Open Enrollment

We are so excited to be one of the 'schools of choice' for families who are locating or relocating to the Cedar Valley! So far this year we have welcomed over 30 new Pirates to our galleon under resident student or open enrollment status since August 23rd. 

This is the natural time of year where we field a lot of questions regarding the enrollment of students: who is classified as a resident student, what non-resident students [are], and ultimately how open enrollment works. As a start, resident students are those who live within the boundaries of the Hudson Community School District and do so for the purpose of making a home. In other words, if you are living in the district for the sole purpose of attending school, or living in another district, you are not a resident student and subsequently cannot attend Hudson Schools. 

That is unless you file for open enrollment. Open enrollment is designed as a 'choice option' for students and families that wish to attend another public school outside their resident district. But as most of you know, open enrollment isn't necessarily a slam dunk. As a start, new open enrollment paperwork must be on file in both the receiving and resident district(s) by March 1st (or September 1st for kindergarten students). That means for the school year we are currently in, students who are attending under open enrollment filed that paperwork prior to this past March 1. If that happens, in most cases the receiving school district can unilaterally act to accept that open enrollment application. And by the way once you file and are approved, you don't have to reapply each year. Your open enrollment is valid until you as parent decide that you no longer want to attend that district and instead wish to return to the home (or resident) district. Plus, once you are established under open enrollment, siblings are also automatically granted open enrollment status once they are of school age, so as to not to have children attending in different school districts. 

However, there are a few distinctions where the resident district has to approve the application first. And in many cases these requests are denied.

The first and most common is if the resident district has a voluntary diversity plan. There are five school districts in Iowa with voluntary diversity plans: Davenport, Des Moines, Postville, Waterloo, and West Liberty. Because Hudson is contiguous with Waterloo, the voluntary diversity plan oftentimes comes into play. It is very typical for a family from Waterloo to file open enrollment paperwork from Waterloo to Hudson and then have it denied. Keep in mind, Hudson can only act on an open enrollment application from Waterloo if they first approve it. 

Second, a resident district also has authority to act first if the applicant alleges pervasive harassment. Sometimes a family will file for open enrollment under Iowa's bullying and harassment law, but prior to granting that request, it must be demonstrated that attempts to remedy the situation have been unsuccessful. For example, if the school district has been informed of the allegation, administered discipline to the offending party, and made other accommodations to protect the safety of the student, and the harassment continues; then the resident district can grant open enrollment. However, in cases where open enrollment is proposed as the first option, those applications are typically denied because the district has to first be given the opportunity to remedy the problem. 

Another reason where the resident district is required to act first is if there is a serious health need. Again, the onus on approval rests with the resident district and is usually only considered as a last option. If, after working with the school district a workable solution isn't possible then open enrollment may be granted. Yet like those applicants who want to open enroll due to pervasive harassment, when it is proposed as the first option it is almost always denied.

Open enrollment for pervasive bullying and harassment and a serious health need are both considered 'good cause open enrollment'. Outside those two reasons, school districts do have the authority to grant open enrollment outside the March 1 deadline with no good cause if both school districts agree. This is solely a local decision and incredibly rare, generally contemplated case by case when considering unusual circumstances.

Perhaps to the outside observe this all seems somewhat trivial because at the end of the day students are students, right? If only it were that simple. You see, the distinction is critically important and we are about to start a process of sorting and accounting for all our students: those who are residents attending Hudson, those who are non-residents attending Hudson; those who are residents attending another school district, and on and on. It is important because in Iowa, the amount of funding we have to operate our school is dependent on the number of students we serve in our classrooms. For those students who attend a school other than their resident school: that funding ends up in the other district. This is why we ask the questions we do, and require they paperwork needed for enrollment.

At the end of the day we are honored and humbled that Hudson is your school of choice. We want as many of your children here as we can get. We just need to ensure we do it in the right way.