How could Kansas’ new open enrollment law change Johnson County and KCK schools?

Reality Check is a Star series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@kcstar.com.

After this school year, Kansas students will be allowed to go to any public school district in the state, as long as it has the room.

Previously, districts have had discretion over whether to admit students from outside of their attendance areas. But starting this summer, schools are required to do so, which has created a complicated situation for highly ranked districts in Johnson County, which are now scrambling to prepare for a potential influx of students.

“Really since the legislation passed, certainly the number of people calling us has increased. We get a few calls every week from people either checking into the process or saying they want to enroll,” said Olathe Superintendent Brent Yeager.

Johnson County school leaders say that as they ready to open their doors to out-of-district students, they’re concerned about maintaining appropriate class sizes, having adequate staffing levels and taking on unexpected costs.

“There are districts where it won’t be a big deal because they have only one school or three schools. For those of us in larger districts, it’s a much bigger challenge,” Yeager said.

Kansas lawmakers approved the open enrollment requirement in 2022, as part of a broad K-12 finance bill. The provision says each school must determine its capacity for the following year, and accept applications from non-resident students when open seats are available.

Proponents argued that open enrollment offers students and families the flexibility to find a new school if their current one isn’t meeting their needs. District boundary lines, some said, were arbitrarily drawn and have led to disparities.

“I’m hoping that more Kansas kids get the best education they can. And I do not think our students should be limited by their ZIP code,” said Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican. “If there is a reason that a parent would like to move their student from a neighborhood school where they’re not finding success, then as Kansans, we should help them find the best school possible.

“There are a lot of factors that can inhibit students’ chance for success and we want to give the power back to parents and give them the opportunity to make the best selection that they can.”

But critics said open enrollment could widen inequities if families leave districts with less funding.

The provision doesn’t go as far as other “school choice” policies, such as forming educational savings accounts that could be spent on private schools.

Johnson County districts opposed the legislation, arguing the requirement encroaches on local control.

“Johnson County, and growing districts around Wichita as well, have schools with a very good reputation, so people move there and pay higher property taxes to support their excellent schools,” said Leah Fliter, with the Kansas Association of School Boards. “Now the state Legislature is making them take kids whose parents don’t pay those same property taxes. So the local taxpayers aren’t too thrilled about that either.”

Johnson County leaders worried open enrollment would cause logistical challenges for schools already dealing with crowded class sizes and growing enrollment throughout the school year — something they are now trying to grapple with as they set policies to comply with the law.

And they’re concerned that they can’t adequately prepare for the additional needs of students who may be transferring in.

“Prior to this being enacted, the majority of school districts in Kansas had some sort of open enrollment policy or agreement in place, especially in rural areas where they tend to be losing enrollment because of population changes,” Fliter said. “But that was developed on a local basis, and it wasn’t a problem. Open enrollment is a solution in search of a problem.”

Across the county line, Kansas City, Kansas Superintendent Anna Stubblefield said the district is navigating through many “unknowns.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure how it will play out,” she said of open enrollment in KCK. “Every year, we get requests for out-of-district options. But what that will look like is something we just don’t know.”

Open enrollment challenging districts

Johnson County districts are now figuring out the capacity at each school to determine how many seats might be open for non-resident students next fall.

Districts are deciding school capacity based on the student-to-teacher ratio at each grade level and building, as well as enrollment trends.

“We anticipate openings,” said Ben Boothe, assistant superintendent of educational services in the Gardner Edgerton district. “How many? No clue yet.”

“There are some schools where there will be open seats, and some where there are none,” Yeager said. “So right now we’re figuring those pieces out. We’re having to make a lot of educated guesses.”

In KCK, Stubblefield said the district has “over 20,000 students and we are anticipating about the same number. But we have no idea how many seats another district may have, how many students may choose to apply to go to a different district, or any of that.”

Figuring out capacity also means estimating staffing needs, Yeager said, “And if our predictions aren’t exactly right, we’ll need to hire additional staff, and finding the best candidate is a significant challenge.”

Blue Valley spokeswoman Kaci Brutto said her district also has “a concern about having adequate staff to ensure a high-quality educational experience for all students, especially given the nationwide shortage of teachers.”

Estimating next year’s enrollment is made more difficult, Fliter said, as many families wait until the last minute to register their children for school.

“So you’re trying to plan for open enrollment and say we have room to accept this many kids, but you’ve also got to take into account folks who are in the district and might not enroll until August,” she said.

Yeager said Olathe also sees many students stay within the district but transfer to other schools each year, so is trying to leave enough room to accommodate those families. The district is asking for resident students transferring to other schools within the district to fill out their paperwork starting this month — much earlier than usual.

He added that lawmakers allowed districts to prioritize enrolling the children of school employees who do not live in their attendance areas, which Yeager said is a “big recruitment tool.” Those families will get to claim seats ahead of other non-resident students.

Sports, special education and school funding

Johnson County leaders expect other students might want to transfer to their schools for college readiness programs and opportunities not offered in smaller systems.

“Conversely, we have big 6A high schools. And so there may be students who want different opportunities by attending smaller high schools somewhere else,” Yeager said. “So it’s hard for us to know what to expect. That’s the biggest challenge with the whole thing right now. We just have no idea what it’s going to look like.”

Johnson County districts expect students may also want to transfer to their schools for the special education programs. But districts won’t know what needs students have, such as extra staff support or one-on-one interventions, until they are enrolled.

“One concern is for students with identified disabilities. This system is strained due to lack of qualified applicants (an issue all school districts face),” Boothe said in an email. “We will find a way to support these students, but this is a concern, in general.”

Fliter said districts worry they also might bear the cost of transporting those special education students.

She said the law specifies that districts will not have to pay for transportation for non-resident students, “But in the case of special education students, it’s a legal requirement that they would be entitled to transportation.

“It’s not spelled out in the bill who is responsible for transporting that student, either the home school district or the accepting district. It’s not addressed,” she said. “So for some of the larger districts in the Kansas City area, like Olathe with a very good reputation for its special education program, it’s a concern they’d have to address the cost of transporting that child.”

Some districts have seen enrollment dip since the COVID-19 pandemic. Olathe, with more than 28,000 students this year, has lost about 1,400 students since 2019. Yeager said open enrollment could help bring that back up, but he worries the district would take on greater costs if students enrolling from elsewhere in the state require more resources. Once again this year, education advocates are asking lawmakers to increase special education funding to the level required by law.

And that all adds to district leaders’ concerns about funding levels in the coming years. School funding is based on a district’s enrollment from the last year or two, leaving superintendents worried that financing could fall short if enrollment grows with out-of-district students.

“One of the things that helps and hurts districts at the same time is you can go back two years in the student count for funding. Sometimes that’s helpful if a school district is declining in enrollment a bit,” Yeager said. “The part where it would become challenging is if we have 600 new kids coming to the district. It would be at least a year before we would get that base level of state aid.”

In Blue Valley, Brutto said the questions around future funding is a primary concern, saying, “the district advocates for a system where funding aligns with the enrollment of new students in the current year.”

Looking to the Legislature and next steps

Lawmakers expect that some of the concerns voiced by school leaders could be addressed this legislative session.

Lawmakers are working on a bill to amend the open enrollment law. The bill would prioritize out-of-district students who reside in Kansas, over those who reside in another state. It also would guarantee a non-resident student attending a district this school year to continue attending that school moving forward.

And Williams said it could clarify that districts can set admissions policies determining whether out-of-district students are eligible to attend their schools, such as based on attendance and suspension records, as long as rules comply with the Civil Rights Act and do not favor students based on athletic or academic ability.

At a committee hearing on Thursday, lawmakers also discussed concerns about a lack of clarification regarding which district would be responsible for transporting non-resident special education students.

Sen. Renee Erickson, a Wichita Republican, said that, “Any time you put something of that scope into practice there’s obviously going to be some issues that we didn’t anticipate.”

“I do believe in the education committees there will be some cleanup that wasn’t in the original bill,” she said. “So hopefully it’ll make it better. The last thing we want to do is burden districts with unnecessary bureaucracy. However, we always want to keep an eye on doing what’s best for students and allowing them the freedom for them to move between districts.”

By May 1, school boards must determine staffing levels, building capacity, the number of students expected to attend the district and the number of open seats available.

In June, each district will accept applications from students outside their attendance areas. Applications will be reviewed the next month. If schools receive more applications than they have seats open, students will be selected with a lottery system.