The Wapello Community School District will participate in open enrollment as a receiving district. As a receiving district, the board will allow nonresident students, who meet the legal requirements, to open enroll into the school district. The board shall have complete discretion to determine the attendance center of the students attending the school district under open enrollment.
The superintendent will approve all timely filed applications by June 1; incoming kindergarten applications; good cause application; or continuation of an educational program application filed by September 1.
The superintendent shall notify the sending school district and parents within five days of the school district's action to approve or deny the open enrollment request.
Open enrollment requests into the school district will not be approved if insufficient classroom space exists. Open enrollment requests into the school district will also not be approved for students who have been suspended or expelled by the administration or the board of the school district the student is or was attending until the student has been reinstated into the school district from which the student was suspended or expelled. Once the student is reinstated, the student's open enrollment request will be considered in the same manner as other open enrollment requests provided the required timelines are met. The district reserves the right to deny continued open enrollment to any students who meets the definition of truant. The district will notify the truant student’s parent or guardian and district of residence of the decision to deny enrollment in the future in accordance with applicable laws.
Open enrollment requests into the school district that, if denied, would result in students from the same nuclear family being enrolled in different school districts, will be given highest priority. The board, in its discretion, may waive the insufficient classroom space reason for denial for students of the same nuclear family to prevent the division of a nuclear family between two school districts. Other open enrollment requests into the school district are considered in the order received by the school district with the first open enrollment request given a higher priority than the second open enrollment request and so forth.
Students in grades nine through twelve open enrolling into the school district will not be eligible for participation in interscholastic athletics, at the varsity level, only in accordance with applicable laws.
Parents of students whose open enrollment requests are approved by the board or superintendent are responsible for providing transportation to and from the receiving school district without reimbursement.
If an open enrolled student’s primary residence is closer to the receiving district’s attendance center than the distance from the student’s primary residence to the sending attendance center, the sending district will allow the student’s receiving district to send school vehicles no more than two miles into the sending district’s boundaries to pick up the student.
An open enrollment request into the school district from parents of a special education student is reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The determining factors for approval of such an open enrollment request will be whether the special education program available in the school district is appropriate for the student's needs and whether the enrollment of the special education student will cause the class size to exceed the maximum allowed. The area education agency director of special education serving the school district will determine whether the program is appropriate. The special education student shall remain in the sending district until a final determination is made. For children requiring special education, the receiving district will complete and provide to the resident district the documentation needed to seek Medicaid reimbursement for eligible services.
The policies of the school district shall apply to students attending the school district under open enrollment.
It shall be the responsibility of the superintendent to develop appropriate office procedures and administrative regulations necessary for open enrollment requests.
Legal Reference: Iowa Code 139A.8; 274.1; 279.11; 282.1, .3, .8, .18; 299.1
281 I.A.C. 17.
Cross Reference: 501.6 Student Transfers In
501.7 Student Transfers Out or Withdrawals
501.14 Open Enrollment Transfers--Procedures as a Sending District
507 Student Health and Well-Being
606.6 Insufficient Classroom Space
Approved: 8/17/95
Reviewed: 11/13/03; 02/14/08; 1/12/12; 10/11/17
Revised: 11/13/03; 12/08/05; 7/14/21; 7/11/22; 7/9/24