Public Choice:

ESEA outlines new requirements for offering students the opportunity to attend other public schools if their own school fails to make AYP in two consecutive years. The law also requires that technical assistance be offered to the schools not making AYP.

ESEA requires a form of "open enrollment," an option Colorado has had since the 1980s. Students can leave their neighborhood school that did not make AYP and go to a different school in the same district or attend a school in a neighboring district. If many students want to leave, the district must give priority to the lowest-achieving students from low-income families.

The district must notify parents of every student that the school has been identified for school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring, and explain the parents' option to transfer their children to another public school. The district has the responsibility to approve which specific schools can be used for the "choice" option and may limit parents' selection to certain schools both in the district and in neighboring districts.

The district provides or pays for transportation for every child, even if the child attends a school in another district (as long as it is a school the sending district approves).

The choice option remains in effect for any student attending a school on school improvement, corrective action or restructuring until the school makes AYP for 2 consecutive years. There is a special rule that requires the district to let a child attend the other school until he/she has completed the highest grade at that school. No transportation is provided after the end of the school year, unless the sending school remains on school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring.

As ESEA is in its early implementation, the only schools that can offer the Public Choice Option are Title I schools that were identified under the previous ESEA as requiring school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring as of January 2002. These schools began offering the choice option in September 2002 for the 2002-03 school year.

CDE has an easy-to-read "ESEA Public School Choice Q & A" that provides additional information.

Other ESEA Public School Choice Links

One-page backgrounder on Public Choice