More L.A. Unified Spots Expected for Open Enrollment

With a decline in elementary school enrollment and 32 new schools opening this fall, more Los Angeles Unified School District students will be able to attend the campus of their choice through the district’s open enrollment program.

Beginning Monday, students can apply for a transfer to any of the 142 schools in the district that are expected to have about 6,300 classroom seats available for the 2005-06 school year, said Olga Quinones, a school district spokeswoman. There were 5,800 spots open at 111 schools last year, she said.

Parents hoping to transfer their children into safer or better-performing schools, particularly at the secondary school level, typically seek open enrollment permits.

Approved in 1993 by the state Legislature, open enrollment allows students to transfer to any school in the district that has space after students from within its boundary areas have enrolled. More than 86% of the district’s schools have no openings this year.

Lawmakers viewed the open enrollment program as a way to derail both the voucher movement, which would have provided state money for private school tuition, and efforts to break up the Los Angeles school district. At the time, enrollment was declining statewide, and the program was seen as a way to give parents more choice in their children’s education.

The number of open enrollment seats has declined since the program began in 1994, when 22,000 classroom seats were available. School district officials attribute the drop to enrollment increases, which result in less classroom space for those outside the neighborhood.

Since 2000, there have been 5,000 to 6,000 open slots, with participation in the program remaining constant at about 5,000, said Dan Harrison, administrative coordinator for the LAUSD Office of School Management.

Harrison said he expected the number of applicants to stay the same this year, even though there were 500 more spots available. The increase, he said, was due to a decline in elementary school enrollment and to the 32 new schools the district was scheduled to open this fall.

There are currently 1,059 schools and centers serving 718,238 kindergarten through 12th-grade students in the nation’s second-largest school district.

New schools take students from other boundary areas, so enrollment spots become available on the older, previously crowded campuses. However, Harrison doesn’t anticipate that the open enrollment program will expand much further as the district completes its massive construction program, because many new schools are implementing their own open enrollment procedures.

The larger factor, Harrison said, is that elementary school enrollment has dropped in the last two years by 30,300 students, while high school enrollment has increased.

The majority of schools with open enrollment spots are elementary schools, but fewer elementary school parents transfer their children, partly because the program doesn’t provide transportation.

“There are many schools where the number of applicants greatly exceed the seats available,” Harrison said. “Those deemed desirable -- schools with particularly high test scores and many in the west San Fernando Valley -- get filled up fast.”

Kenneth Lee, principal at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, said his school gets about 400 applications each year. The school has 25 spots available for fall. He said parents frequently don’t understand the system and attempt to persuade him that their child is highly qualified and would make a good addition to his school.

Parents can submit applications, available online and at all district campuses, between Monday and May 27. Admission is not based on academic standing or being first in line. If a school receives more applications than the number of seats it has available, a public lottery will be held June 1.

Assistant Principal Joan Lewis said the lottery at Granada Hills Charter High School takes place in the admissions office. She estimated Granada Hills would receive 400 to 600 applications for 50 open seats this year.

“Sometimes it’s taken us half a day to draw the names. Oftentimes, parents will wait all day,” she said. “And we’ll give them a hand if they get in. Some parents give them a dirty look because that means their child didn’t get in.”

During each school’s drawing, open enrollment seats are filled first. The drawing continues to determine wait list order. If one sibling’s name is drawn, all siblings who applied for a transfer to the same school will be given a transfer.

Those who don’t receive a spot at the school they wanted can apply for unfilled open enrollment spots by Sept. 16. The school district’s website, www.lausd.net, has a list of the schools with space.

Open enrollment transfers are valid until the student completes the highest grade at the school they are attending. Parents must apply for an open enrollment spot every time their child advances to the next school level.