Table 4.2. Number and types of open enrollment policies, by state: 2017

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State	Intradistrict				Interdistrict
State	Voluntary admittance of students from other schools		Mandatory admittance of students from other schools		Voluntary admittance of students from other districts		Mandatory admittance of students from other districts
Number of states with open enrollment policies	17		19		30		23

Alabama¹	No		No		No		No
Alaska	No		Yes	²	No		No
Arizona	No		Yes		No		Yes
Arkansas	No		No		No		Yes	³
California	Yes		Yes	⁴	Yes		Yes	⁴

Colorado	No		Yes		No		Yes
Connecticut	Yes		No		Yes	⁵	Yes	⁵
Delaware	No		Yes		No		Yes
District of Columbia	Yes		No		No		No
Florida	No		Yes		No		Yes

Georgia	No		Yes	⁶	Yes	⁷	No
Hawaii	Yes		No		†		†
Idaho	No		Yes	⁸	No		Yes	⁸
Illinois	†		†		†		†
Indiana	No		Yes	⁹	Yes	¹⁰	Yes	⁹

Iowa	No		No		No		Yes	¹¹
Kansas	No		No		Yes		No
Kentucky	No		Yes	¹²	Yes	¹³	No
Louisiana	No		Yes	¹⁴	Yes	¹⁵	Yes	¹⁴
Maine	Yes	¹⁶	No		Yes	¹⁶	No

Maryland	No		No		No		No
Massachusetts	Yes		No		Yes		No
Michigan	Yes	¹⁷	Yes	¹⁸	Yes	¹⁷	No
Minnesota	No		No		No		Yes
Mississippi	No		No		Yes		Yes	¹⁹

Missouri	No		No		Yes	²⁰	Yes	²¹
Montana	Yes	²²	No		Yes	²²	Yes	²³
Nebraska	No		Yes	²⁴	No		Yes	²⁴
Nevada	No		No		Yes	²⁵	No
New Hampshire	Yes		No		Yes		No

New Jersey	No		No		Yes	²⁶	No
New Mexico	Yes		Yes	²⁷	Yes		Yes	²⁷
New York	No		No		Yes	²⁸	No
North Carolina	No		No		No		No
North Dakota	No		No		Yes		No

Ohio	No		Yes	²⁹	Yes		Yes	²⁹
Oklahoma	No		No		Yes		Yes	³⁰
Oregon	No		No		Yes		No
Pennsylvania	No		No		Yes		No
Rhode Island	Yes		No		Yes		No

South Carolina	No		No		Yes		No
South Dakota	No		Yes		No		Yes
Tennessee	Yes		No		Yes		No
Texas	Yes	³¹	No		Yes	³¹	No
Utah	No		Yes		No		Yes

Vermont	No		Yes	³²	No		Yes	³²
Virginia	Yes		No		No		No
Washington	No		Yes		Yes		No
West Virginia	Yes		No		Yes		No
Wisconsin	Yes		No		No		Yes
Wyoming	Yes		No		Yes		No
† Not applicable. State does not have this type of open enrollment policy.
¹ Although Alabama does not have open enrollment programs in traditional public schools, there are open enrollment provisions specific to charter schools.
² For students attending a school designated as persistently dangerous.
³ For students from schools in facilities distress.
⁴ Under the Open Enrollment Act for students from low-performing schools or districts.
⁵ Required for students in four cities and optional in priority school districts.
⁶ Mandatory intradistrict if space is available.
⁷ Voluntary interdistrict if the sending district does not have the space or if the student lives closer to a school in the receiving district. Districts may enter into a transfer contract with another district.
⁸ Mandatory intradistrict and interdistrict, with some limitations. School boards may create written agreements for transferring students between districts. Students must apply annually to attend or continue attending the receiving school.
⁹ In Indianapolis city schools.
¹⁰ For specific reasons, such as overcrowding, curriculum offerings, medical reasons or if the student's school isn't fully accredited.
¹¹ In Iowa, mandatory interdistrict is an option for students, but the receiving district has authority to determine the school the child will attend.
¹² For students to attend the school closest to their home.
¹³ School districts may enter into a written agreement with other districts to allow students to attend school in a nonresident district.
¹⁴ For low-performing schools and schools in the Recovery School Districts, as well as when transportation time exceeds a prescribed amount, schools are identified as persistently dangerous, academically unacceptable, or for any school transferred in or out of the Recovery School Districts.
¹⁵ School boards may enter into an agreement to allow students to transfer to a school in a neighboring parish.
¹⁶ Students may attend another school with permission from the receiving school and districts may adopt mutual polices allowing transfer between the districts. Students living far from their assigned school, in districts without an elementary school, or in districts with 10 or fewer students may attend school in another district.
¹⁷ Voluntary intradistrict and interdistrict at the intermediate district level.
¹⁸ Mandatory intradistrict for low-performing schools
¹⁹ For students residing more than 30 miles away from their assigned school.
²⁰ Voluntary open-enrollment program for geographic reasons. School boards may enter into transfer agreements. Receiving districts may set enrollment capacity limits by grade level, school building, and education program. They may also deny a transfer application if the student lives more than 10 miles from the receiving district or if the location of the student's assigned school is closer than the school the student would be attending in the receiving district.The Metropolitan Schools Achieving Value in Transfer Corporation is a program for schools in St. Louis.
²¹ For unaccredited schools or districts.
²² Sending and receiving districts enter into an attendance agreement that sets forth financial obligations, if any, for tuition and for costs incurred for transportation. Receiving districts may reject an out-of-district attendance agreement if the school's accreditation would be adversely affected by the transfer because of insufficient room. However, this does not apply to students with disabilities who live in the district.
²³ For students in certain circumstances, including geographic barriers, access to transportation, or if a child's sibling attends a school in another district, the child is under state care or is required to attend school outside of the distict because of group home placement or foster care.
²⁴ Mandatory intradistrict has some limitations. Districts are required to adopt standards for acceptance and rejection of open enrollment option applications. Open enrollment transfers are available among districts in a learning community (a partnership between multiple districts).
²⁵ In limited circumstances, or for students living on an Indian reservation located in two school districts.
²⁶ School districts may apply to participate as choice districts.
²⁷ For students in low-performing schools.
²⁸ There is a voluntary interdistrict "urban-suburban transfer program" designed to reduce racial isolation by allowing minority students to transfer in and out of participating urban and suburban school districts. Participating districts must provide policies about student participation for transferring students.
²⁹ For students attending alternative schools.
³⁰ For children of active-duty military personnel who meet specific criteria.
³¹ For students attending low-performing schools or for bullying or safety issues.
³² For high school students.
NOTE: Open-enrollment policies allow students to transfer from one public school to another of their choice. States’ open-enrollment policies may allow for voluntary or mandatory participation at the district level, and they can also allow for intradistrict transfer, interdistrict transfer or both. Intradistrict open enrollment policies allow students to transfer to another school within their resident school district. Interdistrict open enrollment policies allow students to transfer to another school outside of their resident school district. Voluntary open-enrollment policies allow schools or districts to decide whether they will accept transfer students who live outside of their boundaries. In contrast, mandatory policies require all schools or districts to accept transfer students, although mandatory policies may be subject to restrictions. A number of states have both voluntary and mandatory open-enrollment policies. Typically, these states require mandatory open enrollment in low-performing districts, in defined regions of the state or in other specific circumstances, while also allowing voluntary open enrollment in the rest of the state.
SOURCE: Education Commission of the States, Open Enrollment: 50-State Report, retrieved January 8, 2018 from http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/MBQuestNB2n?rep=OE1701. Data Source.

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