Available to All

Instead of welcoming students from middle- and low-income families, they’re using attendance zones to keep them out.

We need to hold these schools accountable for breaking their promise of being equally open to all.

But according to our latest report, 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦, we know these schools have at least 2,589 empty seats. availabletoall.org/report-crisi...

⚖️ And state law says that they must take applications from all families living inside the district and run a lottery to determine admission.

📱 All but one of the affiliated conversion charter schools (Topanga Charter) told us they couldn't accept students from outside the attendance zone because they were "full" and had a waitlist.

We contacted 15 high-performing @laschools.bsky.social with open seats to ask about enrolling a 1st and 4th grader.

Here's what happened. ⤵️

Attendance Zones Keep L.A.’s Best Schools for Wealthy Kids — & Shut Out the Rest DeRoche: In 105 L.A. primary schools, 70% of students don't read at grade level. Boundaries based on racist 1930s redlining maps keep them there.

Because government-enforced attendance zones decide who gets access, not families.

Our president Tim DeRoche in @the74.bsky.social ky.social: www.the74million.org/article/atte...

NEW:

For Black and Hispanic students in @laschools.bsky.social, the odds of attending a school with 70% reading proficiency are almost zero.

Why?

20 years after Katrina, New Orleans students have made incredible gains.

There are many reasons why.

One of them?

Getting rid of school zones.

Middle- and low-income families in Los Angeles are being shut out of top public elementary schools with open seats Crisis in the School House: How lower-income families in Los Angeles still can't access the best public elementary schools

As we recently exposed, there are nearly 7,000 open seats in LAUSD’s best elementary schools. But these schools are ignoring the law and hiding how many open seats they truly have. availabletoall.org/report-crisi...

Why won’t LAUSD hold these schools accountable for shutting out families?

Middle- and low-income families in Los Angeles are being shut out of top public elementary schools with open seats Crisis in the School House: How lower-income families in Los Angeles still can't access the best public elementary schools

⚖️ Families wanting to escape their assigned, underperforming school should be able to transfer under the state’s open enrollment law. But the highest performing public schools refuse to participate.

💵 Because they don’t want to draw the wrath of wealthy voters who overpaid for their homes to buy access.

So inequality lives on. Students get locked out of a life-changing education. Class and racial segregation persist.

How LAUSD School Zones Perpetuate Educational Inequality, Ignoring ‘Redlining’ Past ‘The district doesn’t want to touch those lines, because families overpaid for homes within them’ says local parent and researcher Tim DeRoche

“That is something that we don’t acknowledge.”
Board Member Nick Melvoin tells @the74.bsky.social.
the74million.org/article/how-...

He’s right. And as our president Tim DeRoche points out,
LAUSD is afraid to change these boundaries or the entrenched system that relies on them.

Why?

School attendance zones, many of which mirror racist redlining maps from the 1930s.

🗺️ That’s right: the same government-drawn maps that denied low-income families of color financial assistance to buy homes.

We know that @laschools.bsky.social best elementary schools have thousands of open seats.

So what’s keeping middle- and low-income students out of them? ⤵️

There’s a faster, fairer solution:

Let them cross district lines to attend a public school now.

For years, California’s state and local politics have stalled affordable housing projects in wealthy neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, lower-income students wanting a better education are told to wait for homes that may never come. @frombenc.bsky.social

Report: When good parents go to jail

Decriminalizing address sharing should be seen as a starting point.

We need an overhaul of our enrollment laws that makes where a child lives irrelevant to where they can learn. availabletoall.org/report-when-...

In Georgia, former State Rep. Valencia Sto
Valencia Stovall courageously tried in 2020. Her bill
would have allowed parents to enroll their children in a public school beyond their assigned zone if someone living in that boundary permitted them to use their address.

Because we’re still clinging to an exclusionary system that ties public school enrollment to where a child lives.

States should decriminalize “address sharing.” Connecticut did it back in 2013.

In blue and red states alike, parents can face serious prison time for using a different address to access a better school district.

In Texas, the penalty is up to 10 years. In California, up to 7.

But why are parents put in this position to begin with? ⤵️

Districts should embrace enrollment policies that are fair to everyone:

✅ Set aside at least 15% of seats for students living outside attendance zones

✅ Give every student a chance at schools within 5 miles of home

✅ Use a transparent lottery when applications outnumber seats

This redistricting fight in Maryland is a cautionary tale.

When access to public schools is decided by zip code, families are pitted against one another–and students lose.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Impacted families are angry over the looming changes—and they should be.

New Orleans proved there’s a better way.

The Austin Independent School District is on the verge of approving a plan to close 13 schools.

And once again, district leaders are relying on the same old playbook to reassign kids: new boundary lines that unfairly decide who gets to enroll in the best public schools.

✅ Require wealthy districts to save seats for transfer students from underfunded ones.

✅ Make district lines matter much less in enrollment.

✅ Don’t let zip codes and property values have the final say in a child’s educational experience.

Read the full report: edpolicyinca.org/publications...

The report offers several possible solutions. But there’s one we especially agree with: policymakers should strengthen California’s open enrollment law.

What does that mean?

💰 Budgets are booming in 139 property-rich districts—tax revenue has jumped 41% over 5 years.

Meanwhile, students from neighboring, lower-income districts have little to no chance to access these well-funded public schools. Strict boundaries keep them out.

California’s school funding system was supposed to level the playing field.

It hasn’t.

This new report from @bellwetherorg.bsky.social and @edpolicyinca.org shows how wealth and address still decide which students get opportunities. ⬇️ edpolicyinca.org/publications...

Tim DeRoche: What our kids learn must not depend on where they live Jennifer Brown’s kids were kicked out of school. Not for anything they did wrong. Not for anything she did wrong. But simply because someone reported...

Our president Tim DeRoche in the
@post-gazette.com: www.post-gazette.com/opinion/gues...

🚨 NEW: The Penn-Trafford School District wrongly kicked out two kids it suspected of lying about their address.

They were allowed to return.

But the case exposes a hard truth about our address-based system: public schools aren’t truly open to all.

✅ Give every student an equal chance to attend a school within 5 miles of their home.

✅ Provide parents with an appeals process.

✅ Require every school to save 15% of its seats for out-of-boundary students.