Pupil instruction: Open Enrollment Act.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill's status indicates it failed passage in committee, so it will not become a law.

Open Enrollment Act for Students

This law allows parents of students in their local school district to apply for their child to attend a different school district, removing references to 'low-achieving schools' and outdated performance metrics.

What This Bill Does

• Allows parents to submit an application for their children to attend another school district if they are enrolled in the parent's resident school district.
• Removes the term 'low-achieving school' from the act.
• Gets rid of old references to the Academic Performance Index (API) and Race to the Top Fund.

Who It Names or Affects

• Parents who want their children to attend a different school district than where they live.
• School districts that receive applications from students outside their area.

Terms To Know

school district of residence

The local school district where the student lives and is usually enrolled.

school district of enrollment

A different school district that a parent applies for their child to attend.

Limits and Unknowns

• It does not specify how many students can apply or if there are limits on which districts they can go to.
• The bill did not pass the legislature and is no longer being considered as law.

Official Summary Text

AB 1797, as introduced, Johnson.
Pupil instruction: Open Enrollment Act.
The Open Enrollment Act authorizes the parent of a pupil enrolled in a low-achieving school to submit an application for the pupil to attend a school in a school district other than the school district in which the parent resides, as specified. The act defines “low-achieving school” to mean a school on a list created annually by the Superintendent of Public Instruction of 1,000 schools ranked by increasing Academic Performance Index score with the same ratio of elementary, middle, and high schools as existed in decile 1 in the 2008–09 school year.
This bill would recast and revise the act. The bill would delete the definition of, and references to, the term “low-achieving school” in the act. The bill would instead generally revise the terminology of the act to specify that the parent of a pupil enrolled in a school district of residence, as
defined, is authorized to submit an application for the pupil to attend a school district of enrollment, as defined. The bill would also delete from the act obsolete references to the Academic Performance Index and to the federal Race to the Top Fund.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF