Title 17. Education

Chapter 1. General School Law

Part III. Public Schools and School Children

Subpart C. School Attendance

17:222     School entrance; proof of age, race, and parentage required; exceptions

A. All children upon entering a public or nonpublic school in the state of Louisiana for the first time shall be required to present a copy of their official birth record to the school principal. A short-form birth certification card shall be acceptable as a copy of an official birth record. Only records from the local or state registrar of vital statistics will be accepted for children born in Louisiana. Birth verification forms issued by the local registrar of the parish of birth shall be valid and acceptable. 

B. (1) Children born in Louisiana will be given a fifteen-day grace period to secure a copy of their birth record. Children born out of this state will be given thirty days grace in which to produce a copy of their birth record. 

(2) In cases where birth certificates or birth verification forms cannot be obtained, the school principal may accept whatever positive proof of age, race, and parentage is available. It shall be left to the discretion of the parish or city superintendent of schools, subject to the authority of the school board, as to whether or not a child shall continue in school upon failure to comply with this Section. 

C. (1) Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsections A and B of this Section, the parish school boards in Jefferson and Orleans parishes may adopt, by rule, and enforce ages for entrance into first grade in the schools in their systems which vary from the provisions of this Section. All children admitted into school as a result of a rule adopted pursuant to this Subsection shall be counted in reports submitted for funding under the Minimum Foundation Program and money allocated pursuant to such program shall be based on the report which includes such children. 

(2) The provisions of this Subsection shall become void on June 30, 2022. 

Acts 1964, No. 109, § 2. Amended by Acts 1984, No. 914, § 1; Acts 1993, No. 530, § 1; Acts 2000, 1st Ex.Sess., No. 118, § 2, eff. April 19, 2000; Acts 2011, 1st Ex.Sess., No. 41, § 1; Acts 2011, No. 102, § 1; Acts 2021, No. 386, § 1, eff. June 16, 2021.