Your student’s application to another public school was denied. Here are parent-friendly reforms to help with the next steps

• While Utah has a strong school open enrollment law, it ranks low for its appeals process.
• Utah’s school open enrollment law should require school districts to provide parents with a reason when they deny an application.
• The appeals process within Utah’s school open enrollment law should require review by a non-district entity.

The right of appeal is a vital American legal principle that ensures fairness in official government decision-making. An appeal allows decisions to be reviewed by another entity when it’s believed there has been an error in the process.

When it comes to fairness, how an appeals process is structured matters, even in non-judicial contexts. This includes decisions at the public school and district levels.

Below, we examine key aspects of Utah law regarding school open enrollment decisions and the appeals process.

What Utah law says

Open enrollment, in the public-school context, is the opportunity to transfer your student to a district public school that is not assigned to them based on their address. It’s a basic form of education choice, and an important one – since most families choose public schools.

I’ve noted previously that Utah has ranked high for having a strong open enrollment law in terms of the statute’s language, but that it has significant noncompliance issues. Still, according to those rankings, Utah’s statute is not without gaps: the appeals process.

Specifically, the law is weak regarding what happens after a district determines that a student’s open enrollment application will be denied.

According to the national rubric, a high-quality appeals process requires (1) a non-district entity to hear an appeal; and, (2) schools to provide families with a specific reason for denying or accepting their student.

Utah law requires neither.

Admittedly, fully meeting this requirement seems rare. According to the rankings of all 50 states, only four states earned full points for the appeals category structured this way: Arkansas, West Virginia, Nebraska, and California.

Regardless, it is worth considering the best public policy ideas and weighing their fit for Utah.

What Utah law covers and possible reforms

Providing parents with a reason for denial of application

Currently, Utah law requires that districts give parents a written notification about whether their student’s application to transfer to a school within its district was accepted or rejected. It does not, however, require that a reason be given in that communication.

In an era when transparency is needed more than ever, and when the parent-school partnership is key, providing parents a reason for denial makes sense. Providing this information may help parents make decisions about other options or even help them resolve the issue in the future. For instance, if lack of capacity is the reason a student was denied, a parent may use that information to determine to apply earlier.

Utah’s law requires districts to create policies “governing acceptance and rejection of applications” and provides standards for what those reasons may or may not include. While the main acceptable reason for denying a student is likely to be a lack of capacity in a grade level, comprehensive program, or special education program, there are other allowable reasons. Giving parents this added layer of transparency could also bolster trust between parents and public schools.

Requiring a non-district entity to review in an appeal

When it comes to appealing a decision, Utah’s law says a “denial of initial or continuing enrollment in a nonresident school may be appealed to the local school board of the nonresident district.” Further, the statute says that “the decision of the local school board shall be upheld in any subsequent proceedings unless the local school board’s decision is found, by clear and convincing evidence, to be in violation of applicable law or regulation, or to be arbitrary and capricious.’’ The Utah State Board of Education created a rule requiring local school boards to “establish a procedure to consider appeals of a student’s denial of initial or continued enrollment of a nonresident student,” according to that statute.

The main problem with this structure is that when a nonresident school doesn’t accept a student, the decision is reviewed by that school’s own school board or district-appointed panel, which has a closer relationship (financially and politically) to the nonresident school than it does to the applicant. One possible alternative is to have the initial appeal be with a non-district entity, such as the state board or the state superintendent. The idea of this reform is that all appeals ought to go through as neutral a review as possible.

Giving parents a reason for the denial also aids in understanding whether an appeal makes sense.

Conclusion

In earlier pieces I’ve recommended the state conduct an audit on open enrollment policies in Utah. In addition to looking at the complexity of the statutory language and need for compliance, the audit should look at how to best create an appeals process that is fair and unbiased, including whether schools and districts should provide a reason to parents of their decision. Together, these reforms would make the state’s open enrollment law even more parent-friendly.