If there’s room in the school, let students enroll.
That’s the basic idea contained in Florida legislation filed Thursday, which would allow parents to enroll their students in any public school, district or charter, as long as the school has not yet reached capacity.
The proposal is included in a broader school choice bill by state Sen. John Legg, a Trinity Republican who chairs the Education Committee. Here’s how it reads:
(6) Notwithstanding any law, a parent may choose to enroll his or her child in, and transport his or her child to, any public school, including a charter school, which has not reached capacity in any school district in this state.
(a) The school district shall accept the student and report the student for purposes of the district’s funding pursuant to the Florida Education Finance Program.
(b) As used in this subsection, the term “capacity” means a school in which the capital outlay FTE enrollment exceeds 95 percent of the space and occupant design capacity of its nonrelocatable facilities. However, if a school’s initial design incorporated relocatable or modular instructional space, the term means a school in which the capital outlay FTE enrollment exceeds 95 percent of the space and occupant design capacity of its core facilities.
That’s not how it currently works. While many districts have adopted open enrollment policies, parents often face hurdles, like needing to show “hardship,” if they try to transfer their student out of their zoned school or into a neighboring district.
The bill would also open access to virtual schools, deleting the sometimes-confusing eligibility restrictions from state law and instead stating simply: “Students in kindergarten through grade 12 may enroll in a virtual instruction program provided by the school district or by a virtual charter school operated in the district in which he or she resides.”
It also mirrors a handful of provisions from a House bill aimed at improving the quality of charter schools. It would create a charter school institute and give local school boards clearer authority to vet the academic and financial track records of charter school applicants.
Of the various school choice bills likely to be on the table in the legislative session that starts next week, this is definitely one to watch.
