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School district open enrollment and attendance zone drawing policies in a selection of districts (2023)
| Education Policy | |
|---|---|
| |
| Open enrollment and attendance zones research | |
| • Project overview • Intradistrict open enrollment • Interdistrict open enrollment • Attendance zone map drawing
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Most public school K-12 students in the U.S. attend a school based primarily on their residential address.[1] The dividing lines that sort students based on residence determine for most students the quality of the public education available to them. They link public education to the many facets of family residential decisions, including wealth, ethnicity, social connection, employment, and status.
In 2023, Ballotpedia embarked on an in-depth research project to delve into these vital boundaries and the policies governing them in a selection of school districts.
There are two sets of geographical boundaries that divide up the country and upon which school attendance is largely determined:
- District Boundaries: These define the jurisdiction of about 13,000 school districts in the U.S., influencing factors like property tax rates and school board representation.
- Attendance Zones: These are the boundaries within each district that specify which school within a district a student attends based on their residence.
The school district boundaries are the jurisdictional boundaries of a government entity. They determine things like property tax rates and representation on the school board along with playing a role in determining which school a student attends. The attendance zones are service areas within a school district. They do not determine political representation or government authority but are used solely to assign a specific school to a student based on their residential address.
Ballotpedia's 2023 research project investigated two main aspects of school assignment based on residence:
- Open enrollment: The research investigated the local open enrollment policies and practices governing whether and under what conditions students can move across those boundaries to attend other public schools: intradistrict open enrollment for attending a school in a different attendance zone than their residential address and interdistrict open enrollment for attending a school in a different school district. While state laws in many states set limits or requirements on open enrollment policies, many details of policy and implementation are left to local school boards and superintendents.
- Attendance zone creation and alteration: The research investigated the policies and practices that control how attendance zones are drawn and adjusted in the same sample of districts. Who has the final say on attendance zone maps? Who actually drafts them? Do parents get a chance for input and participation? What factors are considered when drawing attendance zone maps? This research starts to answer those questions in the selected sample of districts.
- Click here to skip down to the overview section about open enrollment.
- Click here to skip down to the overview section about attendance zone map drawing policies.
- Click here to skip down to a slide deck presentation.
Why it matters
There are a variety of reasons that parents and guardians might want to send their students to schools other than those assigned to them based on the zone in which they reside. Examples include:
- School performance and education quality
- Transportation convenience
- Sports and extracurriculars
- Special needs resources
- Teacher or curriculum preference
- Bullying or social concerns
- School culture and community
- Neighborhood and building safety concerns
The open enrollment part of this research looks at whether the option to transfer to a different school (either inside or outside the same district) exists, under what conditions, and how the practices and detailed processes of each district can encourage or impede transfers.
The attendance zone part of this research looks at who is responsible for drawing and amending the attendance zone maps that largely determine to which schools students in the district are assigned. It investigates at the district-specific level what policies and procedures generate the attendance zone maps -- maps that affect nearly every aspect of public K-12 education, including racial and socioeconomic segregation, equity, community, competition-driven school performance, and education quality and accessibility.
Selection of districts
We researched a sample of 45 school districts across 17 states. The districts were chosen from among the top 200 largest districts in the U.S. according to student population. States were then selected based on state laws governing open enrollment. State laws that left at least portions of open enrollment policy decisions up to individual school districts were selected from more heavily than states that largely controlled the details of open enrollment policies. From the pool of school districts narrowed down by those two criteria, districts were chosen at random.
If you are interested in our plans to expand this research to a larger set of school districts, email our director of research.
Methodology
State laws governing these policy areas were identified, accessed, and incorporated into the structure of our research as necessary context to understand the scope and importance of local policy.
District-specific policies and by-laws were also researched for all three policy areas. This district-specific research was supplemented with research into the actual practices of the districts and the practical accessibility of various programs and processes either found or not found in official policy.
For open enrollment policies, this supplemental investigation of practical applications was accomplished by searching and asking directly for open enrollment transfer forms and information from the perspective of parents seeking to transfer a student. For attendance zone drawing processes, this was accomplished through news media, archived school board meeting minutes, social media accounts, archived or current school district webpages, and direct outreach for instances of previous attendance zone alterations and researching the actual practices of the school district in conducting those boundary changes.
Data and sources
All data researched for this report is contained in this linked research spreadsheet. Sources for all research are also contained in the relevant column and row of the research spreadsheet. The following source types were primarily used for this research:
- State statutes and administrative codes
- School district board policies and bylaws
- School district forms and parent-facing documents and portals
- School district board minutes and agendas
- Official reports, presentations, and studies published by school districts about rezoning plans
- Attendance zone maps published by school districts
- News articles and media reports
- The social media accounts of school districts and parent groups
- Direct outreach via email and phone to school district administrators and representatives
Open enrollment policies overview
There are 27 states that have state rules explicitly allowing for intradistrict open enrollment policies. Nineteen states have rules making intradistrict open enrollment policies mandatory. There are 43 states that have state rules explicitly allowing for interdistrict open enrollment policies. Twenty-four of those states have mandatory interdistrict open enrollment programs. In states with mandatory open enrollment programs, significant details can be left up to the district.[2]
Here are some key takeaways from diving into the details of district-specific open enrollment policies and practices:
- Necessary open enrollment forms and information were available online for most districts. They were easily available in two-thirds of districts.
- The most common hurdles preventing parents and guardians from transferring their students through open enrollment include
- school capacity,
- application date ranges and deadlines,
- conditions and qualifications,
- tuition and transportation,
- deterrent information presentation or accessibility, and
- surrounding districts or schools not accepting transfers.
- Most districts have restrictive conditions and/or bureaucratic hurdles to student transfers.
- Regardless of state laws, school capacity is a major factor determining the availability of interdistrict and intradistrict open enrollment transfer opportunities.
- Attendance zones determine most enrollment in both mandatory and voluntary open enrollment states through prioritization and displacement prohibitions.
- 60% of districts had no generally available interdistrict transfer options to highly rated surrounding districts.
- 56% of districts did not have clear, objective standards for determining school capacity.
Click here to view the details of this open enrollment policies research.
Attendance zone map drawing policies overview
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.
Click here to view the details of this attendance zone map drawing policies research.
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
