(A) Except as provided under division (B) , (C), or (D) of this section, no school district shall be created and no school district shall exist which does not maintain within such district public schools consisting of grades kindergarten through twelve and any such existing school district not maintaining such schools shall be dissolved and its territory joined with another school district or districts by order of the state board of education if no agreement is made among the surrounding districts voluntarily, which order shall provide an equitable division of the funds, property, and indebtedness of the dissolved school district among the districts receiving its territory. The state board of education may authorize exceptions to school districts where topography, sparsity of population, and other factors make compliance impracticable.

The superintendent of public instruction is without authority to distribute funds under Chapter 3317. of the Revised Code to any school district that does not maintain schools with grades kindergarten through twelve and to which no exception has been granted by the state board of education.

(B) Division (A) of this section does not apply to any joint vocational school district or any cooperative education school district established pursuant to divisions (A) to (C) of section 3311.52 of the Revised Code.

(C)

(1)

(a) Except as provided in division (C)(3) of this section, division (A) of this section does not apply to any cooperative education school district established pursuant to section 3311.521 of the Revised Code nor to the city, exempted village, or local school districts that have territory within such a cooperative education district.

(b) The cooperative district and each city, exempted village, or local district with territory within the cooperative district shall maintain the grades that the resolution adopted or amended pursuant to section 3311.521 of the Revised Code specifies.

(2) Any cooperative education school district described under division (C)(1) of this section that fails to maintain the grades it is specified to operate shall be dissolved by order of the state board of education unless prior to such an order the cooperative district is dissolved pursuant to section 3311.54 of the Revised Code. Any such order shall provide for the equitable adjustment, division, and disposition of the assets, property, debts, and obligations of the district among each city, local, and exempted village school district whose territory is in the cooperative district and shall provide that the tax duplicate of each city, local, and exempted village school district whose territory is in the cooperative district shall be bound for and assume its share of the outstanding indebtedness of the cooperative district.

(3) If any city, exempted village, or local school district described under division (C)(1) of this section fails to maintain the grades it is specified to operate the cooperative district within which it has territory shall be dissolved in accordance with division (C)(2) of this section and upon that dissolution any city, exempted village, or local district failing to maintain grades kindergarten through twelve shall be subject to the provisions for dissolution in division (A) of this section.

(D) Division (A) of this section does not apply to any school district that is or has ever been subject to section 3302.10 of the Revised Code, as it exists on and after the effective date of this amendment, and has had a majority of its schools reconstituted or closed under that section.

Amended by 131st General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 70, §1, eff. 10/15/2015.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.28, HB 153, §101.01, eff. 6/30/2011.

Amended by 128th General AssemblyFile No.9, HB 1, §101.01, eff. 7/17/2009.

Effective Date: 07-01-1993 .