Instead of welcoming students from middle- and low-income families, they’re using attendance zones to keep them out.

We need to hold these schools accountable for breaking their promise of being equally open to all.

But according to our latest report, 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦, we know these schools have at least 2,589 empty seats. availabletoall.org/report-crisi...

⚖️ And state law says that they must take applications from all families living inside the district and run a lottery to determine admission.

📱 All but one of the affiliated conversion charter schools (Topanga Charter) told us they couldn't accept students from outside the attendance zone because they were "full" and had a waitlist.

Because government-enforced attendance zones decide who gets access, not families.

Our president Tim DeRoche in @the74.bsky.social ky.social: www.the74million.org/article/atte...

As we recently exposed, there are nearly 7,000 open seats in LAUSD’s best elementary schools. But these schools are ignoring the law and hiding how many open seats they truly have. availabletoall.org/report-crisi...

Why won’t LAUSD hold these schools accountable for shutting out families?

⚖️ Families wanting to escape their assigned, underperforming school should be able to transfer under the state’s open enrollment law. But the highest performing public schools refuse to participate.

💵 Because they don’t want to draw the wrath of wealthy voters who overpaid for their homes to buy access.

So inequality lives on. Students get locked out of a life-changing education. Class and racial segregation persist.

“That is something that we don’t acknowledge.”
Board Member Nick Melvoin tells @the74.bsky.social.
the74million.org/article/how-...

He’s right. And as our president Tim DeRoche points out,
LAUSD is afraid to change these boundaries or the entrenched system that relies on them.

Why?

School attendance zones, many of which mirror racist redlining maps from the 1930s.

🗺️ That’s right: the same government-drawn maps that denied low-income families of color financial assistance to buy homes.

There’s a faster, fairer solution:

Let them cross district lines to attend a public school now.

Decriminalizing address sharing should be seen as a starting point.

We need an overhaul of our enrollment laws that makes where a child lives irrelevant to where they can learn. availabletoall.org/report-when-...

In Georgia, former State Rep. Valencia Sto
Valencia Stovall courageously tried in 2020. Her bill
would have allowed parents to enroll their children in a public school beyond their assigned zone if someone living in that boundary permitted them to use their address.

Because we’re still clinging to an exclusionary system that ties public school enrollment to where a child lives.

States should decriminalize “address sharing.” Connecticut did it back in 2013.

Districts should embrace enrollment policies that are fair to everyone:

✅ Set aside at least 15% of seats for students living outside attendance zones

✅ Give every student a chance at schools within 5 miles of home

✅ Use a transparent lottery when applications outnumber seats

Impacted families are angry over the looming changes—and they should be.

New Orleans proved there’s a better way.

✅ Require wealthy districts to save seats for transfer students from underfunded ones.

✅ Make district lines matter much less in enrollment.

✅ Don’t let zip codes and property values have the final say in a child’s educational experience.

Read the full report: edpolicyinca.org/publications...

The report offers several possible solutions. But there’s one we especially agree with: policymakers should strengthen California’s open enrollment law.

What does that mean?