501.15 - Open Enrollment Transfers - Procedures as a Receiving District

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

 

The superintendent will approve  all 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 school district’s action to approve or deny the open enrollment request. 

 

Open enrollment requests into the school district will not be approved if insufficient classroom space exists.  Open enrollment requests into the school 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.  The district reserves the right to deny continued open enrollment to any student who meets the definition of truant.  The district will notify the truant student’s parent or guardian and district of residence of the decision to deny enrollment in the future in accordance with applicable laws. 

 

Open enrollment requests into the school 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 school district are considered in the order received by the school district with the first open enrollment request given a higher priority than the second open enrollment request and so forth.

 

Students in grades nine through twelve open enrolling into the school district will be eligible for participation in interscholastic athletics, at the varsity level, in accordance with applicable law.

 

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

[Use this if the receiving district has a total enrollment of less than two thousand students]

 

NOTE:  This policy reflects Iowa's open enrollment law.  The board needs to determine whether it will delegate authority to the superintendent to approve timely filed open enrollment requests.  This option is the first set of options on page one of the policy.  There are three options available to the board:

 

                  ∙               board retains all approval authority over timely filed requests.

                  ∙               board delegates all approval authority over timely filed requests.

                  ∙               board delegates only some approval authority over timely filed requests.

 

After the board makes its decision, the policy needs to be edited to reflect the board's decision.

 

The second option on page two addresses the issue of transportation of the receiving district to pick up open enrolled students.  The board needs to establish by policy whether it will go into the sending district to pick up open enrolled students.   

 

Legal Reference:           Iowa Code §§ 139A.8; 274.1; 279.11; 282.1, .3, .8, .18; 299.1.

                                    281 I.A.C. 17.

                       

Cross Reference:           501.6    Student Transfers In

                                    501.7    Student Transfers Out or Withdrawals

                                    501.14  Open Enrollment Transfers - Procedures as a Sending District

                                    506      Student Records

                                    507      Student Health and Well-Being

                                    606.6    Insufficient Classroom Space

 

 

Approved     June 20, 2022        Reviewed                                   Revised     October 21, 2024