Transferring into the Alameda School District

Transferring from Oakland Schools to Alameda

Nov 2007

Has anyone done an Interdistrict transfer to Alameda from OUSD? We are wondering how it went, smoothly? We have a child that will begin K in 2008, and were told that there is a good chance that there would be openings at Otis (as there had been in previous years). That she just might start school a couple of days late. Did you send your child to your Oakland school for a couple of days before entering the AUSD? Which school did you get in AUSD? were there any hiccups we should be wary about? thanks, karen karen

I would be wary of feeling certain of getting a K slot at Otis. While each of the last two years they have opened an extra classroom at Otis to absorb the increase in in-zone kids, there is no reason to except that they will do that again next year and if they do those spots are increasingly likely to be filled by island kids bumped from other high- performing schools. Both of the demographic reports done recently (one by the district and another by a group of concerned parents) indicate a huge rise in kindergarden-age kids on the east end next year and the years following--so spots at Otis will become even harder to come by. an islander

I'm not sure from your post if you are a resident of Alameda, but if you are not, I think it would be unwise to count on getting into Otis School. Alameda is having a big problem with over-capacity issues right now, with the East End of the Island (where Otis is located) being hit in particular.

The school board recently (just 2 weeks ago) changed policy for incoming K students to give priority to siblings with students already enrolled in their home school and then if they are over- enrolled the rest of the K students will be chosen through a random drawing.

You can read more about the factors that go into how a child moves up in priority to get into an Alameda school on the AUSD website, but I think you should start researching other Island schools that don't have these capacity problems. Lum, Washington and Haight usually are where kids from Oakland get placed. Anon