501.6 Open Enrollment Transfers

Procedures as a Receiving District

The District will participate in open enrollment as a receiving district. As a receiving district, the Board will allow non-resident students, who meet the legal requirements, to open enroll into the District. The Board will have complete discretion to determine the attendance center of the students attending the District under open enrollment.

The Superintendent will approve timely filed applications by June 1; incoming kindergarten applications; good cause application; or continuation of an educational program application filed by September 1.

The Superintendent will notify the sending school district and parents within five days of the District’s action to approve or deny the open enrollment request. The Superintendent will also forward a copy of the District’s action with a copy of the open enrollment request to the Iowa Department of Education.

Open enrollment requests into the District will not be approved if insufficient classroom space exists. Insufficient classroom space exists when conditions adversely affect the implementation of the educational philosophy and program of the Board. The Board shall determine insufficient classroom space on a case-by-case basis. Criteria to be used by the Board in its determination may include, but not be limited to, available personnel, grade level, educational program, instructional method, physical space, equipment and materials available, finances available, facilities either being planned or currently under consideration, sharing agreements in force, and District goals and objectives.

Open enrollment requests into the District will also not be approved for students who have been suspended or expelled by the administration or the board of the school district the student is or was attending until the student has been reinstated into the school district from which the student was suspended or expelled. Once the student is reinstated, the student's open enrollment request will be considered in the same manner as other open enrollment requests provided the required timelines are met.

Open enrollment requests into the District that, if denied, would result in students from the same nuclear family being enrolled in different school districts, will be given highest priority. The Board, in its discretion, may waive the insufficient classroom space reason for denial for students of the same nuclear family to prevent the division of a nuclear family between two school districts. Other open enrollment requests into the District are considered in the order received by the District with the first open enrollment request given a higher priority than the second open enrollment request and so forth.

Generally, students in grades nine through twelve open enrolling into the District will not be eligible for participation in interscholastic athletics, at the varsity level, during the first ninety days of open enrollment into the District.

Parents of students whose open enrollment requests are approved by the Board or Superintendent are responsible for providing transportation to and from the receiving school district without reimbursement unless the parents qualify for transportation assistance. Upon a parent's request, the Board may approve transportation into the sending district. (The transportation is limited to within 2 miles of the District boundary/current bus route.) The Board's approval is subject to the sending district's approval.

An open enrollment request into the school district from parents of a special education student is reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The determining factors for approval of such an open enrollment request will be whether the special education program available in the District is appropriate for the student's needs and whether the enrollment of the special education student will cause the class size to exceed the maximum allowed. The area education agency director of special education serving the District will determine whether the program is appropriate. The special education student will remain in the sending district until the final determination is made.

The policies of the District will apply to students attending the District under open enrollment.

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