Sorry, the school is full...

[binny]

We just moved into a new neighbourhood. Im trying to keep my kids in their present school but theyre still debating on that, but thats another story.
Was told I needed to go and get them registered at their "home school" so I went in today and guess what? " sorry we're all full"

Sorry??? This is not a huge metro area here. I understand if theyre full enough that they need to not accept kids from outside their home area but to turn away students that live 2 blocks from the school? Dont they plan for these kinds of things???


They made a big old stink this year about lack of students and now this?

Im a so frustrated!!


ETA: This area is open enrollment as long as you transport and there is space you can go to any school you want.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Good grief binny!!!!! That sounds terrible to have to deal with. I hope things turn out well for you.

 

[Laz]

Each state has different laws, but your child MUST be admitted and I believe provided transportation, if needed. I would be at the next school board meeting.

 

[ZipaDeeDooDah]

What the?!

I would be frustrated too!

 

[SandraVB79]

Over here, at many schools, parents camp out at the school gates for days to be the "first" to enroll their kids. If you don't do that, you can forget to go to that school

(in Belgium, everyone can choose his/ her own school. You go to the school, enroll and voilà! Same for college: you go to the school, enroll pay $600 and you're in for a year!)

 

[Anthony1971]

I would ask for my taxes back
Thats is ridiculous

 

[Skywalker]

Same thing happened to us when we tried to enrol our oldest in kindergarten...the school was too full!

What they did was tell us to still drop him at the school as usual, and then a bus would come each morning to transport him (and the other extra children) to the next closest school which had been designated for "overflow".

We didn't go that route, just found another school close by and my son went there for a year before transferring to the school we wanted.

 

[Nancy]

Is this a public school? How can they be full? I would think that they have to enroll all those that live in the district first and then limit the open enrollment.

We have open enrollment too for schools wthin the district. My middle DD did it for middle school, but with open enrollment they do not have to provide transportation, only for those in the "district" for that particular school. Our district has 2 highschools, 3 middle schools and 5 elementary schools.

 

[cardaway]

It's going to happen here too. The school is arleady using portables and there is a large housing development being built right next door. They are going to build a new school and rezone, but the houses will be finished first.

 

[aprilgail2]

Is this a public school? How can they be full? I would think that they have to enroll all those that live in the district first and then limit the open enrollment.
.

We have 5 elementary schools in our town, each area is zoned for a specific school. If to many kids live in that area and try to register for kindergarten they fill up and thye have to go to a neighboring school, which pretty much stinks becuase all your friends in the neighborhood are going to a different school than you. The past few years have not been bad but the few before that if you weren't on line at dawn before the school even opened to register your child they got sent to another school because it filled up quickly.

 

[challada]

hugs, binny!

I've choiced my kids to their elementary (which is a block and a half away from my house...but jerimandering is another story) and can tell you, every year we have to go through the "wait until August to find out if your kid can go here" rule. Choice kids do not get approval until all the boundary kids get in first. That said, it has never been a problem and I've been on the PTA board for the entire time my kids were there (that was my threat...get someone else to run this group if you are going to ship my kids across town instead).

I work in a different district where the boundaries are more fluid. So some of the smaller older schools end up needing to send kids to the more outlying schools and yes, the bus takes them from one school to the other. I know it can be frustrating, but the reality is that the kids actually benefit from not being in kindergartens of 32 kids, etc, etc.

So, really, it may not feel good, but yes, the district can say "you should go to school xyz instead of abc". They do not have to provide enrollment at the closest school, just A school in the district (but need to provide transportation if that is necessary to get there).

I'll keep hoping your kids can go where you want to be at...sounds like the old neighborhood school is your best choice anyway.
Sending pixie dust

 

[cats mom]

Last move we had narrowed down our options to 3 houses.

1 of them was in a district who had that same policy.
Once the school was full anyone who moved into the boundaries was offered bus service to another school within the district. In our case a much less desirable school that was a 25-30 minute drive away. Or you could try to get into any other district school on open enrollment, but transportation was then your responsibility.

Nice way to integrate kids into a new neighborhood and make them feel welcome.

At the time I actually liked that house best, but we opted for one of our other choices largely because of school issues. Turned out for the best, but it was tough at the time.

The district changed their policies not long after largely due to pressure from new home builders in the area. They were losing too many sales because of the full school policy.

Good Luck getting things worked out.

 

[binny]

Thanks everyone at least Im not alone in feeling frustrated!


I spoke to the principal at their current school ( where we were orginally told they could stay which is why we didnt think this was an issue to begin with) and she said to call her back mid August and she would do whatever she could to keep us. They all love my kids ( thankfully! LOL) so they would like them to stay.

The "home school" would transport to the other school if theyre full but I agree, what a way to get the kids into a new neighbourhood
There are 2 districts in this town, one has most of the SOuth and some of the west and the other has the rest of town and 4 other towns. We are 5 houses from being in the big district and the one we want to be in.

I did find out though that Cam can still go the same district ( but Middle School now) because of the GATE program, I spoke to the principal there and he said it was fine. So one down! 2 to go. LOL


Anyway, thanks for listening to me rant.

 

[dcgrumpy]

That stinks. Right down the block from me is the kindergarten center, an elemenatry school, middle school and HS in one complex. The district is broken up into different zones for each of the 4 elementary schools. However the blocks right around the complex are considered a buffer zone. They fill the 1st grade from all the zones and then when they're done they put the kids from the buffer zone in whichever school has the lowest attendance. It stinks that DS may end up going to school miles away when there is one within walking distance.

Our district also just changed from full day kindergarten to half day. Of course they announced this two weeks ago and it's too late for me to find somewhere else for DS to go next year.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Each state has different laws, but your child MUST be admitted and I believe provided transportation, if needed. I would be at the next school board meeting.

Here they must be admitted to a school--but not necessarily the one closest to you.

I feel the OP's pain from a distance. In our area where they are swamped with home building in one section--they keep doing stuff like that. Spoke with one teacher as it makes no sense--many stories of kids getting turned away from her school...but every day she gets someone new in her class and no idea where they came from.

Kids living in the same neighborhood get bussed to different schools. It is rediculous.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Each state has different laws, but your child MUST be admitted and I believe provided transportation, if needed. I would be at the next school board meeting.

Here they must be admitted to a school--but not necessarily the one closest to you.

I feel the OP's pain from a distance. In our area where they are swamped with home building in one section--they keep doing stuff like that. Spoke with one teacher as it makes no sense--many stories of kids getting turned away from her school...but every day she gets someone new in her class and no idea where they came from.

Kids living in the same neighborhood get bussed to different schools. It is rediculous.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I would ask for my taxes back
Thats is ridiculous

Usually taxes go to the county and the county will apportion to schools as necessary. Doens't necessarily go to the school in your neighborhood.

(here anyway!)

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

When we relocated to WA five years ago I didn't have any problems enrolling my kids in the elementary school that practically sits in our backyard. I found out after the fact that we barely made it in. The school enrollment was capped and any other students would be bused to a different school several miles away. All the schools here are soooo crowded...I suspect every year there are kids turned away. We just can't build new schools fast enough to accomodate the population growth.

 

[AmazingGrace]

That's been happening a lot here in San Antonio. We were actually going to rent a house in the NEISD area, and I spent all morning trying to figure out where my kids would be going, only to find out the middle school was capped out. We were literally in the parking lot of USAA, fixing to get a check to pay for the house when I found this out. I called my dh on the cell phone, made him get out of line, and the deal was off. This was in December, and today an article just came out in the paper about more schools in that district being capped out. They said the problem is that they are doing things bass ackwards. Instead of building schools and then building homes around them, they are building homes on top of homes and cramming already full schools with new kids.

 

[JVL1018]

Wopw, you learn something new every day!
Here in my town we have 5 elementary schools, the town is divided up 5 ways and you go to whichever school you are told to-it's the closest one to your house.
If there are say, 20 more 1st graders in School A than the rest, they don't bus them out(we don't even have buses except for special ed) they hire another teacher and make another class.
Then we have one middle school and one high school.
If anyone from another district(which would be out of town, as each town is it's own school district) wanted to come to our schools, they are welcome as long as there is room and they pay the $8000 a year or so that the BoE has determined is spent educating each child.
No one takes the schools up on that. LOL