News Brief
Monday, January 12, 2026 — 10:39 am
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a settlement on Friday with the Sacramento City Unified School District after a state investigation found the district used unlawful enrollment and student transfer practices, according to a press release.
The settlement follows a lawsuit alleging that the district violated state open enrollment and non-discrimination laws, failed to provide required protections for students experiencing homelessness and in foster care, and created barriers that disproportionately affected Black and Latino students, students from low-income families, students with disabilities, and students with limited English proficiency.
“We believe strongly in the principles of equity and access,” said Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Lisa Allen in a press release. “While we stand by our enrollment practices, we recognize there are areas where the district can further improve.”
The settlement stipulates a five-year plan in which Sacramento City Unified must implement a centralized assistant superintendent position to supervise enrollment, a dashboard to display enrollment data and trends, community advisory groups to provide public recommendations related to enrollment practices, and staff training related to open enrollment and the rights of foster youth and youth experiencing homelessness. It also requires the district to evaluate its admission exams for incoming kindergarten and first grade students and provide compensatory education services for foster youth and youth experiencing homelessness who were impacted by unlawful enrollment practices.
“Every student has the right to equal access to a quality public education. That starts with enrollment,” Bonta said in a press release. “I am confident that Sacramento City Unified will implement these necessary reforms to ensure that state laws are followed and no one is unfairly disadvantaged when it comes to enrolling their kids in school.”
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