1. (a) Education service cooperatives created by The Education Service Cooperative Act of 1985, Arkansas Code § 6-13-1001 et seq., meet the definition of “local education agencies” by virtue of the fact that each is a public authority, legally constituted within this state to:

   1. (1) Perform a service function for a public elementary and secondary school in school districts and other political subdivisions of the state; and
   2. (2) Form a consortium of school districts that are recognized by the General Assembly as administrative agents for public elementary and secondary schools.

2. (b) This section intends to:

   1. (1) Recognize the function of the cooperatives; and
   2. (2) Provide eligibility to cooperatives to receive state and federal funds upon written requests from the school districts.

Codification Notes: This section as promulgated prior to codification into the Code of Arkansas Rules contained the following at the end of the section: "Source: Ark. Code Ann. § 6-13-1026".