Franklin’s school board changed its open enrollment policy this week to cap the number of students who can enroll from other communities and reaffirmed a clause that bars its students from flocking to other schools.
The district is believed to be the first in the state to take such an action since a Supreme Court ruling last month clarified that districts without open enrollment policies would be on the hook for tuition if their students leave to enroll elsewhere.
The ruling – coupled with legislation under consideration that would mandate the adoption of open enrollment policies – has prompted leaders of low- and middle-income districts to express concern that some of their students will leave, further straining their budgets.
The law comes with a catch that could lead many districts to respond by adopting open enrollment provisions to use them as a shield. Allowing open enrollment grants a district the authority to cap the percentage of students who can enroll elsewhere at zero.
“This way, we’re kind of protecting ourselves: allowing students who want to come in to come in, but possibly giving us some protection,” Franklin school board chair Liz Cote said.
Franklin was already in an unusual position. In 2015, it became the first school district in the state to establish an open enrollment program, after the neighboring town of Hill withdrew its students from Franklin’s middle and high school in favor of a tuition agreement with the Newfound Area School District. At the time, the adoption of an open enrollment program was considered primarily a way to allow Hill students to finish out their education in Franklin schools.
After the remaining students graduated, Franklin’s open enrollment program grew inactive.
Last month’s Supreme Court decision resolved a dispute between the only other open enrollment school in the state, Prospect Mountain High School in Alton, and the Pittsfield School District. Though the law states the school district where a student resides must pay the district where they attend school 80% of the home district’s average cost per pupil, Pittsfield argued that tuition responsibility only applied to districts with open enrollment provisions themselves.
The Supreme Court disagreed, ruling that the status of the home district doesn’t matter.
Franklin school leaders predicted the ruling would lead others to follow their lead.
“You are going to find other school districts that are going to be declaring open enrollment and setting their limits according to the law because of the most recent interpretation of the law,” said school board member Jack Finley. (Finley is also the superintendent of the Epsom, Chichester and Allenstown School Districts.)
Franklin’s board opted to cap the number of students who could enroll in its schools at five per grade.
“If students want to come here from other districts, we are open for business,” Superintendent Dan LeGallo said.