In AS 14.09 and this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise,

1. (1) "activity bus" means a bus owned, leased, or contracted by a district and regularly used to transport pupils on field trips, athletic trips, and extracurricular and other non-instructional activities;
2. (2) "attendance center" means the neighborhood school within a district to which a pupil is to be transported for educational purposes;

3. (3) "bus route" or "route"

   1. (A) means the shortest distance necessary to transport a given group of pupils from a pickup point nearest their homes to their attendance center and back;
   2. (B) does not include the distance from where a transportation vehicle is garaged to the start of its route;
4. (4) "commissioner" means the commissioner of education and early development or the commissioner's designee;
5. (5) "duplicate mileage" means any portion of a route that travels both directions on the same street or roadway;

6. (6) "eligible expenditure"

   1. (A) means only a cost associated with operating the basic to- and from-school transportation services;
   2. (B) includes direct administrative and staff salaries and benefits, contracted services, supplies, and equipment;
7. (7) "IEP" means an individualized education program as set out in AS 14.30.278 and 4 AAC 52.140;
8. (8) "optional equipment" means any equipment not required in the most current edition of the minimum standards for Alaska school buses adopted by reference under 4 AAC 27.110;
9. (9) "pupil" means a person eligible under the laws of this state for free public education and who is attending school;
10. (10) "school bus" means a type of bus specially designed and manufactured for the transporting of pupils to and from school and school events;
11. (11) "school district" or "district" includes borough and city school districts and regional educational attendance areas;
12. (12) "spare buses" means those buses used by a district for to- and from-school transportation services in the event of a mechanical failure in the primary bus fleet;
13. (13) "to- and from-school transportation services" means transporting a pupil from the pupil's pick up point to and from school on regular scheduled school days.

(Eff. 5/30/71, Register 38; am 9/14/77, Register 63; am 7/8/99, Register 151; am 7/23/99, Register 151; am 6/4/2004, Register 170; am 7/25/2014, Register 211)

Authority: AS 14.07.020, AS 14.07.030, AS 14.07.060, AS 14.09.010