Changes made to the Public School Choice Act during this year's legislative session included a new deadline of May 1 for students to request transfers to another school district.
Senate Bill 179, which became Act 560, made the application deadline a month earlier than it was last year. The bill also moved up the deadline -- from Aug. 1 to July 1 -- by which districts must notify parents as to whether their student's application has been accepted or rejected. The changes apply to the current cycle of transfer requests.
Exemptions
School districts under a desegregation order may declare themselves exempt from the Public School Choice Act, but Act 560 of this year’s legislative session stipulates districts must provide the Arkansas Department of Education a copy of the desegregation order.
Source: Staff report
State Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, sponsored the bill. He did not return an email on Friday seeking comment.
Charles Cudney, director of the Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative, didn't know for certain the reason for the timing change but said he thought it was a matter of convenience for all parties involved.
"It gives the parents and the school district notification earlier of where the child will be placed the first day of school," Cudney said.
Another change makes transfers a bit easier for families. A family must submit its application only to the district it is trying to enroll in and no longer must send a copy to the district in which the family lives. The nonresident district is now responsible for notifying the resident district of the application.
The School Choice Act originally passed in 2013. It gives students and their families the freedom to enroll in a district other than the one in which they live.
Some restrictions apply. A district may lose no more than 3 percent of its enrollment to school-choice transfers. Also, a district to which a student wants to transfer in may reject the application if that district has reached at least 90 percent of its maximum authorized student population in a given program, class, grade level or building.
Local school districts reported last week they already had received a significant number of transfer requests.
The Bentonville School District, which had 15,488 students enrolled as of last month, has received 26 applications to transfer out of the district and four applications to transfer in, according to Tanya Sharp, executive director of student services.
The School Board will decide in June whether to approve requests to transfer into the district, Sharp said.
Last year Bentonville's board denied requests from families living outside the district to transfer 15 students into Bentonville schools. The denial was based on district policy transfers in not be allowed if school or grade-level enrollment is at least 80 percent of capacity.
Two of those families, representing a total of five students, appealed to the state Board of Education. The state board overturned the Bentonville board's decision for both families during an August meeting.
The Rogers School District has received 20 applications to leave the district and 15 to come in, according to Ashley Siwiec, district communications director. Fifteen of those transferring out live in the vicinity of Pea Ridge and want to attend Pea Ridge schools, she said.
The Springdale School District has received 14 applications to transfer in and 11 to transfer out, said Kelly Hayes, district comptroller.
The Fayetteville School District had 44 transfer requests as of Friday: 22 into the district and 22 out of it, according to Alan Wilbourn, public information officer.
Any student accepted into a new school district is allowed to remain in that district through the 12th grade.
Dave Perozek can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWADaveP.
NW News on 04/13/2015