From Deseret News archives:
Easy school transfers?
State board may alter special-permits rule
The State Board of Education's finance committee last week discussed consumer-friendly changes to a rule regarding special permits. The discussion follows complaints from Davis School District parents who say they were denied such permits, without reason, even though those schools have room.
"This just puts more accountability on a local school board," board member Mark Cluff said. "The goal should be to open up more schools ... (rather than) doing what's more convenient for the school district."
State law allows for school choice among public schools. Basically, students can attend a school outside their own school boundaries, so long as there's room. School choice has become a popular option for parents in several urban Utah school districts.
But three Davis School District parents said school choice is stymied in their area.
Farmington resident Randy Smith of the advocacy group davisparents.org says Bountiful High has 170 seats, and 90 students requested to transfer to the school. But he says the district denied 70 of those requests. He said parents weren't given a rationale for the denials.
Parent Jody Haycock told the state board she was denied the special permit for a transfer from Woods Cross High to Bountiful so her children could attend the same school. She says she finally got the permit after pleading her case and what she calls stress and sleepless nights.
Last fall Davis School District changed boundaries of district high schools to accommodate the new Syracuse High School.
The boundary realignments displaced students at every high school in the district in an effort to balance enrollment at each of the schools.
The process was controversial, and many parents were left unhappy.
"The boundaries only exposed the problem" of giving no reasons for denying transfers, Smith said.
Under Davis' current process, variances are granted based on a random selection process. Schools are permitted to offer variances that are equal or less than 1.5 percent of an institution's enrollment.
Those students not chosen would be put on a waiting list but could be offered slots at their school of choice as they became available during the year.
But that could change.
The state board discussed requiring districts to weigh available space and average class size in determining whether there's room for transfer students. Local school districts would set standards for accepting or rejecting applications and would have to give a reason for denials.
A school would be open to enrollment, for example, if a doctor says it's in the child's best interest or if a sibling goes there. Schools could be closed to balance a socioeconomic mix or lower class size, for example.
The proposal still is being fine-tuned. The State Office of Education plans to put a proposal out for district input in the coming weeks, then discuss it again June. It would show the proposal to the legislative Administrative Rules Committee in July.
"This is where we're heading," Cluff said, "Let's look at the numbers on how it affects (districts)."
E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com; terickson@desnews.com
