Open Enrollment Question

[javaj]

My son's school district started offering open enrollment this school year. We just moved to TX last summer and the school district was one of the reasons we moved to this particular area - good academic records, small class sizes.

With open enrollment, looks like class sizes went up a bit - not really sure what the average size is officially, but in the 2nd grade, it looks like they have about 20 to 24 students per class. I don't have major issues with DS's class size, but I think there could be better organization and communication (which I'd think would be possible with less students!)

I just wondered - why do school districts have open enrollment? Is that required? Do schools get more funding if they have more students? I was under the impression that most schools are funded from property taxes in TX?

Just curious!

 

[4greatboys]

Well the school gets money from the state for each kid enrolled and their attendance. Also some schools with open enrollment charge the family for the child to attend.
What part of Texas are you in? Our school had been considering open enrollment but I hope they don't do it. They did opt to go with advertising on the school buses though for extra money for the district.

 

[golfgal]

Our entire state has open enrollment. For the most part kids move from district to district because of activity offerings-sports, music, speech, etc. because for the most part, academically the schools here are all very good. For the districts that "lose" students they still keep a portion of the student funding, for the schools that "gain" students they get extra tax dollars so it is really a win/win for everyone involved. In some of the rural areas you see a lot of kids open enrolling in the larger districts because of more class offerings.

 

[javaj]

We're in Montgomery County (about an hour NW of Houston) - I guess our schools must get funding for the extra students from somewhere, otherwise I don't understand why they would do open enrollment.

 

[RadioNate]

In my experience, it has been done when there are schools of questionable academic strength. They usually open up the entire area to all students so that the students that would be zoned to a lesser school could apply to a better school.

Former Texan. Doesn't TX cap school enrollment at 22 per class? Is that state wide? I know ours (north of San Antonio) did.

 

[javaj]

Former Texan. Doesn't TX cap school enrollment at 22 per class? Is that state wide? I know ours (north of San Antonio) did.

I don't know - I know there were 21 kids in the Fall Class Pic, then DS said they got 3 new kids in his class this spring. I didn't ask him but I guess they could've lost kids too.

 

[RadioNate]

I don't know - I know there were 21 kids in the Fall Class Pic, then DS said they got 3 new kids in his class this spring. I didn't ask him but I guess they could've lost kids too.

There were waivers available but at least in my former area they didn't like to use them.

 

[4greatboys]

In my experience, it has been done when there are schools of questionable academic strength. They usually open up the entire area to all students so that the students that would be zoned to a lesser school could apply to a better school.

Former Texan. Doesn't TX cap school enrollment at 22 per class? Is that state wide? I know ours (north of San Antonio) did.

No I don't believe so. The school district my older boys went to had very full classes esp at the high school. We were years past needed another one but but for the longest time we only had the one. When my 19 yr old grad from there in 2008 he had over 1000 kids in his grad class.
We have moved to a smaller city with a smaller, but better, school district and my 2 youngest have usually 20-22 kids in the class.

 

[4greatboys]

We're in Montgomery County (about an hour NW of Houston) - I guess our schools must get funding for the extra students from somewhere, otherwise I don't understand why they would do open enrollment.

We are south of Houston, close to Galveston.