Open to All: A new Kansas open enrollment policy will take effect next school year

Any K-12 student in Kansas will be able to apply to attend a school outside of their district starting next school year after a bill was passed in 2022 by the Kansas State Legislature.

This policy will allow students to transfer to schools that may be a better fit for them  academically or environmentally without the fees that used to be required for this process. But, it can also cause issues for the school like unknown enrollment numbers, an overwhelmed staff and strain on school resources, according to Judith Deedy, former East parent and the Executive Director of Game On For Kansas Schools — an organization protecting public education.

“It’s complicated and one of those things that sounds good, ‘Why would anyone be opposed to this? Let people choose the school they want to go to and it’s all the same public school system,’” Deedy said. “But there are problems, the timing of when the applications come in and when they have to be accepted, it’s just difficult for districts to plan around.”

Kansas school districts are required to announce how many open seats they have for students from out of district by May 1. These numbers are determined based on the student-to-teacher ratio and overall space available, according to the Johnson County Post.

An issue that could arise is an imbalance of class numbers — schools could either gain or lose students causing them to struggle to fill seats or have not enough staff for the influx of students.

“People say, ‘Well, districts like Shawnee Mission, Olathe, Blue Valley that overall tend to have a higher socioeconomic level should be open to kids from poor districts,’” Deedy said. “But again, it causes unintended consequences. What happens if [Kansas City, Kansas] loses a bunch of students, and then all of a sudden, they have less funding for their district because it’s based on a headcount?”

One department in particular that could be impacted is the Special Education department, as schools have different programs, some better than others. If a school with a better program has a sudden increase of students in special education there might not be enough staff to fill an already limited department, according to Deedy.

While, in theory, the policy gives all students an equal opportunity to transfer to any Kansas school, not every student can take advantage due to travel constraints. The policy does not require districts to provide transportation to those outside of the area so most likely the families to take advantage of this opportunity are those with the means to travel long distances every day, according to Deedy.

One of associate principal Susan Leonard’s concerns is seeing a shift in the East community.

“What I value about East and other public school communities is that we have a little bit of everything because we reflect our community,” Leonard said. “So I would hate for schools to become specialized in one thing or another to attract one type of student or another because the diversity is what makes the school so great.”

Despite the potential issues with overcrowding and staffing, there are many benefits to students who previously transferred or are planning to. East parent Jen Moore transferred her children to the East area when they were in elementary school at Belinder after the family moved out of the district. With the new bill their family now no longer has to pay the difference in taxes to attend and the rules about GPA and behavior are lifted.

“I used to [jokingly] threaten all of my kids, that if they were getting in trouble or didn’t make grades or skipped school, or did anything that they would have to go to Blue Valley and so this new policy takes that threat away,” Moore said.

Additionally, families now have more availability to move, not having to base their housing off of a school district.

There are many positive and negative consequences to this new bill and there is no way to know what will happen until next year, according to Leonard.

“There’s probably things we haven’t thought of, there’ll be negatives and there’s probably some things we haven’t thought of that will be positive,” Leonard said. “So here it comes, might as well look for the positives and do the best we can with it and see what happens.”