NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Buhler USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman is looking at what the Board of Education and the district need to do to fulfill the new law that allows for open enrollment. It is a challenge.
"Open enrollment really is referring to out of district students applying into your district to come," Couchman said. "If you live in district, no questions asked, you are automatically accepted, by law. Open enrollment is for out of district students who want to come to a school system. Everybody in Reno County right now takes out of district students. This law, in my opinion, has created a little bit of work for us, because we take them anyway, as long as they meet our requirements. I think everybody has the same ones. They have good attendance, they are on track to graduate and their behavior is good. Pretty much every school in Reno County takes students because of our declining enrollment area, I think."
School districts are creating new policy on who they will take and why.
"You have to have a policy on how you will accept them," Couchman said. "You have to have a hearing for that policy. That policy has to be set in December, so everybody's going to be having a hearing. You're going to have to advertise it in the newspaper of your hearing and then you will adopt your policy. That policy states, what is your procedure for accepting out of district students?"
2024 will be busy as the actual numbers are dealt with.
"I believe it's in January, you have to set capacity and talk about the capacity of how many students per grade level, like a student-teacher ratio K-8. You could do building total capacity at the high school. The law says that you have to do it by student to teacher ratio in K-8. The board has to adopt that capacity off a recommendation, obviously. Then June comes, anyone who is interested in coming to your school that's out of district would apply and in July, you have a lottery."
Couchman said some school districts will likely have to move up fall enrollment to during or right after the end of the previous school year in order to know who is coming back and who is not to set the right numbers for the following year.
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