Should I be concerned about Peralta over-enrollment?

Hi there. We moved away from Oakland a while back, but both our kids went to our local highly-sought-after elementary school. Maybe someone has more current info, but I am pretty sure that it is Hillcrest that is the only school where a few neighborhood kids are turned away because it is full. And that is mostly because it goes beyond 5th grade. Chabot might be a little that way now with the new campus, anybody know? But pretty much any other school, if you live within the boundaries for that school, is where your kids will go. It is not the horrendous cross-town nightmare that SF has. But here is the thing: if you have your heart set on a particular school, be very, very mindful about exactly where the boundaries lie, house by house, for that school. A colleague of mine and her husband bought a house that was 1 block from the school they wanted and their realtor had told them it was in that school zone. But, it was actually part of a different school zone which they did not find out about until after they bought. They fought for 2 years to get their daughter in the school 1 block from their house, unsuccessfully.  Also, in the Montclair district, the kids who are 3 homes down from Thornhill Elementary school are zoned for Montclair Elementary, and they end up walking about 4 blocks to the other school. So, be careful about the zone the house you are looking at is in. And with the housing market the way that it is, it is very hard to be that picky about location. We moved 2 years ago, after first selling our house to have money for the down payment on the new one,  and after living in AirB&Bs for many months while putting out bids, we ended up buying in a neighborhood that we had never considered because it was the only place that we could afford the overbidding wars. But we are super happy now and glad that we did. Best to you guys.

Regarding Peralta overenrollment, it's happened at least twice in the last 3-4 years and that won't change. However, if you're in the neighborhood the odds are very, very good you'll get a spot. I believe there are only a handful of kindergartners who don't.  The odds are certainly in your favor, though not a guarantee.

My daughter is a kindergartener at Peralta, we are in the joint district of Peralta and Sankofa. The other poster is correct, this has been a concern since we moved here 13 years ago. We were told when applying that the previous year (2015-16) was the first year that kids from the neighborhood didn't get in and they ended up creating an additional class. It was a K/1 mixed class that ended up being quite small because so few Kindergarteners took them up on their offer of a spot. I can't promise this is true, but that is what I was told. This year, I can tell you that a number of families from outside of the district got in during the first week of school.

You also may want to consider that the enrollment policies of the OUSD may not be the same in 4 years. Inequities in Oakland schools is a hot topic right now.

Thanks everyone for the info. Super helpful.