Episode 17
Double Scoop: Choosing Your Student's School
With the application window opening in January, this podcast from a couple of years ago still offers some helpful key information. That's why we offer you this "Double Scoop"!
This podcast delves into the various options available for parents seeking to transfer their children to schools outside their designated attendance zones. David Owen speaks with Cobb's Director of Policy and Planning, Darryl York, who explains the intricacies of school attendance policies, including how attendance zones are determined based on geographical and population factors. They discuss different methods through which students can attend schools other than their zoned ones, such as special education programs, magnet schools, and the school choice program. Listeners will learn about the application process for school choice, including important timelines and criteria for eligibility. The episode aims to clarify the complexities surrounding school transfers and provide valuable insights for parents navigating these decisions.
Guest: Darryl York, Director of Policy & Planning
Useful links from the podcast:
- ParentVUE Information
- How To Apply for a Student Transfer
- Student Transfers - (For all types of transfer needs)
- School Choice Transfers
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The Cobb County School District
Takeaways:
- Cobb County has specific attendance zones based on various geographical and demographic factors.
- Students can apply for transfers to schools outside their attendance zones under certain conditions.
- Parents must provide their own transportation for students attending schools on approved transfers.
- The school choice application process opens every February, allowing parents to select three schools.
- Siblings of students already on a transfer can automatically qualify for the same school.
- Cobb County aims to accommodate as many school choice requests as possible based on available capacity.
Transcript
Hey, guys.
David Owen:Welcome back to another edition of the Inside Scoop.
David Owen:I'm David Owen.
David Owen:Did you know it might be possible for your student to attend a school outside of your normal attendance zone?
David Owen:Maybe you think another school would be a better option for your student, or maybe you just want one closer to where you commute.
David Owen:Here to discuss this option is Cobb's Director of policy and planning, Mr.
David Owen:Darrell York.
David Owen:Darrell, welcome back to the podcast.
Darrell York:Thank you, David.
Darrell York:Appreciate it.
David Owen:Let's start with the very basics with school attendance.
David Owen:We can't just pick any old school in Cobb and go to it.
David Owen:People move into school attendance zones for a reason.
David Owen:Can you explain how all of that works?
Darrell York:Sure.
Darrell York:So, you know, where the county as large as ours and with the population as large as ours, we have specific attendance zones for each of our schools, and those are based on geographical area, ease of trans, a lot of things behind that.
Darrell York:The board does establish a policy that students will attend the school in their established attendance zone unless they are granted permission under certain federal, state, or local laws and rules that we may have.
Darrell York:And so we start really with those attendance zones that are developed, again, based upon population, based upon location of the school, location of property that we have available to build a school if we build a new one.
Darrell York:And there are times when a person's house is actually closer to a different school than they're zoned for, but because of the compactness of the homes around those areas, those lines look a little.
David Owen:Odd trying to get a certain number of families within each zone.
David Owen:And that's why that happens.
David Owen:Maybe.
Darrell York:Yeah.
Darrell York:And of course, as new developments come along, you have to take a look at those.
Darrell York:And we.
Darrell York:We don't make attendance zone changes lightly.
Darrell York:If one is made, it's because of the building of a new school, or one school has just become so overcrowded because of new developments in that area.
Darrell York:Where people are living in Cobb today may not be where people are living in Cobb five years from now.
Darrell York:And so although they can be fluid, we rarely make changes unless absolutely necessary.
David Owen:How do you attend a school other than the school you're scoped out to attend?
Darrell York:There are a couple of different ways that that might happen.
Darrell York:We have some very specific instructional, educational programs for special education students or students who are speakers of other languages, where we may not have those targeted programs in every school in the county.
Darrell York:And so some students may be assigned to a different school based upon the needs in their special education IEP or their ESOL program.
Darrell York:So that's one way that children may attend a school other than their Zone.
David Owen:Like four specific resources.
Darrell York:Correct.
David Owen:Okay.
Darrell York:Correct.
Darrell York:The other, at the high school level, is our magnet program, and we have a variety of magnet programs spread throughout the county.
Darrell York:And that's a program where a child would apply when they're in middle school to attend a magnet high school.
Darrell York:And if approved, then they would be attending a school other than their locally zoned school.
Darrell York:We have magnet programs for performing arts, medical sciences.
David Owen:Oh, all the things.
Darrell York:Yeah, I mean, that's not my area, but I know we have a variety of those magnet programs.
David Owen:And then there's also ceta, which is technically not.
David Owen:This is also very confusing, folks.
David Owen:I'm so sorry it's like that.
David Owen:But that's why we're having this podcast just to help sort this out.
David Owen:All right, so.
David Owen:And by the way, if you want to know more about ceta, there's a podcast on that.
David Owen:Go look it up.
David Owen:Love to have you listen to that one.
David Owen:All right, so specific to this time of year, there is this thing called school choice.
David Owen:Tell us what that is.
Darrell York:Well, David, we have a variety of school choice options where we really call those permissive transfers, where you're seeking permission to transfer your child to a different school.
Darrell York:Those are based primarily on some state laws that we have.
Darrell York:One such state law is our Children of employee transfer.
Darrell York:That as an employee of a district, one of the benefits is that you can transfer a child to your child to the school where you work.
Darrell York:That's what the state law says.
Darrell York:We expand that a little bit and allow employees to transfer children to schools within their feeder pattern of where they work.
Darrell York:I mean, so.
Darrell York:But that is a employee benefit, but it's still considered a student transfer.
David Owen:Yeah, that's a nice perk.
Darrell York:Well, I mean, it is one of the employee benefits, kind of like insurance.
Darrell York:You have to qualify for it, and there are certain criteria there, but for the general public, then we also have a school choice program, again, based on a state law, that a parent can request their child to attend a school other than their locally zoned school.
Darrell York:There are a few caveats behind that, but that's generally what we know as school choice.
David Owen:Does COBB have.
David Owen:We usually Cobbify things.
David Owen:Right, Right.
David Owen:So how does COBB repurpose that so that it's most beneficial to COBB parents and students?
Darrell York:Well, one area, the state law says that we have to accept applications for two weeks for the following school year.
David Owen:That's not very.
Darrell York:Well, we actually open that up for an entire month to give parents a lot more time to research the school to apply for schools.
Darrell York:The state law doesn't say anything about choices, but we give parents three choices.
Darrell York:You can list up to three schools you would like to attend other than your zone school.
Darrell York:So there are a lot of things that we kind of do above and beyond the minimum requirements there.
Darrell York:But again, basically, as long as a school has room to accept additional students, then they are available choices.
David Owen:Okay, so you kind of touched on this, but how does the whole process work?
Darrell York:As we begin this process, every year, we look at current enrollment data, enrollment trends.
Darrell York:We base everything on the data that we see.
Darrell York:And so we determine how many seats may be available at each school for the next school year.
David Owen:Okay.
Darrell York:And again, that's based on past data, current enrollment, and to some extent, yes, we're projecting what happens next year.
Darrell York:But we will post for parents a list of every school that's available and how many seats are available.
Darrell York:And we do that every February.
Darrell York:So the very beginning of February, you can go to that webpage.
Darrell York:You can see every school that's available for the next school year and the number of seats available.
Darrell York:And then a parent can look at those, say, at the high school level.
Darrell York:They can look at those schools that are available, those high schools that are available, do any research they want.
Darrell York:As you mentioned, they like, you know, their friends from the soccer team in the community, they all go to one school or they like that school.
Darrell York:Those school colors better keep kids, better school mascot.
Darrell York:It does not matter.
Darrell York:We don't ask why.
Darrell York:We just make it available.
Darrell York:And so when you apply, you can apply for up to three schools.
Darrell York:And one of the reasons that we posted the numbers of seats that are available, if you look at a school and you say, okay, you know, I'd like my child to go to one of these two schools, well, this school only has 10 seats available.
Darrell York:This school has 100 seats available.
Darrell York:I may have a better chance of getting in the school with 100 seats available than the 10.
Darrell York:But we try to give parents as much information on that as we can.
Darrell York:During February, we accept applications online through their ParentVue account.
David Owen:Okay.
Darrell York:Or if they have.
Darrell York:For elementary school children, kindergarten children coming in, if they're going to be new to Cobb, we would do that through the online registration portal.
David Owen:Okay.
David Owen:For registration for new students.
Darrell York:For new students, yes.
Darrell York:And you apply, you list up to three schools.
Darrell York:And it is not first come, first serve.
Darrell York:We accept applications for the entire month of February.
Darrell York:And then at the end, we sit down and take a look.
Darrell York:And remember, we had that high school that only had 10 seats available, but we had 20 applications for those 10 seats.
Darrell York:So we would use a random selection process where we would then choose 10 of those 20 names and it is completely random.
Darrell York:And then those students are provided the opportunity to accept that transfer.
Darrell York:If one of those children doesn't accept, through that random selection process, we kind of prioritize the names.
Darrell York:So number 11 on the list now gets a chance to come in.
David Owen:Okay, so you're the runner up.
David Owen:You get your shot.
Darrell York:Correct.
Darrell York:So we create a waiting list for all those who apply.
Darrell York:We also go further in.
Darrell York:If you did not get your first choice school, we will then have a random selection process for seats that may still be available for your second choice school or your third choice school.
David Owen:So it's conceivable that you could be that number 11 or number 12, in other words, on the waiting list, but you are also offered perhaps your second choice.
David Owen:In other words, you are not locked in once you ask to go to a school or a second school or a third school.
Darrell York:Correct.
Darrell York:I'll even take that a little further.
Darrell York:If you're on the waiting list for your first choice, but you are selected for your second choice, even if you accept that second choice selection, you still remain on the rating list for your first choice.
David Owen:Oh, you're not taking off?
Darrell York:No.
Darrell York:So between February and mid.
Darrell York:Well, actually it's at the end of June.
Darrell York:If that seat becomes available, we'll give you the option.
Darrell York:You can still come back to your first choice school.
Darrell York:You know, we talked about that random selection process.
Darrell York:For parents who give me three choices, the selection process puts us in the mid to upper 90%.
Darrell York:If you only put one school and say, I'm gonna transfer this school, or no school at all, that can drop to the low.
Darrell York:Pardon me?
Darrell York:The low 80s.
Darrell York:70% of those students usually get placed.
Darrell York:But if you're willing to have some options, then we're usually pretty good at being able to accommodate those requests you mentioned.
David Owen:February is when all of this happens.
David Owen:Is there a window that people need to be aware of now so they could begin looking at school options and kind of planning how they might approach this?
Darrell York:Because we want to get as accurate and up to date data as possible, we hold till February where we'll post all that information and on that website, the list of schools, how to apply the conditions for transfer, all of that information is there and they can go ahead and start reading up on all of that.
Darrell York:At this particular point, if a parent inadvertently applies for the wrong one, we review every application by hand to make sure that they've applied for the correct transfer.
David Owen:Okay.
David Owen:And again, show notes.
David Owen:Show Notes.
David Owen:Show notes.
David Owen:All right, so you mentioned conditions for transfer.
David Owen:All right, did you just slip something in there that I need to investigate?
Darrell York:Well, we do have some expectations for students who are on transfer.
David Owen:Such as?
Darrell York:So once you're approved for a transfer and you're attending a school, one of the caveats behind this, and this is, in the state law, parents must provide their own transportation for students who are on transfer.
Darrell York:So you're not eligible for a school bus.
Darrell York:Therefore, appropriate attendance is now a caveat to continue your transfer.
Darrell York:Because if your parent can't work the transportation out and you're constantly tardy or late to school or anything like that, then that is a basis that a principal could revoke your transfer down the road.
David Owen:Wow.
Darrell York:Because it's not educationally sound for you to come to school late all the time, we do expect transfer students, as we would any student, but attendance, behavior, academic progress, a cooperative school, parent relationship, as long as we have that positive relationship going, then the transfer will continue.
Darrell York:If there are issues, a principal's going to be in communication with the family to say, hey, look, attendance is not where it needs to be.
Darrell York:You need to beef that up a little bit, or we're going to have to look at having your child go to their locally attended zone school.
Darrell York:They can catch the school bus, that kind of thing.
David Owen:Right.
David Owen:And this is also a distinction from the magnet programs where they do provide transportation for those programs.
David Owen:This is different.
David Owen:You are responsible for your own.
Darrell York:Correct.
Darrell York:Even magnet schools have very limited transportation.
Darrell York:It's not door to door.
David Owen:Right.
Darrell York:But you know, because remember, we do our school choice program based on the state law as our foundation, and it's clear that parents must provide their own transportation.
David Owen:Okay, so I got a curveball to throw at you.
David Owen:Sorry.
David Owen:All right, so what if you've got siblings?
David Owen:You got a pair of twins.
David Owen:No, not twins.
David Owen:You got a brother and a sister a year apart, and one of them ages out to the next level, like going from elementary school to middle school.
David Owen:Where do you end up?
David Owen:I mean, how does that all work?
Darrell York:So you may not understand this, but you've asked me about three questions in one.
Darrell York:Once you are approved, as long as there's not an issue with behavior, attendance, academics, you will continue on transfer through.
Darrell York:Through the highest level of that school.
Darrell York:So if you are approved as a fifth grade.
Darrell York:Excuse me, as an elementary school student, you're going to get to stay through fifth grade.
Darrell York:You do not have to reapply each year.
Darrell York:You have to reapply when you move to a new level.
Darrell York:So elementary School children moving to middle school, middle school to high, and staying in that same transfer.
Darrell York:Feeder pattern is not guaranteed.
Darrell York:It's all based upon, does the middle.
David Owen:School have room availability?
David Owen:That's right.
Darrell York:Does the high school have available room?
Darrell York:So to begin with, once you're approved, you stay for that entire level, but you do have to reapply.
Darrell York:One area that we've gone far beyond state requirements is with the area of siblings.
Darrell York:So if a parent has one child already attending a school on an approved transfer, they can apply for a sibling transfer.
Darrell York:For a younger sibling to join that child, the younger sibling will automatically be approved for that same school.
David Owen:That's very helpful because what that says is you don't have to go through the randomized selection process.
Darrell York:Correct.
David Owen:Automatically qualify.
Darrell York:Correct.
Darrell York:But remember, we want to use the most accurate data as possible when we get to the February school choice.
Darrell York:So one thing parents need to understand, that sibling process starts in January.
Darrell York:So we can make sure that we assign all the siblings correctly before we determine how many seats are still available for other students in February.
Darrell York:Okay, so again, David, program notes, POD notes, whatever you call them, show notes.
David Owen:Show notes.
Darrell York:Show notes.
Darrell York:Show notes.
Darrell York:Please go to the website and read up, because when you look at the school choice webpage, it's going to differentiate between what we call sibling transfers.
Darrell York:And the school choice transfers are named after the state law that created them, their House bill or HB251 transfers.
David Owen:Sounds like.
Darrell York:That's right.
Darrell York:That's what we normally refer to them as.
Darrell York:But we do these in stages so that we can make sure that we provide.
Darrell York:We gather the most accurate data so we can provide parents the best options available.
David Owen:And the reason you have to start those early is because obviously they need continuity before any new seats are opened up.
Darrell York:Correct.
Darrell York:And one of the reasons that we do this in January, February, it also helps the district because once we can determine movement of students for the fall, that helps us with the process of starting the hiring process for the fall allotment of teachers.
Darrell York:And yes, it does seem early, but the benefit for parents is that we don't have to wait till the fall to see who shows up and perhaps have to remove a teacher from your child's school to reassign them somewhere else.
Darrell York:So, yes, it seems early to do this in January and February for next August, but to prepare a variety of things.
Darrell York:Enrollments, teacher allotments, teacher contracts, that kind of thing, it's very helpful to do this early.
Darrell York:So we've got again, the data that.
David Owen:We need for the fall and the Main thing we want to do for all the students to be able to have success is have them have continuity.
David Owen:It's very important for students to have, for example, in elementary school, one teacher instead of having who knows who tomorrow.
David Owen:Right, right.
David Owen:Okay.
David Owen:So how many students or how many applications do you typically get each year?
David Owen:I mean, is this something where you get 50 or do you get hundreds?
Darrell York:Usually we will process around 3,000 requests every year.
David Owen:3,000.
Darrell York:Wow.
Darrell York:But again, that may be based upon the children of employee benefit that we provide or the school choice.
Darrell York:And, you know, parents are free to apply.
Darrell York:Hopefully we can help accommodate.
Darrell York:As I said, if you.
Darrell York:If you work with us and give us up to three choices, then the chances go up a great deal.
Darrell York:But parents have their own personal reasons for asking for a different school.
Darrell York:That's fine with us if we can accommodate.
Darrell York:The law specifies that we are not required to add additional teachers or add additional portable classrooms to accommodate that.
Darrell York:So we have to take a look at permanent classrooms and that kind of thing.
Darrell York:But, you know, I think we have developed a system that goes far beyond the minimum expectations from the state and provide opportunities for parents who would like to take advantage of that.
David Owen:Well, folks, we have been listening to the very knowledgeable and very detail oriented Director of policy and planning, Mr.
David Owen:Darrell York.
David Owen:Darrell, thank you so much for coming in and helping us understand what could be a very difficult topic for people to perceive properly.
David Owen:Right.
David Owen:So folks, again, to learn more about this, make sure you check out those show notes.
David Owen:We'll have links in there for all of the things that were mentioned.
David Owen:And give yourself some time to kind of absorb what we've discussed today, because these things are very important to the success of your student.
David Owen:That's why we're here.
David Owen:We want to help everybody in the Cub School succeed.
David Owen:If you enjoy being a source for truthful, accurate information for your friends and family, make sure you subscribe or follow this podcast.
David Owen:If you learn something new, give us a like and a review.
David Owen:We always appreciate that.
David Owen:Thank you for joining us on this edition of the Inside Scoop, a podcast produced by the Cobb County School.
