FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 29, 2011

Contact: Alicia Economos

Get Smart Schools

303.596.0634

Education Advocates Push Unified Enrollment System for Denver Public Schools

Denver will be first large public school district in the nation to include charter schools in unified enrollment system

DENVER –A coalition of 10 education advocacy groups announced today that Denver will begin using a single, unified enrollment system for all students choosing to attend different schools next fall, including students enrolling in charter schools.

It will be the first large public school district in the nation to combine school enrollment systems for all public schools in the district, including magnets, charters and all district-managed schools.

The coalition ofeducation advocates pushed the district to develop an enrollment system that is student-centered and designed to give all families in the district easy access to participation in school choice.

The district labeled the new process “SchoolChoice” to emphasize the simplicity of exercising school choice for Denver families under the new system. In partnership with the coalition, the district is also providing new school enrollment guides that, for the first time, include profiles for all public schools in the district along with easy-to-understand student performance data for each school.

The coalition worked closely with DPS and national enrollment experts to develop the unified system that will, through random lottery, enroll every student in the district at their highest choice school with available seats. As a result, both families and schools will know where students have been assigned well in advance of a new school year.

DPS has developed single, unified forms for all students in the district to indicate their school preferences for the next year. Every student in a grade will be able to use the same form, regardless of which school they currently attend or want to attend in the future. The unified forms are a simple and streamlined way for families to indicate their school preferences.

Get Smart Schools, a leading nonprofit working to dramatically increase the number of high-quality new public schools in Colorado, received funding from the Walton Family Foundation to lead the coalition in developing the new process. The coalition will continue to assist the district with the campaign to notify parents and community leaders as well as the implementation and review of the new process.

"Get Smart Schools is thrilled to be working with Denver Public Schools to rollout this groundbreaking new system. SchoolChoice is one of the first systems in the nation that will provide one-stop shopping for families, and the first to include all public schools, including charter schools. We believe it will make it far easier for all families to understand the full range of choice available to them and to pick schools that meet the needs of their students,"said Amy Slothower, Executive Director, Get Smart Schools.

“Years ago, families identified significant drawbacks and hurdles to the way DPS enrolled students in schools across the district. Many families were spending days or weeks trying to navigate multiple deadlines and driving across the city to find different forms. And many other families didn’t participate at all. We all came together to find ways that the current process could be simplified and streamlined,” Slothower continued.

Prior to the introduction of SchoolChoice, charter and magnet schools each conducted their own enrollment. When combined with the district’s own choice process for its traditional neighborhood schools, there were more than 60 different enrollment processes with different forms and due dates for public schools across Denver. The range of due dates, methods and applications made enrollment overwhelming for many parents and made planning for the school year challenging for schools.

“It’s exciting to once again see Colorado acting as a leader in making quality public school options accessible to parents,” said Nora Flood, Vice President of School Services at the Colorado League of Charter Schools. “Simplifying the open enrollment process in Denver is the right thing to do, and we look forward to seeing how it is received by Denver families.”

“We need to do a better job of making the process of selecting a school simple and user-friendly,” DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg said. “SchoolChoice will boil the process down to one piece of paper and one timeline for families to follow.”

"Our families have been working for years to develop a process that is equitable and fair for all students in Denver,” said Mike Kromrey, Executive Director, Metro Organizations for People. "For the first time, SchoolChoice will give all children the same opportunity to access the best schools in the city whether they are charter, magnet or neighborhood schools."

SchoolChoice is designed to simplify school enrollment because every transitioning student (incoming K, 6th and 9th grades and any student who wants to choice into a different school) will prioritize their schools of interest on a single form with a single deadline. All transitioning students will then receive a school assignment, based on their preferences, during a single week in March.

"In the past few years as charter schools become a more prominent part of the landscape of choice in our cities, there has been an artificial boundary between type of schools that makes it difficult for parents to participate effectively. Denver is the first major schools district in the nation that will eliminate that boundary, and unite all public schools under one umbrella of choice," said Neil Dorosin, founder and executive director of the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice.

“Denver is creating a new reality in which parents can use one application for the entire group of public schools. This brings incredible efficiency to the process of distributing seats to kids and unprecedented transparency to the admissions process,” he continued.

Putting into place one process for all district schools and one form per grade will simplify what has been a confusing and often overwhelming system for students and families to navigate.

SchoolChoice is being funded by a combination of public and private funding in the form of grants and bonds, including a substantial grant from the Walton Family Foundation.

The full list of coalition members includes:

  • Get Smart Schools
  • The Walton Family Foundation
  • Denver Public Schools
  • A+ Denver
  • Colorado League of Charter Schools
  • Colorado Succeeds
  • Donnell-Kay Foundation
  • Metro Organizations for People
  • Stand for Children Colorado
  • School of Public Affairs,University of ColoradoDenver

# # #