School Districts Not Seeing Much Change

Farmington, Prairie Grove and Lincoln school districts all received transfer requests this year under the state’s new school choice law but school officials say they do not believe the law will greatly affect their districts.

“I don’t see it having a great effect on us this year,” said Bryan Law, Farmington school superintendent. “As time goes by, it will create some opportunities for change for all three school districts. It certainly gives the parents more freedom if they choose to exercise it.”

Law said the three districts in western Washington County are doing a good job and he believes “most parents are satisfied with what their children are receiving in education.”

Act 1227 of 2013, which went into effect April 16, redefined school choice in Arkansas and repealed the Arkansas Public School Choice Act of 1989.

Under the old act, students transferring from their home district to another district couldn’t upset the racial balance of their new district, which meant that some students did not have the option to transfer under the school choice law.

The new law removes race as

a factor in student transfers between districts. It also moved up the deadline for school choice applications from July 1 to June 1 of each year. School districts have until Aug. 1 to notify families if their transfer requests have been approved.

The new law caps the number of “net” transfers allowed from one district for a year to no more than 3-percent of the district’s student population. In addition, the law allows districts to refuse a transfer if it would require a school to hire additional staff.

Farmington has approved all of its school choice applications for the 2013-14 school year, Law said. Farmington received applications from 29 students requesting to transfer into Farmington and another seven applied to go to other districts. The number of applications is only slightly more than what Farmington received last year, Law said.

The breakdown of the incoming transfers into Farmington is as follows: 13 from Fayetteville, 11 from Prairie Grove, 2 from West Fork, and one each from Greenland, Springdale and Lincoln.

Students requesting to transfer to other districts will go to Fayetteville (3), West Fork (2) and one each to Prairie Grove and Siloam Springs.

Missy Hixson, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in Prairie Grove, said Prairie Grove also has approved its school choice applications. Prairie Grove received 17 applications from students requesting to transfer into Prairie Grove and another 12 submitted applications to go to other districts.

Prairie Grove’s breakdown of incoming transfers is 15 from Lincoln and one each from West Fork and Farmington.

The students requesting to transfer out of Prairie Grove will go to Farmington (9), Fayetteville (2) and West Fork (1).

Hixson pointed out that school choice applications are submitted for different reasons. In some cases, students have moved to another district but the parents want their child to stay in the same school. Some are members of the same family and others have older brothers and sisters already attending a school.

Hixson said some of the students transferring to Farmington live in the Valleyview subdivision, which is located in the Prairie Grove School District.

This is the first year that Hixson has dealt with school choice applications but she said she doesn’t believe the law will change anything for Prairie Grove.

Lincoln received 18 school choice applications from students wanting to transfer to another school district but did not receive any applications from students requesting to come into Lincoln, according to Carman Higgins, executive assistant to the superintendent.

Of the 18, 15 requested to go to Prairie Grove and one each to Farmington and Springdale. One application was denied because it missed the June 1 deadline.

“This is about the same number of students who transfer throughout the year,” Higgins said. “We’re just getting them all at one time.”

Hixson said families who are transferring outside their home districts have the responsibility to enroll their children in the new district. In Prairie Grove’s case, the district has told new transfers they must enroll their students by July 26, prior to the start of the new year.

Once a student has enrolled in a new district, the school choice law allows that student to stay in place for the remaining school years. The transfer is effective until such time that the student chooses to return to the home district or chooses to leave to be home-schooled or to attend a private school.

Students are only allowed one school choice transfer each year. If a student decides to return to the home district during the school year, then the transfer becomes voided for that year.

The school choice law does not affect athletic eligibility, Hixson said. Students who want to transfer to another school for athletics still will have to follow the Arkansas Activities Association’s rules for eligibility. She said Prairie Grove had one student who wanted to transfer to Prairie Grove for athletics.

“I think some of the parents thought it was a loophole to be able to transfer and be eligible to play ball,” she said.