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School district attendance zone map drawing policies in a selection of districts (2023)
From Ballotpedia
| Education Policy | |
|---|---|
| |
| Open enrollment and attendance zones research | |
| • Project overview • Intradistrict open enrollment • Interdistrict open enrollment • Attendance zone map drawing
|
Attendance zones are service areas within a school district school. They do not determine political representation or government authority as school district boundaries do but are used solely to assign students to specific schools based on their residential addresses.
Key findings
Key takeaways from research into state and district-specific attendance zone map drawing policies:
- School boards were ultimately responsible for assigning students to schools in the districts researched, with the two exceptions in which courts controlled attendance zone maps according to desegregation orders. All of the districts researched used geographic attendance zones for school assignments.
- School boards generally reviewed and approved final versions of attendance zone maps, while superintendents, business officers, committees, or planning department staff were responsible for drawing the zone maps.
- State and local district policies and map criteria do not determine zone maps, leaving a lot of flexibility to local decision-makers.
- State and local policies, practices, and public pressures generally encouraged the maintenance of the status quo and discouraged changes to attendance zone maps.
- In two-thirds of the 17 states we researched, state law did not explicitly mention or require school districts to use geographic attendance zones to assign students to specific schools.
Slide deck presentation
Data and sources
See also
- Education terms and definitions
- School choice information by state
- Higher education by state
- Charter schools in the United States
Additional reading
Footnotes
