Open Enrollment

About the Open Enrollment Act

The Open Enrollment Act (SBX5 4, Chapter 3, 5th Extraordinary Session, 2010) was signed into law on January 7, 2010, and became effective on April 14, 2010. The Open Enrollment Act provides students enrolled in one of the 1,000 "low-achieving" schools, hereinafter referred to as "Open Enrollment" schools, the option to enroll in a different school with a higher Academic Performance Index (API) than the pupil's school of residence.

Due to the transition to the new California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress system, the calculation of the 2014 Growth and Base and 2015 Growth APIs were suspended by the State Board of Education. With the absence of a 2015 API score, the California Department of Education (CDE) cannot produce a new Open Enrollment Act list for the 2016–17 school year. The last available list is posted below and is based on the assessment results from the 2013 California Standards Tests which were developed under the prior state content standards.

There are multiple avenues for a student to transfer schools. Anyone using the list below as information about the achievement of a school or the possible transfer of a student, should know that many changes have occurred since the creation of this list. A school on the list with a low API may have improved their assessment results and a school with a higher API may have decreased in their assessment results. In the last few years, California has invested billions of dollars in our schools as part of the Local Control Funding Formula. Starting in 2015, California administered a new assessment system based on the new California State Standards which are designed to prepare all students for success in college and careers. The last available list for Open Enrollment Act is posted below, but caution should be used when reviewing the list or making any decisions based on the list. For information on all types of student transfers, please visit the CDE District Transfers Web page.

2015–16 School Year

• Open Enrollment Schools List 2015–16 (XLS; Revised 16-Jul-2015)
  All 1,000 Open Enrollment schools for the 2015–16 school year.

Regulations & Legislation

• Open Enrollment Regulations
  Title 5 California Code of Regulations (5 CCR), Section 4700 et seq., effective date January 1, 2011.
  
  
• California Education Code sections 48350-48361

Historical Background and Prior Year Lists

Historical Background and Prior Year Lists are downloadable Excel spreadsheets of Open Enrollment lists from 2012–13 through 2014–15.