Act No. 303

Public Acts of 2006

Approved by the Governor

July 18, 2006

Filed with the Secretary of State

July 20, 2006

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 20, 2006

STATE OF MICHIGAN

93RD LEGISLATURE

REGULAR SESSION OF 2006

Introduced by Senators Thomas, Kuipers, Sikkema, Switalski, Clark-Coleman, Emerson and Leland

ENROLLED SENATE BILL No. 1296

AN ACT to amend 1976 PA 451, entitled "An act to provide a system of public instruction and elementary and secondary schools; to revise, consolidate, and clarify the laws relating to elementary and secondary education; to provide for the organization, regulation, and maintenance of schools, school districts, public school academies, intermediate school districts, and other public school entities; to prescribe rights, powers, duties, and privileges of schools, school districts, public school academies, intermediate school districts, and other public school entities; to provide for the regulation of school teachers and certain other school employees; to provide for school elections and to prescribe powers and duties with respect thereto; to provide for the levy and collection of taxes; to provide for the borrowing of money and issuance of bonds and other evidences of indebtedness; to establish a fund and provide for expenditures from that fund; to provide for and prescribe the powers and duties of certain state departments, the state board of education, and certain other boards and officials; to provide for licensure of boarding schools; to prescribe penalties; and to repeal acts and parts of acts," by amending section 1146 (MCL 380.1146).

The People of the State of Michigan enact:

Sec. 1146. (1) Except as otherwise provided under subsection (2) and section 475, a separate school or department shall not be kept for a person on account of race, color, or gender. This section shall not be construed to prevent the grading of schools according to the intellectual progress of the pupil to be taught in separate places as may be considered expedient.

(2) Subject to subsection (3), the board of a school district or intermediate school district or board of directors of a public school academy may establish and maintain a school, class, or program within a school in which enrollment is limited to pupils of a single gender if the school district, intermediate school district, or public school academy makes available to pupils a substantially equal coeducational school, class, or program and a substantially equal school, class, or program for pupils of the other gender.

(3) If the board of a school district or intermediate school district or board of directors of a public school academy establishes a single-gender school, class, or program described in subsection (1), the school district, intermediate school district, or public school academy shall not require participation by any of its pupils in the single-gender school, class, or program. The board or board of directors shall ensure that participation by pupils in a single-gender school, class, or program is wholly voluntary. For the purposes of this subsection, participation by a pupil in a single-gender school, class, or program is not considered to be voluntary unless the school district, intermediate school district, or public school academy also makes available to the pupil a substantially equal coeducational school, class, or program.

This act is ordered to take immediate effect.

Secretary of the Senate

Clerk of the House of Representatives

Approved

Governor