California bill would make public school interdistrict transfer program more accessible

A version of this testimony was given to the California Senate Standing Committee on Education.

My name is Jude Schwalbach, and I’m a senior education policy analyst with Reason Foundation, a national 501c(3) nonprofit policy research organization. I’m testifying on California Senate Bill 399.

California Senate Bill 399 would make the state’s public school interdistrict transfer program, which allows students to transfer to public schools in districts outside of their residentially assigned school districts, more transparent and accessible. It would require the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction to publish an annual report on the Department of Education’s website, showcasing student transfer data at the school district level. This report would show the number of transfer applications granted, rejected, and withdrawn, and why transfer applicants were denied.

It would also detail the number of actual interdistrict transfer students, disaggregated by student demographics and sub-groups, such as low-income students and English Language Learners. If codified, California would be the fourth state in the country to adopt this level of transparency, representing the gold standard in open enrollment reporting provisions.

Overall, it’s a strong bill that would help parents and lawmakers. The California Department of Education publishing an excellent annual open enrollment report would put school districts’ transfer practices at the fingertips of families looking for transfer information and policymakers seeking to improve public schools for the state’s students.

However, Senate Bill 399 could be improved. In addition to showing the number of interdistrict transfers, the report should also include the same data regarding transfers that occur between two schools inside the school district (within-district transfers). 

While California already publishes data on the District of Choice program, it publishes no data on the much larger interdistrict permit system, which was used by almost 156,000 students during the 2018-19 school year, the last year with data available.

Moreover, according to California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office’s 2016 and 2021 reports, demand for interdistrict public school transfers is growing. The Interdistrict permit program added approximately 16,000 participants, or an increase of 11%, between the 2014-15 and 2018-19 school years.

Detailed transfer data, like those proposed in SB 399, can help families better understand the public school options available and show policymakers and taxpayers enrollment trends. 

Wisconsin and Oklahoma publish annual student transfer reports showing similar transfer data to that proposed in California’s SB 399. Notably, Wisconsin has published its report for nearly three decades, and state policymakers have used this information to modernize existing transfer laws to improve public school students’ experiences.

For example, participation in Wisconsin’s open enrollment program, which allows students to transfer to any public school with an open seat, jumped by almost 20% after policymakers adopted a secondary application time period for transfers because the annual reports demonstrated a high demand for the program that couldn’t be served by one application window.  

Adopting these types of detailed open enrollment reports in California would help create more opportunities to improve public school students’ transfer options and ensure that the interdistrict transfer process is fair and transparent to all families. 

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