Tulsa Public Schools Policy 2206: School Transfers of In-District Students
PURPOSE: To inform families of the district’s in-district transfer policies and support students’ success upon enrollment at their school.
The district’s attendance areas determine the schools in which students will be enrolled. There are two types of transfers that authorize an in-district student to enroll in a school outside of their attendance area: a neighborhood transfer and a magnet transfer. Both transfer types require application.
A request for an in-transfer initiated by or on behalf of a TPS resident student will be approved or refused in accordance with this policy and applicable law.
General Policy Regarding Intra-District Transfers
Conditions Necessary to Receive Neighborhood Transfers:
Pursuant to Okla. Stat. tit. 70, section 8-114, a student may request a transfer at any time during the year. To request a transfer, the student must submit a completed application and all supporting documents to the transfer office. As applicable, this application will include an acknowledgement that district-provided transportation is not available. The district may have one or more unified enrollment system processes each year that will provide district students and their families with reasonable, high-quality enrollment options that support students’ success in school.
The district will approve a transfer request unless (1) the student’s grade level has reached capacity at the receiving site as determined in the sole discretion of the district in accordance with this policy, (2) the district denies the request for a reason specified in this policy, or (3) denial is otherwise allowed by state or federal law.
If there are more applications than available spaces at the time the transfer request is reviewed, preference shall be provided to:
- Students who reside in the school site boundary.
- Students who attended the school site the prior year.
- Siblings of students who are already enrolled at the school site.
- Children of school district employees who wish to attend a different school site within the school district than the one they reside within.
- Students who change residence within a school district and who wish to attend the same school site.
- Students already on a waitlist for that school. (If a student is placed on a waitlist, the student will automatically be removed from the waitlists for any school that the student ranked lower (less preferred) than the offered school but will remain on the waitlists for any schools that were ranked higher than the offered school. The superintendent or the superintendent’s designee will identify the waitlist closure date for each enrollment window based on current and projected enrollment, school and District staffing, and budgetary implications.)
Following the acceptance of these students, the district will approve transfer requests in the order they were received.
A sibling is defined as children who reside at the same address or have a legal document that specifies a split residence and who share at least one common biological or legal parent whether through natural or adoptive means, including biological siblings that share parents; half siblings that share a single parent; step siblings that share a parent or parents through marriage; children who share a parent or parents through adoption or guardianship; and foster children awaiting permanent placement.
If a transfer is granted, the student will begin attending the new school at the time designated by district staff, which will be as prompt as reasonable given the preparations necessary to successfully execute the transfer and no later than the beginning of the following semester.
A transfer application may not be considered if it is incomplete and will be denied if the parent makes a fraudulent, intentional, or material misrepresentation on the application. An application may be denied for any of the acts and reasons outlined in Okla. Stat. tit. 70, section 24-101.3(F)(1), which pertains to certain violent acts, until such time as the district determines that the transferring student no longer poses a threat to self, other students, or district faculty or employees. However, the school district shall also maintain discretion to deny an application for any lawful reason. Any denial of a transfer request from a student seeking a transfer shall be communicated in writing to the parent. The denial of an in-district transfer request shall be final and not appealable.
Students moving from one attendance area to another during the school year may continue their education at their current school (the school now outside their new attendance area) for the remainder of the school year. If the student wishes to remain at their current school for subsequent school years, they must apply for a transfer. While a student is awaiting approval of a transfer request, the student is required to attend the school in which they are currently enrolled. If an application has been denied, a new application must be submitted if the student wishes their application to be considered in a future transfer window.
Capacity Determinations
The superintendent of schools, or their designee, shall determine the criteria to be used in determining grade capacity for each school site. Each school site’s grade level capacity shall be (a) approved by the board of education prior to the first day of January, April, July and October of each school year, and (b) published in a prominent place on the district’s website and reported to the State Department of Education as required by law.
For non-magnet schools, the capacity of a grade at a particular school will be based on the current number of filled general education teacher positions multiplied by the student-teacher ratio as published in the current school year’s staffing plan for the school and grade level, minus the number of students currently in the school and grade, with an additional accommodation made to account for the number of students expected to move into the school’s enrollment area.
With regard to both magnet and lottery magnet schools, for purposes of compliance with Okla. Stat. tit. 70, section 8-114 and this policy, the superintendent or their designee shall determine the transfer-related capacity of a magnet school’s grade level using a holistic analysis of: (1)the school’s ability to admit students who may not meet the criteria described in regulation 2206-R2, and (2) the capacity factors described in the preceding paragraph relating to non-magnet schools.
Frequency of transfers
A student shall not transfer more than two times per school year. Pursuant to state law, a student in the Department of Human Services foster care is not subject to this limit. Further, any student may re-enroll at any time at the student’s site of residence.
Automatic Renewal of Transfers
Once a transfer has been approved to a school and the student has attended the school to which the transfer was granted, renewal of the transfer to that school for the next school year will be automatic unless a cancellation is requested in writing by the parent/guardian or there is an authorized revocation of the transfer as authorized by board policy. However, a student transitioning from an elementary to a middle school, or from a middle school to a high school, must apply for a transfer if the student desires to attend a school other than the attendance area school for the following year.
Revocations of Transfers
The district approves all transfers with the expectation that the school will be a successful fit for the student. The district reserves the right to remove the student from a school they have transferred to at the end of the semester and enroll them at a different site in the event that chronic absenteeism or misconduct indicates the new school would be a better placement. These determinations will be made by the Superintendent or their designee in consultation with the student’s family and the principals of the relevant schools. In such cases, “chronic absenteeism” shall mean that the transferring student has ten or more absences in the last full school semester that are not excused due to illness or for the reasons provided for in Okla. Stat. tit. 70, section 10-105(B); and “misconduct” shall mean any of the acts and reasons outlined Okla. Stat. tit. 70, section 24-101.3(A)-(C) & (E) that would allow denial of a transfer request, including but not limited to: violation of a school regulation, possession of an intoxicating beverage, possession of certain missing or stolen property, possession of a dangerous weapon or a controlled dangerous substance while on or within two thousand feet of public-school property, or at a school event.
Any revocation of a transfer request from a student seeking a transfer shall be communicated in writing to the parent. The revocation of an in-district transfer request shall be final and not appealable.
Cancellation of District Transfers by Parents/Guardians
If a student wishes to return to their neighborhood school the parent/guardian must reenroll the student in that attendance area school. Barring extenuating circumstances determined by the Superintendent or their designee, such students may not begin attending their neighborhood school until the beginning of the next semester. The parent/guardian must provide proof of address at the time of enrollment.
Emergency-Based Transfers
The leader of the district’s enrollment offices will consider and approve or decline all requests for all neighborhood transfers made on safety/emergency grounds. Such transfer requests shall be made to the enrollment office, which will consult with other district offices and school personnel, as appropriate, to understand the extenuating circumstances supporting the transfer.