Farmington School District approved requests from 57 students to transfer into its school system for the 2015-16 school year through the state's Public School Choice law, according to Michelle Beeks, human resources manager.
Some of these students had been attending Farmington but moved out of district boundaries. Their parents wanted the children to remain at Farmington. Others are new to Farmington.
Farmington's school choice transfers include 25 from Fayetteville, 18 from Prairie Grove, seven from Lincoln and two each from West Fork, Bentonville and Springdale.
Most of the requests came from parents wanting their children to attend kindergarten in Farmington. The district received 19 requests for kindergarteners. Other grades included 13 students going into first-third grades, 14 requests for children going into fourth-eighth grades and 11 requests for students going into high school.
Beeks said this is the most requests Farmington has received for as long as she has been working for the district. She said she believes the number of requests has increased because more parents are aware of the School Choice law.
Ten students requested to transfer from Farmington to another district. The school has seven students transferring to Fayetteville and one each to Prairie Grove, Lincoln and Bentonville.
The Arkansas Legislature passed a School Choice law in 2013 and it gives students and their families the freedom to enroll in a district other than the one in which they live. Parents apply to a school district requesting a transfer.
The law has been amended since 2013. The latest changes were approved during the 2015 legislative session. Act 560 changed the application deadline from June 1 to May 1. It also moved up the deadline from Aug. 1 to July 1 for when districts have to notify parents if their child's application has been accepted or rejected.
The law has some restrictions. A district may lose no more than 3 percent of its enrollment to school-choice transfers. It also allows a district to reject an application if the district has reached at least 90 percent of its maxium authorized student population in a given program, class, grade level or building.
Prairie Grove approved requests from 14 students to transfer in and it has 10 students transferring to other districts, said Becky Hudson in the administrative office. Students transferring in are coming from Farmington, Lincoln, Greenland and West Fork school districts.
Lincoln approved one request for a student to transfer into the district through school choice and 16 students are transferring to other districts, according to Belindia Curtis with the administration office.
General News on 07/22/2015