Section 42285.

(a) For purposes of Section 42284, a necessary small high school is a high school with an average daily attendance of less than 287 that comes within any of the following conditions:

(1) The projection of its future enrollment on the basis of the enrollment of the elementary schools in the school district shows that within eight years the enrollment in high school in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, will exceed 286 pupils.

(2) Any one of the following combinations of distance and units of average daily attendance applies:

(A) The high school had an average daily attendance of less than 96 in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, during the preceding fiscal year and is more than 15 miles by well-traveled road from the nearest other public high school and either 90 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 20 miles or 25 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 30 miles one way from a point on a well-traveled road nearest their homes to the nearest other public high school.

(B) The high school had an average daily attendance of 96 or more and less than 144 in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, during the preceding fiscal year and is more than 10 miles by well-traveled road from the nearest other public high school and either 90 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 18 miles or 25 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 25 miles one way from a point on a well-traveled road nearest their homes to the nearest other public high school.

(C) The high school had an average daily attendance of 144 or more and less than 192 in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, during the preceding fiscal year and is more than 7¹/₂ miles by well-traveled road from the nearest other public high school and either 90 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 15 miles or 25 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 20 miles one way from a point on a well-traveled road nearest their homes to the nearest other public high school.

(D) The high school had an average daily attendance of 192 or more and less than 287 in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, during the preceding fiscal year and is more than 5 miles by well-traveled road from the nearest other public high school and either 90 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 10 miles or 25 percent of the pupils would be required to travel 15 miles to the nearest other public high school.

(3) Topographical or other conditions exist in the school district which would impose unusual hardships on the pupils if the number of miles specified above were required to be traveled. In these cases, the Superintendent may, when requested, and after investigation, grant exceptions from the distance requirements.

(4) The Superintendent has approved the recommendation of a county committee on school district organization designating one of two or more schools as necessary isolated schools in a situation where the schools are operated by two or more school districts and the average daily attendance of each of the schools is less than 287 in grades 9 to 12, inclusive.

(b) For purposes of Section 42284, a necessary small high school also includes a high school maintained by a school district for the exclusive purpose of educating juvenile hall pupils or pupils with exceptional needs.

(c) For purposes of Section 42284, a necessary small high school does not include a continuation school.

(d) For purposes of this section, "other public high school" is a public school, including a charter school, that serves any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive.

(Amended by Stats. 2013, Ch. 357, Sec. 26. Effective September 26, 2013.)