The school district will participate in open enrollment as a receiving district. As a receiving district, the board will allow nonresident students 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 incoming kindergarten applications; good cause application for high school varsity athletic participation; or continuation of an educational program application filed by the third Thursday of the following September. All other applications will be acted upon by the board.
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. The superintendent will also forward a copy of the school district’s action with a copy of the open enrollment request to the Iowa Department of Education.
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.
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 not be eligible for participation in interscholastic athletics, at the varsity level, during the first ninety days of open enrollment into the school district, unless the student meets one of the good cause exceptions identified in Policy 505.7 or both the sending and receiving district school boards agree to allow varsity athletic participation.
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, unless the family’s income is below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level at which point, the sending school district determines which method of transportation assistance is appropriate. The board will not approve transportation into the sending district without approval from the board of the sending district.
An open enrollment request into the school district from parents of a special education student is reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The determining factors for approval of such an open enrollment request will be whether the special education program available in the school district is appropriate for the student’s needs and whether the enrollment of the special education student will cause the class size to exceed the maximum allowed. The area education agency director of special education serving the school district will determine whether the program is appropriate. The special education student will remain in the sending district until the final determination is made. For children requiring special education, the receiving district will complete and provide to the resident district the documentation needed to seek Medicaid reimbursement for eligible services.
The policies of the school district will apply to students attending the school district under open enrollment.
It is the responsibility of the superintendent to develop appropriate office procedures and administrative regulations necessary for open enrollment requests.
Approved August 27, 2018
Reviewed September 12, 2022
Revised August 8, 2022
