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A school division is a geographic division over which a
school board
A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution.
The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...
has jurisdiction.
Canada
In Canada the term is used for the area controlled by a school board and is used interchangeably with
school district
A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public Primary school, primary or Secondary school, secondary schools or both in various countries. It is not to be confused with an attendance zone, which is within a school dis ...
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, the State Board of Education is charged unde § 22.1-25 of the Code of Virginia with dividing the state into school divisions. A school division is typically coextensive with a
county
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
or
independent city
An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province).
Historical precursors
In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...
, although it is also possible for a school division to comprise a city and a neighboring county (e.g., Williamsburg and James City County) or a single
town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
(e.g.,
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
).
Although the term "school district" is popularly used, a school division in Virginia differs from a
school district
A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public Primary school, primary or Secondary school, secondary schools or both in various countries. It is not to be confused with an attendance zone, which is within a school dis ...
in most states in the following key respect. Unlike school districts in most states, a Virginia school division is not a separate
local government
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state.
Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...
, but instead depends on appropriations and budget approvals from its associated general-purpose local government or governments (county, city, town). Legally, it is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Virginia statute authorizes a school division to contract with a neighboring school division for school functions. One example of such an arrangement is in Northern Virginia, where the City of Fairfax has contracted with surrounding Fairfax County to run the schools owned by the city (see Fairfax County Public Schools).
See also
*
List of school divisions in Virginia
A list is a Set (mathematics), set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of t ...