Is neighborhood school enrollment guaranteed in OSUD?
Hello,
We live on Oakland hills, our neighborhood school used to be Kaiser Elementary. However, Kaiser is permanently closed due to funding issues. Our new assigned neighborhood school is Chabot Elementary according to OUSD website, which is the closest school to our home.
I do not know if that means enrollment will be guaranteed? Or is it still possible that we will get assigned to another school? If so , we will have to search for other options in advance.
Thanks for any advice and your time.
Apr 14, 2021
Parent Replies
OUSD has some great dashboards RE chances of getting into your neighborhood school/ other schools, applications received vs offers etc. https://www.ousddata.org/school-choice.html
Proximity to school is one of the bigger priorities when they assign schools so if you list Chabot as your first choice (you’ll rank up to 7 schools in all of OUSD thanks you’re interested in - not including charters), then yes Chabot should be your assigned school. But other factors come in to play as the district grapples with diversity issues so there’s a chance you may get bumped.
You can apply through the district, list Chabot as your first choice. They’ll respond and give you a spot either at Chabot or another school. And place you on the waitlist at Chabot. You can just refuse your spot at the other school if you don’t want it and wait on the waiting list for any other schools you put on your list (including Chabot) and then look at other options.
Schools assignments for this year have already gone out so if it’s for this year, you’ll know fairly quickly once you apply if you have a spot at Chabot.
We didn’t want our neighborhood school and ranked it as 7th. We got into another school instead and we’re pleased.
I'm a current Chabot parent. Generally speaking, the neighborhood preference still exists for all OUSD schools, and given the size of Chabot, it is currently able to accommodate 100% of in-neighborhood kids + a good number of out of neighborhood kids. Unless there is some crazy demographic shift next year (like a thousand new families with school-aged kids moving into your neighborhood), that should remain the case. But what year are you asking about?
If you are asking about the indefinite future... the answer is maybe. When Kaiser was combined with Sankofa, OUSD folded the Kaiser attendance area into the Chabot attendance area on a trial basis. It's unclear whether the neighborhood lines will stay exactly as they are now over the long term. The district is also engaging in a process of revisiting enrollment policies as a whole, so over the next few years, things might change.
Either way, I encourage you to visit multiple schools regardless. We live in the Chabot neighborhood and just took our neighbors' word for it that it's a "great" school and enrolled our eldest child without doing more visiting or deep thinking about it. I reasoned that we'd try our neighborhood public school and could change course later if it turned out not to be a great fit. I now regret that decision. Chabot is indeed a great school in a lot of ways, but in some ways it's not right for our family and doesn't fit my values and educational philosophy. I wish I had explored more before taking the plunge. I was naive to think it would be easy to change course! Now that our kids are settled and have their friends, etc. it's really hard.
Best of luck to you.
It's highly likely that you'll get into Chabot. Neighborhood kids get second priority (after the siblings of the kids who are already there) and Chabot is so big that there are usually plenty of spots (like, 50 percent is my recollection) for kids from outside of the neighborhood.
No, you are not guaraunteed that you will get a spot at your neighborhood school. But you do get priority. It's explained here on the website: https://www.ousd.org/Page/17066
Some schools have no problems with all the neighborhood students getting in and have a large percentage of out of neighborhood students. One school we looked at was about 50/50. And some there are neighborhood kids who don't get in. So, you may want to participate in the lottery, tour other schools and put others on your list. I'm not sure where Chabot falls on the spectrum but hopefully other people will know. Some information about demand for individual schools can be found on ousddata.org
Although enrollment is never guaranteed, Chabot is a large school and is reliably a school that takes in all of neighborhood kids and some kids from outside the zone as well. So, unlike Crocker, Thornhill, or Peralta (and some other smaller and popular schools), your chance of getting into Chabot is very high.
Neighborhood school placement is not guaranteed in OUSD, but in my experience with two kids who went to Chabot, Claremont Middle and Tech, as long as you apply for your neighborhood school during the regular application period and list your neighborhood school as your number 1, or only, choice, you are likely to get in. I have put down our neighborhood schools (those listed above) as our only choice and have always gotten in, including to Tech for this coming fall.