Kansas schools face challenges with new open enrollment plan

KANSAS (KCTV) - Starting this fall, Kansas parents and their students will have a choice as to where they continue their educations. It’s part of a new open enrollment plan ed by the legislature in 2022.

This plan is creating challenges for school districts of all sizes from staffing, school capacity, and funding.

The 2024-2025 school year is going to include a lot of lessons for students but also for s.

“We don’t know what we are going to be facing you know because we’ve never done this before,” said Olathe Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Brent Yeager.

Olathe Public Schools is asking for internal transfers starting Thursday, Jan. 4 until early March. Normally, this process goes till June, but the district needed to allow more time to prepare for new students from outside the district.

In May, the district will post its capacity levels for each school and grade to show interested families how many outside students they can accept.

“It may be a change of 100 kids we may have 1,000 we really don’t know what to expect that’s the part that is really hard for us right now,” said Dr. Yeager.

The district will keep track of how many students are in each school and grade often. Dr. Yeager said it could possibly turn into a full-time position, but that is up in the air and would need to be decided by the school board.

Yeager said with Olathe continuing to grow, this is creating new challenges on top of the ones they already face.

“We are trying to navigate all of that really carefully because we definitely want to prioritize serving those who live within our school boundaries,” said Dr. Yeager.

Another question is what will happen with funding?

Superintendents said currently, funding is based on the last year or two’s enrollment for each district.

“We don’t have that sense of what that swing is going to look like and having students at school each day is really how we maintain our services and programs because we are funded when they are here,” said Dr. Yeager. It also could impact how staff are ed. “You may have significant amounts of staffing that are needed and not the same amount of resources in that current fiscal year,” said Leavenworth Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Kellen Adams.

In Leavenworth, they’ve had open enrollment since at least 2009. For this next school year, they are capping student-to-teacher ratios to ensure staff aren’t overworked.

“For us, the capacity of the buildings is not as much of a concern as a capacity with staff,” said Dr. Adams. He added, “If we don’t know how many students we are going to be taking on that are new that may become difficult as it relates to how many staff to hire let’s say at a grade level or at a building,”

There are also concerns about how this will affect schools that lose or gain students.

“Districts will either be grossly understaffed and it will be too late to hire from the teacher pools with whoever is left and then the second situation are those that are grossly overstaffed,” said Dr. Adams.

Adams recommends if you are looking at open enrollment for next year and have an issue with your current district, work with them to resolve it first before switching schools.

Families will need to fill out an application with the district they are interested in. They are expecting these to be available sometime in June. A lottery process will happen to determine if your child can attend that school.

Districts said enrollment is based on whether a student is in good standing with their current district and if the district they are interested in has the room. Dr. Yeager recommends if your child needs extra services make that known on the application to ensure they are fully ed.

You can learn more about Olathe Public School’s new policy here. Find Leavenworth schools changes for the 2024-2025 school year here.

KCTV5 reached out to other local districts for comment on their plans for mandatory open enrollment. USD232, based in De Soto, said the Board of Education adopted its new policy last month. USD232 is looking at a process to comply with the requirements and plans to have this in place no later than May 1.

Once the De Soto School Board determines the space available, the district will public info on its website and accept applications June 1-20 for the next school year, and if there are more applications than spots open, a lottery selection will happen.

Spring Hill Schools shared its updated policy approved in December 2023.

Turner USD202, Gardner-Edgerton School District 231, Piper USD203, Blue Valley Schools, Shawnee Mission School District, Ottawa USD 290, Lawrence Public Schools, and Basehor-Linwood School District did not provide information regarding a new policy or plan for next school year.

The Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) shared more regarding this new change. Those with the department shared that most Kansas districts already have an open enrollment policy, but now all Kansas school districts have to have an out-of-district attendance policy.

They said it is important to note that a student isn’t guaranteed attendance at the school he or she applies to.

Districts were required to have an open enrollment policy in place by Jan. 1, 2024.

Federal funding will follow each student, so it depends on which district the student chooses and attends.

KSDE shared challenges schools will face such as classroom capacities, “by statute, districts must enroll students who move into the district after a lottery is held, which could possibly stress districts even more if they are above capacity. Finally, providing transportation for out-of-district students is optional, and unfunded, so a lack of transportation may be a barrier for some students.”

For more information on the new state statute click here.

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