school open enrollment; tribal students

HB4107 - school open enrollment; tribal students

Education

Passed Legislature

This bill passed both chambers and reached final enrollment, even if later executive action is not shown here.

Sponsor: Brian Garcia
Last action: 2026-02-11
Official status: House second read
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Checked against official source text during the last sync.

HB4107: School Open Enrollment Rules for Tribal Students

This bill updates the definition of a resident transfer pupil to include students living on tribal land outside school district boundaries.

What This Bill Does

Amends Arizona Revised Statutes section 15-816 regarding open enrollment definitions.
Adds a new category for 'resident transfer pupils' that includes students residing on tribal land and outside any school district boundary.
Allows these tribal students to enroll in one of the three closest school districts to their home.
Defines how officials calculate which school districts are the closest based on distance from the student's residence to each district's boundaries.

Who It Names or Affects

Students who live on federally recognized tribal lands outside any school district boundary
School districts that may receive these students as transfer pupils

Terms To Know

Resident transfer pupil: A student living in the state who attends a school outside their normal attendance area, including those on tribal land.
Tribal land: Land owned or held by a federally recognized Indian tribe, nation, band, or community as reservation lands, allotment lands, sovereign or proprietary lands, or in any other capacity.

Limits and Unknowns

The bill text does not state when this law will take effect.
The source material defines the rule but does not explain how schools must handle capacity limits for these students.

Bill History

2026-02-11 House
House second read
2026-02-10 House
House Rules: None
2026-02-10 House
House Education: None
2026-02-10 House
House first read

Official Summary Text

HB4107 - school open enrollment; tribal students

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

HB4107 - 572R - I Ver

REFERENCE TITLE:
school open enrollment; tribal students

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Fifty-seventh Legislature

Second Regular Session

2026

HB 4107

Introduced by

Representative
Garcia

AN
ACT

amending section 15-816, Arizona
Revised Statutes; relating to school open enrollment.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Section 15-816, Arizona Revised
Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE
15-816.

Definitions

In this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. "Nonresident pupil" means a pupil who
resides in this state and who is enrolled in or is seeking enrollment in a
school district other than the school district in which the pupil resides.

2. "Open enrollment" means a policy that
is adopted and implemented by a school district governing board to allow
resident transfer pupils to enroll in any school within the school district, to
allow resident pupils to enroll in any school located within other school
districts in this state and to allow nonresident pupils to enroll in any school
within the district pursuant to section 15-816.01.

3. "Resident pupil" means a pupil whose
residence is within the attendance area of a school.

4. "Resident school" means a school that
is within the designated attendance area in which a pupil resides.

5. "Resident transfer pupil" means
either:

(
a
)
A
resident pupil who is enrolled in or seeking enrollment in a school that is
within the school district but outside the attendance area of the pupil's
residence.

(
b
) A pupil
whose residence is located on tribal land
and outside of
the boundaries of any school district

and who is Enrolled in or seeking enrollment in a school that is
within one of the three closest school districts to the pupil's residence.� For
the purposes of this subdivision, the closest school districts are determined
by calculating the shortest distance from the pupil's residence to the
boundaries of each school district.

6. "Tribal land" means
lands owned or held by a federally recognized Indian tribe, nation, band or
community as reservation lands, allotment lands or sovereign or proprietary
lands or in any other capacity.

END_STATUTE