Kansas State Board of Education members, from left, Deena Horst, Betty Arnold and Ann Mah at a Nov.13, 2024, meeting. (Anna Kaminski/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — Kansas school districts showed caution in allowing transfers through a new open enrollment option that lets students attend school outside their home district, data presented Wednesday to the Kansas State Board of Education showed.
About 1,500 students transferred out of their home district under the new law for the 2024-2025 school year, making up just 6% of all district transfers, according to data from the Kansas State Department of Education.
Transferring between districts has been permitted for years under different methods, and even with the new law, the total number of students who transferred to a district outside their own declined overall this school year.
The new “school choice” open enrollment option was wrapped into an education funding bill in 2022, and it mandated schools accept students who don’t live in the district if they can accommodate them. Students have a right to stay at their chosen school until graduation if they remain in good standing, and districts must set limits ahead of enrollment deadlines on how many students it can accept.