School Offers & the Priority System

OUSD is a choice district, with no automatic school assignment. Families must submit applications to attend a new school, and at the transition points between PK and TK/ K, 5th and 6th, and 8th and 9th (families never need to apply to stay at their current school). These applications are run through an algorithm based on a number of different factors called “priorities” that have been established by the School Board. The algorithm factors the number of available seats, the priorities, the way a family ranks each school, and whether the application was submitted on-time or later. The system then provides families with the best possible offer based on the amalgamation of all these factors. This may not necessarily be a family’s 1st choice, as that is only one of four main factors that is considered. It’s important to name that these four factors are the only factors considered. There are a number of conspiracy-related theories that have threatened to mutate into fact over the years, but Occam’s Razor persists: seat availability, school rank, application priority, and on-time status are the only factors that go into the application-offer process.

Yes, all K-12 students are guaranteed enrollment in OUSD. The district has sufficient space to enroll any and all students; however, we cannot guarantee that every family is able to enroll at their most preferred school. There is a difference between not having a school and not having a more popular or more convenient school. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee TK enrollment. The district has rapidly expanded full-day TK programs over the last three years, but we still operate only one TK class for every three kindergarten classes. As such, current demand for TK is outpacing available seats, particularly at campuses that are already using every available classroom.

No. Although given the number of seats usually available at a specific school, most families who apply on-time will have the opportunity to attend their official neighborhood school. Applying late may result in families from outside the neighborhood boundary receiving offers. Additionally, TK spaces tend to be more limited than Kindergarten seats, and are not always able to accommodate all of the families residing in a neighborhood boundary.

Yes. We welcome students from around the Bay to enroll in our great schools. Interested families 
should simultaneously submit an application at ChooseOUSD.org and begin the interdistrict transfer (IDT) approval process with their residential district. Generally speaking, we are able to accommodate most general education IDT requests in grades K-12. Space is much more limited in TK, and in ours Self-Contained Programs (SCPs).

Each school in a student’s application is assigned a priority. The higher priority, the greater the likelihood that the student will receive an offer to that school. If a student could have multiple priorities, their application is assigned the highest or most beneficial one.

No. 504s can, and must, be accommodated at every school in the district.

No. Students with inclusion, resource, or speech only services are included in the general education enrollment group, and receive offers based on the priorities and factors described above. Students in Self-Contained Programs (SCP) apply for those programs just as general education students do, using the same system, but specific seats are set aside for these programs. SCP programs are small, serving between 10-14 students, and may only admit 3-5 students per year.

No.

The system uses an algorithm that triangulates the number of available seats, the priorities discussed above, and family choice. Generally speaking, if two applications rank a school #1, the seat will be offered to the application with the higher priority. 

Importantly, we make offers in windows and don’t make rolling offers. What this means is that we release offers all at once, and then don’t release new offers for the remainder of the window. In the Spring, windows are 2-3 weeks long, and eventually, these windows shrink to 48 hours as we get closer to the start of the school year. Families should not wait within these windows to see if they get another offer -- they won’t. Instead, families should accept or decline, and if necessary, wait to see if another offer will come their way in the next window.