New state law prompts enrollment policy change | Announcements | tullahomanews.com - Tullahoma News and Guardian

In light of a state law that has recently taken effect, Tullahoma City Schools has altered its timeline for open enrollment, specifically for what it calls “out-of-zone transfers” and out-of-district requests, and set new policies to align with the new law.

Public Chapter 479, which took effect in May of 2021 and affects the upcoming 2022-2023 school year, states all school districts must identify each school with space available to enroll and serve additional students; post the number of available spaces in each school at least two weeks before an open enrollment period; hold that open enrollment period; and approve applications for enrollment if there is still space available after the open period.

According to Director of Student Services Dr. Shannon Duncan, TCS has already had an open enrollment period pursuant to previous state law, typically held in June. During this period, parents could request that their child attend a school for which the family is not zoned. The change, Duncan said, comes from the reporting requirements, specifically the 14-day advertisement of available spaces in each school by grade. There is some leeway, Duncan said, in the law that allows the district to reserve “a reasonable number of spaces” at each school for siblings of current students who would be expected to attend school with their family members or for other anticipated growth, as well as faculty children, but the advertisement will be a new element the district will have to include in its policies.

Additionally, she said, the law stipulates that if more requests for an out-of-zone transfer come in then there are available seats, the district must “hold a lottery” for which applicants receive those open spots; this means no further out-of-zone requests will be accepted after the set 30-day window, in order to comply with the lottery provision in the law.

“We have to know who all is making requests and take that into account when we approve those requests or hold the lottery,” Duncan said at the March school board meeting.

The lottery must also be completed before any new out-of-district requests are approved, Duncan added, noting this provision will affect the district’s current timeline for processing enrollment this summer.

Duncan stressed that this new provision will not affect the families of any students currently attending TCS out-of-district on a tuition basis or who currently have permission for out-of-zone attendance.

“This strictly applies to any new application in any of those instances,” she said.

Timeline for enrollment

Beginning Monday, April 4, in-district kindergarten registration will begin at each of the district’s four elementary schools. The district will push to enroll as many students between April 4 and 14 as possible, though kindergarten registration will continue through May 20. Registration will reopen for any new in-district students from July 18-29, according to school officials. These registrations also take place at the student’s school of zone.

In order to comply with the new law, the district will begin advertising the number of open spaces at each school for in-district out-of-zone transfer requests by grade Monday, April 18. Then, from May 2 through 31, the district will begin accepting new, in-district open enrollment applications. Following the open application window, should the district receive more applications than seats, the random lottery will be conducted in order to determine which applicants are approved for a zone exemption per the requirements set out in state law. All applicants will be notified of their status following the close of the window process.

Additionally, Duncan said, the district will be compiling a waiting list based on the lottery results. Should spaces become available, those on the waiting list will be contacted in numerical order to determine the next student granted an out-of-zone transfer request. If the number of applicants is less than the number of slots for a particular school, all applicants will be granted a zone exemption.

Beginning May 23, the district will open the out-of-district applications for families who would like to have their students attend Tullahoma City Schools on a tuition basis. The reason for opening those applications at that time, she said, was because the school year ends May 20 and several sports teams would subsequently be having tryouts. If students were to be attending Tullahoma schools and wanting to try out for sports, teams, this will allow families to take part in that process.

“We need an indication that those students are intending to apply and attend Tullahoma City Schools in order to be eligible for those various tryouts,” Duncan said, noting she would begin processing those applications June 1 through 15.

Any non-resident applications entering grades one through 12 will need to submit the student’s grade report, attendance and behavior records from their previous school year with their applications, according to school officials. Should there be any spaces remaining, non-resident applications will also be accepted from July 18—29, in line with previous district practice.

Other information

School officials said families will not have to reapply each year for all granted out-of-zone requests or out-of-district acceptance; however, students must maintain appropriate behavior, attendance and grades, or their zone exemption/out-of-district status may be revoked.

Additionally, because of the lottery requirement, the district is now no longer able to consider requests for medical or other reasons based on hardships. The district said Director of Schools Dr. Catherine Stephens maintain the authority to grant administrative placements on a case-by-case basis, but those instances will be “rare and for severe situations only.”

Any further information parents are needing on the out-of-zone transfer requests or the out-of-district applications can be found on the school system website under the “Enrollment” tab. For other questions, contact Duncan by phone at 931-222-4196 or by email at [email protected].

source: https://www.tullahomanews.com/announcements/new-state-law-prompts-enrollment-policy-change/article_9ddb3140-b1f7-11ec-a405-67739b1ed04c.html

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