Board Policy 6203 governs requests by parents for their child to attend a school other than the school
assigned by the Board of Education. Transfer requests are accepted and evaluated by staff each year
following official notification of school assignment for the subsequent year.
It has been the past practice of the Board of Education to establish special consideration for transfer
requests from families impacted by the reassignment of the nodes in which they live. Staff recommends
the following special consideration for families impacted by changes in school assignment contained in
the Growth Management Plan for 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2011-12.
Staff recommends that transfer requests be automatically approved:
1. If they are submitted during the annual transfer application period
and
2. If the application is for a student who has been attending a WCPSS school and the Board’s action
has changed the student’s assignment for the subsequent year to a school different from the
current school
and
3. If one of the following statements is true:
• The student is rising into grades 4 or 5, or
• The student is rising into grades 7, 8, 10, 11, or 12 and the change in assignment is from an
existing school to an existing school, or
• The student is rising into grade 8 and the reassignment is to a new school.
Staff recommends that transfers not be approved by staff for students rising into grades 6, 7, 9, or 10 if the
adopted Growth Management Plan places the student into a newly opening school. Staff also
recommends that automatic approval of transfers not be extended to younger siblings of students
approved under the criteria specified above.
The conversion of Baucom Elementary from a traditional calendar to a year-round calendar in 2007 and
the Board’s decision to change Baucom back to a traditional calendar in 2009 has created a special
circumstance. Approximately 52 students were reassigned from Turner Creek YR Elementary to Baucom
YR Elementary in 2007 in grades 1-3. When Baucom changes to a traditional calendar, staff is
recommending that Laurel Park Elementary be the year-round application school for Baucom nodes. For
some children who want to stay on the year-round calendar, this could mean a third school in four years.
Staff therefore recommends that requests be automatically approved if a family requests a transfer to
Turner Creek from Baucom for a child who has previously attended Turner Creek. Because of projected
crowding at Turner Creek, staff recommends that transfer requests for younger siblings who did not
attend Turner Creek not be automatically approved. Such requests would be evaluated by staff based
upon crowding at the school.
A similar situation exists at other schools that converted from traditional to year-round calendars in 2007.
Some students were kindergarten year-round applicants at a year-round school and were brought back to
their base school in first grade when it changed to a year-round calendar. Some of those students may be
impacted in third-grade by reassignment from their base to another school. Staff plans to give special
consideration to families that are in this situation and will make an effort to approve transfer requests to
remain at the current base year-round school.
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Staff Recommendations Intro 12-16-08.doc/12/16/2008
Finally, staff recognizes that adoption of a multi-year student assignment plan creates a situation in which
parents may want to request a transfer to a school other than their base school because that school will
become their base school in a future year. Staff will give special consideration to requests for transfers
that are made in anticipation of a new assignment in a future year. Staff does not recommend automatic
approval of such requests, because the requested school may not have space for additional students prior
to the year in which assignment changes are scheduled to occur. However, if space is not a problem, staff
will normally approve such requests.
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