St. Charles School Board could change policy that allows elementary students to transfer schools

St. Charles School Board members next week will resume the discussion on whether to change the district’s policy on allowing students to transfer to a different elementary school in the district.

The issue will be discussed during the St. Charles School Board’s Policy Committee meeting at 5 p.m. Monday. It was first discussed at a Policy Committee meeting in November.

The current policy, known as administrative placement or cap and send, occurs when the number of new enrollments in a specific grade level at the attendance area school exceeds the class size guidelines for that given grade level, Executive Director of Elementary Education Jarrod Buxton had told school board members.

The newly enrolled students are sent to a partner school within the district, with D303 transportation bearing the responsibility for transporting the students to and from school. But the policy is under scrutiny because the district is not able to meet all of the transportation demands.

“When a new student is capped, parents are offered the opportunity to also send siblings to the partner school, keeping their families together,” Buxton said. “Numerous buses are moving outside of their routes. Any student on a bus route with a capped student has the potential of being late to or from school/home and an excessively lengthy route.”

He also said bus drivers run the risk of being late to their next destination.

The district is looking at several options, including not accepting new intra-district transfer requests. However, currently transferred students would receive legacy status.

In another option, administratively placed students who want to remain at their placed school would no longer receive district transportation in year two, should there be space available in the attendance area school. With this option, the rules for students approved for an elementary school intra-district transfer would remain in effect throughout subsequent years of elementary school attendance, as long as the student remains a resident of the district.

Another problem the district is trying to solve with a new transfer policy is the impact of moving students to a new school, which includes student sense of belonging and parent choice, among others.