1,500 students change schools under new open enrollment

Kansas school districts showed caution in allowing transfers through a new open enrollment option that allows students to attend school outside their home district, data presented Wednesday to the Kansas State Board of Education showed.

Under the new law for the 2024-2025 school year, about 1,500 students have moved out of their home districts, accounting for just 6% of all district transfers, according to data from the Kansas State Department of Education.

Transfers between districts have been allowed in various ways for years, and even with the new law, the total number of students transferring to a district outside their home district has decreased overall this school year.

The new “school choice” open enrollment option was included in an education funding bill in 2022, requiring schools to accept students who do not live in the district if they can accommodate them. Students have the right to remain at the school of their choice until graduation if they remain in good standing, and districts must set limits on the number of students they can accept before enrollment deadlines.

Skeptics have said this option works against public schools because it makes it easier for families with the resources to access higher-performing schools and widens the already large gap in public education.

Frank Harwood, deputy education commissioner, said districts appeared to be conservatively estimating how many students they could accept in the first year of the new option.

“I think the idea of ​​caution with anything new is reasonable,” he said.

Mid-sized school districts, especially those around Wichita, saw an influx of students as a result of the new open enrollment policy. Districts including Andover, Derby and Emporia recorded the highest numbers, with more than 100 students from outside the district attending each of these districts through the new open enrollment option.

Several counties around Wichita experienced overall net growth due to out-of-county transfers. The Wichita School District, along with Topeka Public Schools, lost the most students due to transfers, including open enrollment and other circumstances. More than 1,200 students transferred from the Wichita district and more than 600 from Topeka Public Schools this school year, according to enrollment data.

Fluctuating district numbers are not new, but they point to underlying problems, such as declining birth rates, outmigration from rural areas, and problems recruiting and retaining teachers in school districts with declining enrollments.

Ten public school districts in Kansas have just 100 students or fewer. More than 30 districts have fewer than 200 students.

The state’s 50 largest public school districts educate more than 70% of its K-12 students, while the 50 smallest districts educate about 2% of its students.

Healy Public Schools in west-central Kansas will dissolve at the end of the 2024-2025 school year due to low enrollment. This year, two students are enrolled in the district. It will be the first school district in Kansas to close since the 2010-2011 school year.

“It’s about more than just numbers,” said Ann Mah, a board member who represents parts of Northeast Kansas. “It’s social. It’s community. It’s all those things.”

The current school funding formula did not provide for school districts with fewer than 100 students, Randy Watkins, the state’s education commissioner, said at Wednesday’s board meeting.

“Once you get to 100, you’re one event away from it probably not working anymore,” he said.

Government officials have a number of options to address the problem. The state board could add rules for school district size to the Education Department’s accreditation process, Harwood said, or the Legislature could adjust the funding formula based on district size and provide incentives for districts to consolidate. However, he said the process for reorganizing and dissolving school districts has remained largely unchanged over the past 50 years.

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Photo by Aedrian Salazar on Unsplash

Story via Kansas Reflector