Ley 191 del 2001
Resumen
Esta ley enmienda la Ley Núm. 149 de 15 de julio de 1999 para extender la edad de asistencia escolar compulsoria de 18 a 21 años, con excepciones para estudiantes de alto rendimiento académico, aquellos en programas de educación secundaria para adultos u otros programas de reinserción, y quienes hayan tomado el examen GED. El propósito es ofrecer alternativas educativas a jóvenes que abandonan la escuela antes de los 18 años.
Contenido
(N. B. 1719) (Approved December 31, 2001)
AN ACT
To amend Section 1.03 of Act No. 149 of July 15, 1999, to read as follows: "School attendance shall be compulsory for every child between the ages of five (5) and twenty-one (21) years, except those children with high academic performance and those enrolled in secondary education programs, and other programs that prepare them to be reinserted in regular day schools or those who have taken the General Educational Development (GED) Examination."
STATEMENT OF MOTIVES
Section 1.03, Act No. 149 of July 15, 1999, sets forth obligatory school attendance for all children between five (5) and eighteen (18) years of age.
This provision of law has had the effect of placing beyond the reach of school dropouts who are fifteen (15), sixteen (16) and seventeen (17) years of age, those essential educational services that were provided through Placement Examinations, Nighttime and Saturday Schools for Adults, Vocational Agricultural Schools, and Private Technical-Vocational Institutes and Colleges with Federal Programs under the Ability to Benefit (ATB) Program, among others.
All of these programs are denying access to school dropouts of less than eighteen (18) years of age, because Section 1.03 of Act No. 149 makes regular day school attendance compulsory up to eighteen years of age. This distorts the legislative intent of the above mentioned Section, whose objective is to achieve that our youths will continue to study until they complete the twelfth ( $12^{ ext {th }}$ ) grade of high school or until they reach the age of eighteen (18).
It has been indicated that for several reasons, approximately ten (10) percent of our youth leave school before their eighteenth birthday. The State must provide
alternatives for the placement of these young people. The amendment proposed herein intends to ease this situation by doing justice to hundreds of school dropouts who currently have no options, because they are not yet eighteen years of age. Since they have nothing else to do, many fall prey to the detestable vice of drugs. Our inescapable responsibility is to prevent this situation, by providing positive options and means for these young people to use their energy, vitality and talent.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF PUERTO RICO:
Section 1.- To amend Section 1.03 of Act No. 149 of July 15, 1999, to read as follows: "School attendance shall be compulsory for all children between five (5) and twenty-one (21) years of age, except for children with high academic performance and those enrolled in a secondary education program for adults, and other programs that prepare them for re-enrollment in regular day schools or those who have taken the General Educational Development (GED) Examination."
Section 2.- This Act shall take effect immediately after its approval.
CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify to the Secretary of State that the following Act No. 191 (H.B. 1719) of the $14^{ ext {th }}$ Session of the $1^{ ext {st }}$ Legislature of Puerto Rico:
AN ACT to amend Section 1.03 of Act No. 149 of July 15, 1999, to read as follows: "School attendance shall be compulsory for every child between the ages of five (5) and twenty-one (21) years, except those children with high academic performance and those enrolled in secondary education programs, and other programs that prepare them to be reinserted in regular day schools or those who have taken the General Educational Development (GED) Examination", has been translated from Spanish to English and that the English version is correct.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, today $24^{ ext {th }}$ of January of 2005.
Marialma Alfau-Alemán Acting Director