Moving Schools: Keeping the Same School After a Move

Your kids love their school. You love it too. So, of course, you want them to stay in that school after you move. Unfortunately, keeping your kids in the same school isn’t always an option. Sometimes moving house does mean moving schools. But, do they automatically have to switch schools after a move?

The short answer is it depends. Of course, if your kids attend a private school, a move shouldn’t present a problem. And, it usually isn’t an issue if they attend a charter school. However, kids attending public schools may have no choice but to transfer, with a few exceptions. Here’s how you might be able to prevent moving schools after a move.

Funding is key

Before diving too deeply into the how of keeping your kids in the same school, it’s important to understand why it is so difficult. In the United States, children are entitled to free elementary through high school public education funded by property taxes. If you no longer own a property within the school district, you aren’t contributing to that district.

Instead, your property tax dollars fund the school district where you now reside, and as a result, your children will be assigned to attend a school within your new district. Not only that, your children will usually have to attend the school your property is zoned for. In other words, you won’t be able to send your children to just any K-6 school in the district. You’ll have to send them to the neighborhood school.

If your property taxes go to the school district, what does it matter which school your children attend as long as it is within the district? School districts create school boundaries based on the number of students in an area and allocate their resources accordingly. Allowing a student to attend another school within the district throws the allocation out of balance. Simply put, you can’t have district parents all deciding to send their children to just one or two elementary schools while the rest remain virtually empty.

While that may be discouraging, there are ways to work around these issues and keep your child in the same school.

Intra-district school transfers

The first step to keeping your children in the same school is to know your current school’s boundaries and your school district’s boundaries. If you can find a new home within your current school’s boundaries, you’ll have no problem keeping your children in the same school. You’ll just need to update your address with your school.

If you move outside your school’s boundaries, it gets a little tougher for your kids to stay in the same school. Usually, your current school will allow your kids to finish out the school year, but beginning the next year, they will be expected to attend the new school.

Sometimes, though, you can successfully ask for an intra-district transfer back to the school in your old neighborhood. Think of it this way. When you moved within another school’s boundaries, your children were assigned to the new school. However, you can ask your current school to allow them to continue to attend. If your well-behaved children earn good grades and if the school has room to accommodate them, the school will likely let them remain enrolled. (You will have to provide transportation to and from school.)

Under those circumstances, even though your children remain in the same school, they “transferred” from the school they were supposed to attend after the move to another school within the district, the one they’ve been attending all along. This concept can also be used if you move into a new school district but don’t like the school your neighborhood is zoned for. You can usually approach another school within the district and ask the principal to allow your children to attend.

Inter-district school transfers

Keeping your children in the same school gets much more complicated when you move to a new school district. After all, your property taxes now support another school district, so the school you hope to keep your kids in isn’t receiving the funds to educate them. However, you can arrange to get them the necessary funds through an inter-district transfer.

With an inter-district transfer, the new school district will have to forward the money it collects from you through property taxes to the school district you want to keep your children in. It’s complicated, and you may even have to appear before the school board to ask for the arrangement. But it is possible.

Another option is to offer to pay tuition for your kids to continue attending their school. This is in addition to the property taxes you will be paying to the new school district. Again, you may need to appear before the school board, but it sometimes works.

School districts may be a little more willing to work with you if you have a teenager in his/her last or second-to-last year in high school. And, if you work in the school your child currently attends, most school districts will allow your student to remain in the school and attend tuition-free after a move.

What if I just don’t say anything?

Not telling the school you moved seems like a good idea until you need to provide an address within the school’s boundaries for mailed information. Sure, you could use a P.O. box, but don’t be surprised if the school asks to see utility bills to prove your in-district residency. What about using the address of a friend or relative who lives within the school’s boundaries? If the school district discovers your fraud, you’ll face stiff fines. In the end, it’s not worth the trouble.

Moving with an Individualized Education Program

Unfortunately, your child won’t receive any special consideration just because he has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) to address his special needs. The same rules and the same exceptions apply as with any other student. However, students with IEPs face the additional hurdle of keeping their IEP when they move.

Typically, when you move, your child’s IEP will remain as is in his new school for 30 to 60 days. If he is at a new school within the same district, chances are nothing will change after that either. If he is at a new school in a new district, though, that district will usually re-evaluate his IEP. At that point, the new district can change his IEP.

You do have rights if this happens. First, the new district must provide you with valid reasons for any proposed changes in a Prior Written Notice (PWN), and you can dispute the changes. Second, the new district cannot enact a new IEP until they resolve the disagreements with you, one way or another. While you should try to work things out amicably, don’t be afraid to hire an attorney if it is necessary.

What about charter schools?

Usually, if your children are attending a charter school, you don’t have to worry about switching schools after a move since most charter schools don’t have assigned school boundaries. And, most charter schools also give preference to returning students, regardless of where they live.

However, some states require charter schools to give preference based on proximity. If you move further away, you may have a more difficult time keeping your child enrolled. Before you move, find out your state’s guidelines for charter schools and how your school of choice prioritizes students.