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| Photo by Jeffrey Hamilton on Unsplash |
The Massachusetts school choice program, G.L. c. 76, § 12B, was enacted in 1991 to allow parents and their children to “obtain a quality education in public schools” by allowing attendance in schools outside their home district. Another of the legislation’s goals was to motivate school districts to “examine and strengthen their curriculum” to better compete with other public schools.
In fiscal year 2023, 17,688 full-time equivalent pupils participated in the program, with 184 receiving school districts (districts that accept non-resident school choice students) and 316 sending districts (home districts of school choice students). According to the law, student participation in school choice cannot exceed 2% of the state’s public school enrollment. For the 2022 - 2023 school year, participating students comprised 1.9% of the state's total public school enrollment of 913,735.
The law states that all districts will accept students from other districts, provided space is available. Unless a district opts out, it is automatically considered a school choice district.
How Districts Accommodate School Choice
There are three ways for School Committees to handle school choice:
Take no action before June 1, which will by default make the district a school choice district. In this instance, there are no restrictions on the schools, specific grades, and programs to which non-resident students may be accepted;
Vote before June 1 to accept school choice with some or all restrictions to schools, grades, and programs;
Vote before June 1 to opt out of school choice. This vote must include a public hearing on the opt-out issue and the public hearing may occur at the same time as the meeting as long as the public hearing aspect is advertised beforehand. The reasons for opting out must be recorded in the resolution voted on. The district must notify the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) of the vote as soon as practicable.
Districts may opt out of receiving non-resident students but not sending resident students outside of their home district. The law provides for withdrawing from the intra-district enrollment process only and guarantees the right of students in Massachusetts to attend any school of their choice within the state.
The opt-out hearing/vote process must be done every year before June 1 and the vote will only apply to the following school year. Districts participating with restrictions must vote on those restrictions every year before June 1. If there are more applicants than available seats, the District must choose school choice students through a lottery.
Student Rights under School Choice
According to G.L. c.76, § 12B, schools cannot discriminate based on “race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, gender identity, age, sexual orientation, ancestry, athletic performance, physical handicap, special need, academic performance, or proficiency in the English language.” Schools may not consider a non-resident student’s disciplinary record when making enrollment decisions, but non-residents may be disciplined as any other student once they have gained admission. Siblings of students enrolled through school choice are given priority for acceptance to the same district.
The law mandates that any non-resident student admitted through school choice must receive the same treatment as resident students and may participate in all programs available to residents. Once accepted, non-resident students have the right to continue their education in the chosen district until high school graduation or completion of the highest available grade in the district, unless there is a lack of funding.
If a district votes to withdraw from school choice after previously participating, non-resident students already enrolled must be retained. To protect their privacy, the names of students entering or leaving a school district cannot be made public by the School Committee.
School Choice Funding Formula
School choice funding is fairly straightforward. Receiving districts are paid a set amount of money per student. In contrast, those districts that lose students to other school systems must pay. There are additional charges for special education students and transportation costs for those students if required by the student’s Individualized Education Program.
In January, the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released the FY 2024 Preliminary School Choice Tuition rate for school districts and the state’s two virtual schools based on the previous year’s enrollment data. The final rates will be released in June.
The FY 2024 per-student rate (except for special education students) for school districts was $5,000 – unchanged since at least 2016. This amount reflects the law’s language stating, “tuition amount shall be equal to seventy-five percent of the actual per pupil spending amount in the receiving district for such education as is required by such non-resident student, but not more than five thousand dollars”. By comparison, the per-student rate for virtual schools was reported as $9,597, which was recently increased to $9,727. Both rates include a $75 per-student administrative fee.
The law requires tuition payments for non-resident students to be deducted from the sending district’s state Chapter 70 funds and deposited in the School Choice Tuition Fund by the state treasurer. Payments are then disbursed from the Fund to the receiving districts and placed, by law, in a special account for use by the district’s school committee.
More Questions About School Choice
My research for this overview answered some of my questions about school choice but many remain. For example:
Do wealthier school districts benefit more from school choice compared to less wealthy districts?
Why do districts opt out of school choice, especially when they must still send their resident students to schools outside their district?
Does forcing underperforming (and possibly underfunded) schools to compete with others help or hurt the public school system?
Is the $5,000 tuition assessment sufficient to cover the cost of a student’s education?
I plan to cover these questions and more in future blog posts as I delve deeper into the complex and diverse issues surrounding the Bay State’s school choice program.
