Why open enrollment laws that let public schools reject transfer students aren’t good enough

Why open enrollment laws that let public schools reject transfer students aren’t good enough

Since the pandemic, nine states have strengthened their K-12 open enrollment laws so students can attend any public school with open seats, regardless of where they live. During the 2025 legislative sessions, policymakers in 32 states have introduced approximately 80 open enrollment-related proposals, many of which would let K-12 students attend public schools other than their residentially assigned ones.   According to the Education Commission …

Open enrollment is the King Kong of Arizona district enrollment loss - NextSteps: Step Up For Students

If you look at enrollment trends in the Arizona districts with the largest total enrollment losses, look at the Arizona Open Enrollment report and the Quarterly ESA report, you get Figure 1. In Figure 1, both the gains from open enrollment (blue columns) and the losses to other districts and to charter schools (red columns) are presented. The purple columns represent the ESA enrollment of students who live in each of these districts. Note that t…