California’s open enrollment laws have room for improvement

In a big win for students, California’s cross-district open enrollment policy that lets public school students transfer to districts other than their assigned ones recently became permanent. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 897, removing sunset provisions from the District of Choice law. This is a step in the right direction for California’s students and schools.

During the 2022-23 school year, nearly 8,000 California students used the District of Choice program to attend a public school of their choice. According to data from the California Department of Education, 37% of participants in the open enrollment program were from low-income families, and most, 79%, were non-white. 

Since its launch in 1993, the District of Choice program has helped tens of thousands of students attend schools that are the right fit for them. The 2016 and 2021 reports published by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found that students used the program to escape bullying, access specialized courses such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and art classes, and get hands-on training and career preparation. 

However, California’s open enrollment laws still have a lot of room for improvement. A new Reason Foundation report grades open enrollment laws in all 50 states and gives California a “D-.” California’s open enrollment laws do get several things right. They ensure public schools are free to all students, prohibit public school districts from discriminating against transfer applicants, and require public schools with extra seats to allow students to transfer within their assigned school district. 

As a result, 33 states score worse than California on open enrollment, but the state’s laws fall short in two critical ways. They don’t require schools to participate in cross-district open enrollment and lack transparency for parents and policymakers. The crucial weakness is the voluntary nature of California’s cross-district open enrollment programs, including the District of Choice. Too many public school districts can block transfer students from attending their public schools, even when they have open seats. 

The District of Choice program requires participating school districts to accept all transfer applicants so long as space is available. However, less than five percent of the state’s school districts participate in the program. Instead, most districts participate in a more restrictive cross-district transfer program–the Interdistrict Permit System, which only allows students to transfer to a new school if both the sending and receiving school districts agree. 

This means that school districts can prioritize their interests over students’ interests. The Legislative Analyst’s Office found most school districts block most outgoing transfers unless it is about “the availability of child care in the other district or the attendance of a sibling already enrolled in the other district.”

Additionally, data on this program is sorely lacking. The latest data from the 2018-19 school year showed over 146,000 students, or two percent of students enrolled in California’s traditional public schools, used the Interdistrict Permit System to attend a school other than their assigned one.

Ideally, California would strengthen its open enrollment laws by requiring all school districts to participate in this type of cross-district open enrollment, which would improve its ranking to 4th-best in the nation in the Reason Foundation’s open enrollment study. 

State leaders need to make the open enrollment process more transparent. The California Department of Education should collect and publish annual reports showing the number of students using the Interdistrict Permit System, as it already does for the District of Choice program. California should model these annual reports after Wisconsin’s, which supply families, policymakers, and taxpayers with crucial transfer data each year. The state should also require school districts to post their open enrollment policies and available capacity in classrooms by grade level on their websites so parents can find and review them.

The District of Choice law is a good step, and with a few other reforms, California could make it dramatically easier for students to attend the best public school for them.

A version of this commentary first appeared in The Orange County Register.

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