For the third consecutive year, California received a D- in the Reason Foundation’s review of public-school open enrollment laws across all 50 states, scoring 62 out of 100 points. The good news is that California has a straightforward path to improving its public school programs.
California’s public-school districts are losing students, facing budget deficits, rising pension costs for teachers and staff, and the prospect of closing campuses. Open enrollment, which allows students to attend any public school with available seats, regardless of where they live or which school they were assigned to, can help address some of these critical challenges. Public schools can use open enrollment to tailor programs that attract families and students, rather than lose them to private schools, homeschooling, or other states.
It’s worth noting that many other states have worse open enrollment policies than California, and only 16 states have better laws. Nearby states such as Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, as well as Texas, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey, all rank lower than California in open enrollment accessibility and transparency. In fact, 33 states received F grades in our Reason Foundation study.
California’s open enrollment laws do get some things right. Importantly, California’s public schools can’t charge tuition to transfer students. Many public school districts in other states use high tuition and fees to prevent low-income families from transferring into their districts. California also allows students to transfer to other public schools within their district if space is available. But California’s open enrollment grade is so poor because its cross-district transfer rules are complex and voluntary, allowing districts to block and reject transfers.
Instead of operating a unified open enrollment system, the state simultaneously runs two programs: the Interdistrict Permit System and the District of Choice program. The permit system is highly restrictive, requiring students to get approval from both their current district and the district they want to transfer into. Both the outgoing and receiving school district can deny a student’s transfer for subjective reasons, even if the new school has open seats.
By contrast, the state’s solid District of Choice program requires participating school districts to accept incoming transfer students when they have space. Unfortunately, California leaves it to districts to opt in to this program, and this year, only 42 of more than 900 public school districts participated.
The state also fails to provide robust transparency and accountability to parents and students. While it publishes some data under its District of Choice program, such as participation rates and reasons for transfer denials, the more widely used Interdistrict Permit System, which accounts for 94% of open enrollment participants, does not. Moreover, most school districts do not have to post the number of available seats in each grade online, which would show parents their options.
California could greatly improve open enrollment for parents and students by requiring every school district to participate in its District of Choice program. This would allow any public school student to transfer to any district with open seats. Opening cross-district transfers to all students would raise the state’s grade from a D- to an A- in Reason Foundation’s study, making it one of the best open enrollment laws in the country.
Lawmakers should also require the state to publish data on how many transfer students it accepts and rejects each year, the reasons for rejection and information about open seats and application procedures.
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found that students in the District of Choice program often transfer to districts with higher test scores compared to their assigned districts. Of these students, 74% are students of color, and about a third are from low-income families. The LAO also found that some school districts in the choice program attracted students after initially losing them by adding the math, science and Advanced Placement classes that many parents wanted.
With national polling from YouGov and the nonprofit “yes. every kid.” showing nearly 75 percent of parents support open enrollment, California’s policymakers should view open enrollment as a significant way to improve public schools, attract students, and help reduce school districts’ enrollment losses and budget woes.
Jude Schwalbach is an education policy analyst at Reason Foundation and author of the annual report Public Schools Without Boundaries, which examines every state’s open enrollment laws.