Letter to Staff Regarding Countywide Interdistrict Agreement
- Details
- Published: Wednesday, February 15, 2017
As I am sure many of you are aware, the current countywide interdistrict agreement is set to expire at the end of June. Under the current agreement, our county has an open enrollment policy with very few exceptions for denying a request. Even before the countywide agreement, Eureka City Schools, to my knowledge, has never limited interdistrict agreements. A significant problem with the current agreement is some school Districts have chosen not to honor it. For example, just before winter break, Cutten Elementary brought in 170 interdistrict requests for students already attending their schools, 130 of which we had no idea existed.
The practice of open enrollement has created an issue where nearly one in five, or approximately 800 of the students who should attend a Eureka City School, attend another school. This number assumes we have the correct information, which Cutten Elementary has proven is unlikely to be true. This number does not include charter or private schools, so in reality, this number could be much higher. For a variety of reasons, these parents have chosen another District to educate their children.