About Public School Choice
An LEA must offer all students enrolled in Title I schools (that is, schools that operate programs funded under Title I, Part A of the ESEA) that have been identified for school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring the opportunity to transfer to another public school in the LEA that is not so identified. The LEA is responsible for providing, or paying for the provision of, transportation necessary for students to attend their new schools.
An LEA must offer public school choice when it notifies parents that a school has been identified for school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring. An LEA must notify parents of eligible students of the availability of public school choice sufficiently in advance of, but no later than 14 calendar days before, the first day of the school year following the school year in which the LEA administered the assessments that resulted in the school being identified for school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring.
Parents of eligible students must receive information on their public school choice options with sufficient time to make a choice of school by the start of the school year. Because an LEA must notify parents of their public school choice options at least 14 calendar days prior to the start of the school year, this means that LEAs should give parents a minimum of 14 calendar days to choose a school after receiving notice of their options. If an LEA offers public school choice to parents of eligible students well before the start of the school year, it may set a deadline prior to the start of the school year by which parents must make a choice of school, provided the deadline is at least 14 calendar days after parents are notified. LEAs should give parents as much time as possible prior to the start of the school year to consider their options.
If an LEA does not receive school AYP determinations from its SEA in time to offer public school choice at least 14 calendar days before the start of the school year, it should allow parents at least 14 calendar days after the date of notification to consider their options.
A quality public school choice plan should embody the following principles: an overriding goal to provide students with access to quality instruction, communication with parents that is timely and thorough, information on choices that is provided to parents and students in a format that is easy to understand, and real choice means giving parents more than one option from which to choose and adequate time to consider their options.