investigation by the California Attorney General\u2019s Office<\/a>.<\/p>\nA process known as contract capping, or \u201cConCapping,\u201d occurs when all classes in a school reach the district\u2019s permitted student-to-teacher ratio, a number negotiated between the district and the Sacramento City Teachers Association.<\/p>\n
Any students over that cap get moved to a new campus with enough seats. <\/p>\n
\t\tSign Up for the Homeroom Newsletter<\/p>\n
Coming soon: A weekly email with news and insights into Sacramento area schools and how it impacts your students.<\/p>\n
The involuntary reassignments were previously determined by registration date: last student in, first student transferred.<\/p>\n
But after the attorney general found the old model to be discriminatory, often hitting marginalized students the hardest, the district will now use a lottery system to decide which students are displaced.<\/p>\n
Sacramento City Unified officials are expected to present their reforms at a Thursday board meeting.<\/p>\n
Attorney general investigates<\/p>\n
The attorney general\u2019s investigation, which was settled and announced in January, found cases of \u201carbitrary\u201d calculations and unnecessary reassignments. <\/p>\n
Overall, Black, socioeconomically disadvantaged or unhoused students faced forced transfers at a disproportionate rate, according to the report.<\/p>\n
The settlement ordered a slew of corrective actions for the district, among them a community survey on the district\u2019s system for transferring students to adjust class sizes and a working group to brainstorm a better model.<\/p>\n
That working group, composed of 12 members, met four times between March and June, according to district spokesperson Al Goldberg. The last meeting on June 3 was a public forum. <\/p>\n
A survey went out to families in May. Of the 499 respondents, 47 said their student was transferred after the start of the year. Eight of those reported experiencing the disruption more than once.<\/p>\n
The student shuffling process affects just elementary grades because middle and high school leaders have more flexibility to adjust student schedules by moving class periods, Goldberg said.<\/p>\n
Who will be in the lottery?<\/p>\n
The new system will use a randomized lottery to decide which students get transferred from an overfilled school, according to the district.<\/p>\n
But that lottery won\u2019t suddenly include every registered student.<\/p>\n
At the start of the fall semester, the pool will consist of kids who first enrolled at the school between the last day of the previous school year and the 10th day of the current school year.<\/p>\n
If more enrollment shifts are needed beyond the first 15 days of school \u2014 for example, because of new students mid-year \u2014 that date range expands to early March through the current date.<\/p>\n
Some students exempt<\/p>\n
These narrow windows of eligibility could be stretched further back, according to district officials, if all the students who enrolled in that period of time are exempt.<\/p>\n
A contingent of students is protected from the involuntary moves, including unhoused or foster youth, students previously transferred in this process or students with disabilities that require resources at a specific school site.<\/p>\n
A student is also protected if their sibling is a fellow student at the school or their parent is an employee there.<\/p>\n
Communication changes<\/p>\n
The attorney general\u2019s office, in its investigation, found the district\u2019s communication during the shuffling process to be lacking.<\/p>\n
Officials say they are fixing that with more regular notices to families.<\/p>\n
Initial messages will alert parents and guardians if their child\u2019s grade level is approaching its limit. At that point, district officials will request volunteers to transfer schools.<\/p>\n
Ensuing emails will go out to families if their student is included in the lottery and again if that student was chosen to move schools.<\/p>\n
Savannah Kuchar\u00a0is a reporter covering education. She came to Sacramento to be a part of the Abridged\u00a0by PBS KVIE\u00a0team and contribute to a crucial local news source.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Abridged version: Sacramento City Unified School District officials are changing how they adjust overenrolled schools after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-407898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}