{"id":494713,"date":"2026-10-13T14:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T14:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/494713\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T14:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T14:22:11","slug":"san-francisco-prepares-to-end-its-public-school-lottery-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/494713\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco Prepares to End Its Public School Lottery System"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco<\/a>\u2019s schools could soon pivot to neighborhood-based enrollment, 15 years after the controversial \u201clottery\u201d system aimed to give families a sweeping choice of schools anywhere in the city, but offered little certainty of where their child would be placed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The school board is expected to approve one of two plans that would overhaul the San Francisco Unified School District\u2019s student assignment system in favor of a policy staff said will be more predictable and keep more students closer to home.<\/p>\n

SFUSD\u2019s current enrollment system allows families to apply to any of its elementary school campuses across the city, but does not guarantee students\u2019 acceptance in any specific one.<\/p>\n

Critics have called the system stressful, confusing, and frustrating enough to turn some families away from the city\u2019s public school system entirely. But others are wary of losing the element of choice, especially for families who live in neighborhoods where schools have weathered decades of underinvestment and underenrollment.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, SFUSD\u2019s board and staff have spent late nights discussing possible enrollment options, narrowing down their choices to two last week. Both of the plans on the table on Tuesday night would guarantee students who apply by the enrollment deadline a seat in an assigned elementary school based on their address \u2014 and eliminate the requirement that families rank school choices in order to enroll in SFUSD.<\/p>\n

\"\"Leo Pham leads the way to his classroom after Jose Ortega Elementary School\u2019s first morning circle of the school year on Aug. 17, 2026, in San Francisco.\u00a0(Miles Cull\/KQED)<\/p>\n

The board is expected to direct staff to hammer out the details for one of those policies, called \u201cOption B\u201d and \u201cOption C,\u201d for approval by April.<\/p>\n

Under Option B, students would be given the option to accept a seat at their neighborhood school. They would have the option of applying to other SFUSD schools and could be assigned if there are empty seats.<\/p>\n

Option C would similarly give applicants the choice to accept their neighborhood school. They could also apply to other campuses, but only those that offer special programs like language pathways, newcomer services or a kindergarten through eighth grade model.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week, the board eliminated a third option, Option A, which would have created enrollment zones. Under that policy, students would have been guaranteed a seat in one of three to five elementary schools near their home, but not necessarily their first choice.<\/p>\n

Option A was most similar to a policy the district approved in 2020, but never implemented after the COVID-19 pandemic and significant community pushback. That policy would have had applicants rank schools in their attendance zone and assign them based on that list, as well as diversity and tiebreaker considerations.<\/p>\n

Within those percentages, families\u2019 preferences were starkly divided along neighborhood lines: west side and central neighborhoods favored Option A, while the Southeast leaned toward Option B.<\/p>\n

Historically, students in the Sunset and Richmond have been more likely to favor neighborhood schools, while some in the Bayview, Mission Bay and Excelsior have preferred schools outside of their neighborhoods, worried that the schools closest to them don\u2019t have the resources their kids need.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mirna Vasquez, a Bayview resident whose three children have attended SFUSD schools, said choice remains a priority for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy priority looking at schools [was] they provided a bilingual program,\u201d she said. \u201cI realized that schools near to my house, they don\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said she wanted to send her children to a campus that was \u201creally funded\u201d and had a full staff.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mission Bay Elementary School in San Francisco on Aug. 6, 2026. Mission Bay School is the first new public SFUSD school to open in 20 years.\u00a0(Gina Castro for KQED)<\/p>\n

Overwhelmingly, families who responded to the district\u2019s survey said that for them to enroll a child in a school by their home, they would need an environment that felt safe, has strong math and reading instruction and a stable teaching staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil they guarantee me as a parent, \u2018we\u2019re going to fund it,\u2019 maybe I can enroll my children in my neighborhood schools. But if they don\u2019t promise that \u2026 I don\u2019t mind driving far away to make sure my kids have better access to, I don\u2019t want to say better education, because I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s true, but more support,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Families who preferred Option A reported much higher levels of satisfaction with the schools near their homes: just 37% in favor of A responded that there was \u201cno acceptable school nearby,\u201d compared to 60% of those who preferred Option B.<\/p>\n

For decades, the school district has struggled to ensure that schools in lower-income neighborhoods and where students have had lower academic performance rates receive equitable resources, staff and programs \u2014 creating a loop of underenrollment, and so, a lack of funding, for schools with the most acute needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At their final study session before Tuesday\u2019s vote, some board members expressed concerns that either policy could perpetuate the same issues: \u201cI\u2019m very concerned that we would expect similar patterns to repeat, of students from the southeast preferencing schools other than their neighborhood schools [and] going to open spots,\u201d said Vice President Jaime Huling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Students at Sanchez Elementary School in San Francisco arrive for their first day of the school year on Aug. 18, 2025.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, having their schools be underenrolled even though that\u2019s where the most students are, and being faced in April with making decisions about closing schools in the southeast,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Looming in the background is a mandate from the board for Superintendent Maria Su to propose possible school closures and mergers by 2030.<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s last attempt to close schools in 2024 was abandoned after parents, union representatives and city officials pushed back, in part because they said the campuses set to close or merge would disproportionately impact historically marginalized communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After Tuesday night\u2019s decision, staff will move forward with redrawing attendance areas for neighborhood schools and making sure there are enough seats for all students.<\/p>\n

The board will meet again in November to discuss more specifics, like tiebreaker metrics for assigning students to non-neighborhood schools. The current lottery gives priority to siblings of students enrolled at the school, and those who live in areas of the city with the lowest test scores, among other factors.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also directed staff to implement the enrollment change in a way that creates strong, well-resourced schools in every neighborhood. Whether that\u2019s possible under either proposed model, though, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco\u2019s schools could soon pivot to neighborhood-based enrollment, 15 years after the controversial \u201clottery\u201d system aimed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-494713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494713","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=494713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}