Options: Best Practices

• Key Rules Regarding Voluntary Public School Choice
• Office of Policy Research and Improvement Public School Parental Choice
• How to Provide Public School Choice Program Information to Students and Parents
• District and State Public School Choice Programs

Key Rules Regarding Voluntary Public School Choice

By subscribing to these rules, school districts can provide voluntary public school choice programs that guarantee diversity within all schools of choice, permit student choice and contribute to school improvement.

• All schools should be schools of choice;
• Neighborhood schools should be eliminated, requiring all schools to compete with other schools for students. This is an incentive for all schools to make themselves attractive;
• If, for any reason, a sufficient number of students are not attracted to a particular school, then available seats should be redistributed to students who wish to attend the school that is under-subscribed;
• A rank-ordered list of schools should be filed at the same time each year by all students in need of a new school assignment;
• The student assignment process may offer preferential assignments to siblings who wish to attend the same school and to a portion of the students who live near a school, under the condition that the siblings and the students in close proximity to a school do not fill all available spaces and do not violate applicable enrollment-fairness guidelines;
• The instructional capacity of each school should be determined by school authorities each year before student choices are made, in order to prevent overcrowding in any school;
• Whatever features a school adopts to attract students should be available to all matriculating students in that school;
• All students assigned to a school of choice may remain in the school of assignment until the top grade of the school has been completed;
• Students not pleased with their voluntary public school choice assignment may seek enrollment in another school the next school year, if space is available; and
• Administrative oversight should be provided.

Office of Policy Research and Improvement

Public School Parental Choice

http://www.firn.edu/doe/bin00048/choice.htm

The purpose of this document is to help school boards and school administrators develop policies and mobilize resources to meet public school choice planning requirements specified in Section 228.057, F.S. Several Florida districts currently offer parents some degree of choice in determining where their children attend school. This publication draws from what we have learned from those districts, as well as from other states that have implemented open enrollment choice programs. The issues in the publication are not intended to be exhaustive or prescriptive, but rather serve as a helpful guide for districts in the initial development or expansion of their school choice plans.

How to Provide Public School Choice Program Information to Students and Parents

Communication methods for school districts designed to notify students and parents of Voluntary Public School Choice Programs:

• Creating parent awareness centers;
• Launching public marketing campaigns;
• Coordinating with district programs already in place, such as Title I, Head Start and Pre-K programs;
• Establishing a Voluntary Public School Choice Information Hotline, with a recording available 24 hours a day;
• Providing after-hour telephone calls and voicemail;
• Providing printed informational material, such as newsletters, curriculum guides, brochures, and bumper stickers in various languages;
• Hosting school choice fairs;
• Hosting choice school open houses;
• Conducting school tours;
• Providing information kiosks;
• Hosting town hall meetings; and
• Creating a Voluntary Public School Choice website.

District and State Public School Choice Programs

School District of Hillsborough County
Controlled Open Enrollment Plan
http://apps.sdhc.k12.fl.us/choice/

School District of Lee County
School Choice Program
http://www.lee.k12.fl.us/dept/plan/choice/Welcome.htm

Seminole County Public Schools
http://www.scps.k12.fl.us/choices/index.cfm

Mesa Public Schools Open Enrollment
http://www.mpsaz.org/main2/district/openenrollment.html

Minnesota Department of Education
School Choice Program
http://cfl.state.mn.us/stellent/groups/public/documents/
translatedcontent/pub_intro_school_choice.jsp

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Public School Open Enrollment Program
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dfm/sms/psctoc.html