The Sacramento City Unified School District has reached a settlement with the state after an investigation that found the district violated state laws related to open enrollment and non-discrimination, according to the attorney general’s office.California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said Friday that the district had failed to protect students who were experiencing homelessness or foster care, and also created barriers to enrollment that impacted Black and Latino students and English learners. Read the complaint here. Read the stipulated judgment for the settlement here. The investigation focused on the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and on the district’s open enrollment process. Unlike registration, open enrollment is a voluntary process. It allows parents and guardians to apply to certain schools with no neighborhood boundary. Parents and guardians can also apply to schools with boundaries that have some openings to enroll students who don’t live in the neighborhood.The investigation found that the district’s open enrollment policies gave an unfair advantage to parents with higher incomes and internet, computer and car access. For example, a parent without internet access and a car would have to travel up to 1.5 hours by public transit for a required visit to the district’s enrollment office during a two-week window. And some schools required family visits during workdays, “lengthy questionnaires,” or a commitment to completing volunteer hours as a condition for admission, according to the AG’s office. Another issue was the district’s mid-year transfer policies, called “ConCapping.” When contractual class size caps are reached, some students are transferred to other schools where the caps haven’t been reached. The state found that Black, socio-economically disadvantaged students, and students experiencing homelessness were more likely to be ConCapped than compared to their proportion of the district’s population as a whole. For example, Black students made up 11.9% of the district’s population but made up 20% of the students who were ConCapped, according to the AG’s office. The state’s complaint said that ConCapped students are more frequently late to school because of transportation difficulties, struggle with behavioral issues and leave the district in higher numbers than other students. Both the state and district said that they have worked together to identify changes to the enrollment practices and reduce barriers for families. SCUSD, in a statement, said that the investigation’s findings were “not indicative of deliberate or widespread systemic discrimination within our past or current enrollment practices. Instead, they reflect a small number of isolated missteps over a period of years, some of which were presented in the filing without proper context.”The district said that even before the start of the investigation, it had eliminated mandatory site visits, volunteer hours or monetary contributions at certain schools. SCUSD also said that it has enhanced digital access by providing every student with a laptop computer for home use and that the district hosts regional registration and enrollment fairs. “We recognize that even one enrollment process failure is too many, and represents a failure to properly support a student and their family,” SCUSD Superintendent Lisa Allen said in a statement. “We look forward to having the support and oversight of the Attorney General’s Office to ensure any enrollment barriers that may still exist for our families, particularly those who are less advantaged, are removed.”As part of the settlement, the district will be required as part of a five-year plan to have a centralized assistant superintendent position to supervise enrollment, ConCapping and to ensure equal access in enrollment, the AG’s office said. SCUSD said in its statement that it would improve oversight, communication and transparency around enrollment options; modify its ConCap process to ensure protections for foster youth and students experiencing homelessness; provide more training related to enrollment decisions; and reestablish a working group to ensure more equity and transparency related to ConCapping.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
The Sacramento City Unified School District has reached a settlement with the state after an investigation that found the district violated state laws related to open enrollment and non-discrimination, according to the attorney general’s office.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said Friday that the district had failed to protect students who were experiencing homelessness or foster care, and also created barriers to enrollment that impacted Black and Latino students and English learners.
The investigation focused on the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and on the district’s open enrollment process. Unlike registration, open enrollment is a voluntary process. It allows parents and guardians to apply to certain schools with no neighborhood boundary. Parents and guardians can also apply to schools with boundaries that have some openings to enroll students who don’t live in the neighborhood.
The investigation found that the district’s open enrollment policies gave an unfair advantage to parents with higher incomes and internet, computer and car access.
For example, a parent without internet access and a car would have to travel up to 1.5 hours by public transit for a required visit to the district’s enrollment office during a two-week window. And some schools required family visits during workdays, “lengthy questionnaires,” or a commitment to completing volunteer hours as a condition for admission, according to the AG’s office.
Another issue was the district’s mid-year transfer policies, called “ConCapping.” When contractual class size caps are reached, some students are transferred to other schools where the caps haven’t been reached.
The state found that Black, socio-economically disadvantaged students, and students experiencing homelessness were more likely to be ConCapped than compared to their proportion of the district’s population as a whole.
For example, Black students made up 11.9% of the district’s population but made up 20% of the students who were ConCapped, according to the AG’s office.
The state’s complaint said that ConCapped students are more frequently late to school because of transportation difficulties, struggle with behavioral issues and leave the district in higher numbers than other students.
Both the state and district said that they have worked together to identify changes to the enrollment practices and reduce barriers for families.
SCUSD, in a statement, said that the investigation’s findings were “not indicative of deliberate or widespread systemic discrimination within our past or current enrollment practices. Instead, they reflect a small number of isolated missteps over a period of years, some of which were presented in the filing without proper context.”
The district said that even before the start of the investigation, it had eliminated mandatory site visits, volunteer hours or monetary contributions at certain schools.
SCUSD also said that it has enhanced digital access by providing every student with a laptop computer for home use and that the district hosts regional registration and enrollment fairs.
“We recognize that even one enrollment process failure is too many, and represents a failure to properly support a student and their family,” SCUSD Superintendent Lisa Allen said in a statement. “We look forward to having the support and oversight of the Attorney General’s Office to ensure any enrollment barriers that may still exist for our families, particularly those who are less advantaged, are removed.”
As part of the settlement, the district will be required as part of a five-year plan to have a centralized assistant superintendent position to supervise enrollment, ConCapping and to ensure equal access in enrollment, the AG’s office said.
SCUSD said in its statement that it would improve oversight, communication and transparency around enrollment options; modify its ConCap process to ensure protections for foster youth and students experiencing homelessness; provide more training related to enrollment decisions; and reestablish a working group to ensure more equity and transparency related to ConCapping.
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel