(The Center Square) – A new policy brief that examined open enrollment policies of all 50 states found that Illinois has some of the most restrictive student transfer policies in the country.
The Reason Foundation found that only 11 states have mandatory open enrollment laws that allow students to easily transfer to other public schools, and 26 states, including Illinois, allow public schools to charge tuition to public school transfer students.
“Open enrollment basically means being able to attend a public school that you aren’t residentially assigned to,” author Jude Schwalbach said.
The report, “Public Schools Without Boundaries,” finds that Illinois is one of 23 states that meet none of Reason’s five open enrollment best practices. On a scale of 1-5, Illinois received a 0.
“Illinois has a lot of work to do in improving the options for students to transfer to schools other than their publicly assigned one,” Schwalbach said.
Reason’s five best practices include cross-district open enrollment, within-district open enrollment, transparent state education agency reporting, school capacity reporting, and laws against public school tuition for students.
Schwalbach notes that school districts in Illinois can charge transfer students tuition to attend a public school outside of their residentially assigned school district, which restricts low-income students’ access to alternative public school educational opportunities.
There are 853 school districts in Illinois, with nearly 4,000 schools.
The Reason Foundation’s top states for open enrollment policies are Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Oklahoma and Utah.
Originally published by The Center Square. Republished with permission.
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