(a) The power to confer academic degrees, honorary or otherwise, heretofore granted to and possessed by any board of public education, board of school directors, or controllers of any school district, on the eighteenth day of May, one thousand nine hundred eleven, is hereby vested in the board of school directors of such school district as now constituted. Any public high school, in any school district, existing on the eighteenth day of May, one thousand nine hundred eleven, with a course of study of not less than four years, and upon whose students of the full prescribed course of study such academic or other degrees have heretofore been conferred, shall be continued by the board of school directors of the district in which it shall be located, under such name or title, with such regulations, and courses of study of such length and character, as the board may deem necessary.

(b) A board of school directors may establish a program to be known as “Operation Recognition” which provides for granting a high school diploma to any honorably discharged veteran who served in the United States military in World War II between the sixteenth day of September, one thousand nine hundred forty, and the thirty-first day of December, one thousand nine hundred forty-six, who attended high school between one thousand nine hundred thirty-seven and one thousand nine hundred forty-six and who would have been a member of a graduation class during the years one thousand nine hundred forty-one through one thousand nine hundred fifty but did not graduate from high school due to entry into military service. A board of school directors may award a diploma posthumously to an eligible veteran. An application for a diploma under this subsection must be made in the manner prescribed by the board of school directors.

(c) A board of school directors may establish a program to be known as “Operation Recognition” which provides for granting a high school diploma to any honorably discharged veteran who served in the United States military in the Korean War between the twenty-seventh day of June, one thousand nine hundred fifty, and the thirty-first day of January, one thousand nine hundred fifty-five, who attended high school between one thousand nine hundred forty-seven and one thousand nine hundred fifty-five and who would have been a member of a graduation class during the years one thousand nine hundred fifty-one through one thousand nine hundred fifty-seven but did not graduate from high school due to entry into military service. A board of school directors may award a diploma posthumously to an eligible veteran. An application for a diploma under this subsection must be made in the manner prescribed by the board of school directors.