391
  • Student count: means average daily membership as prescribed in this subsection for the fiscal year before the current year, except that for the purpose of budget preparation student count means average daily membership as prescribed in this subsection for the current year. See Arizona Laws 15-901
  • Subject: means a division or field of organized knowledge, such as English or mathematics, or a selection from an organized body of knowledge for a course or teaching unit, such as the English novel or elementary algebra. See Arizona Laws 15-101