H.B. 528 Local School Board Reporting: transcript

That's okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Committee. And, um, yes, this is open enrollment reporting. It's sb, I'm sorry, HB 5 28. But I'm speaking to the first step and, um, it's slightly different. Not that much different, but it's part of our school choice policy. That's this kind of one little aspect of it. It's already in code, actually, that school districts are required to report open enrollment data on their website. Um, but only about 27% of school districts do so, so that's like 11 outta 41 do. But because of this, um, it's not very transparent what's going on with open enrollment. It's difficult for people to access the information, and it's not very parent friendly. So it's really hard to see where there might be availability and so forth, and who to contact and so forth. So this bill changes a few things. It just, it says, rather than just having school districts report on their own website, they should report that data to the State Board of Education and also offer a contact person from the district that would be the person to contact. And also the State Board of Education will publish the report as part of its data gateway. And, um, also not just the report, but also who the contact person is. So, um, and with me today online, I believe we'll have Christine Cook Fairbanks, and she's the author of this. Um, I don't know if you received these, did We pass these out? Oh, good. I'm sorry. I have a little, um, information sheet about this, um, and she wrote this and it's, it's more about what open enrollment, what this change is. Go ahead. You can pass out a copy. Thank you. So do you have Christine online? Christine Cook Fairbanks. Thank you. She'll explain a little bit more about the bill. We do. Christine, uh, please tell us, uh, your name, who you represent, where you reside, and, uh, um, we appreciate having you participate today. Thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me. Yes. Christine Cook Fairbanks. I'm the Education Policy fellow with Sutherland Institute. Um, and I am joining in from Arizona. Uh, so as Sutherland started to dive into the issue of open enrollment, we obviously were seeking out, uh, data about kind of a statewide picture of this issue in Utah and trends, and quickly realized there was little to be found. Um, as, uh, the sponsor of the bill pointed out, this is already a requirement, um, uh, for district to post it online. Um, and so we've highlighted this compliance issue a few times and try to draw awareness that this is a transparency issue for parents. Um, so increasing transparency for open enrollment right now is really important because we live in this new culture of, um, education choice. Parents are now getting more comfortable with shopping around. Um, and we believe that education choices is really broad umbrella. Uh, it needs to have the best reforms for public school options because the mo the majority of families are choosing to send their students to public schools and they deserve the best options and information for their options within that system. Um, and in light of enrollment changes and declines and, uh, discussions about school closures, this would be really useful information to have. Um, so this bill would create sort of a natural layer of compliance enforcement for districts as they report it to the state. And then this would increase transparency with this kind of one stop shop data for parents, um, who are seeking information, maybe about multiple district options. And parents should be able to find it in sort of a reliable, predictable location like the state board website. Um, so this is probably a first step in, um, boosting transparency and reforms for open enrollment, but it's a really crucial first step. Thank you.

Thank you. And with that, I'm open for questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is this done in other states? Because I do recall like Arizona or something and seeing their system for how they do this, and I was quite impressed. Is is that your under I'm going to ask Christine to answer that because she's kind of a, something of an expert on this. So go ahead, Christine.

Yes. Other states do, so there are 17 states that offer some sort of state level report. Um, the Reason Foundation has a great annual ranking and they list out all those that have it. This, you know, Utah typically has, is high on the rankings for open enrollment, but it also lists the failures and what we lack. And this is one of 'em, the kind of a really common sense, um, report by the state board. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you Mr. Chair. So it looks like this is just for District schools, is that correct? That's correct. Um, can you tell me why charters aren't included? Um, just to me it feels like if you're looking at different options and choice that you'd want them on there also. Well, with open enrollment, you know, it's geographically based boundaries, who's a resident of the district versus a non-resident of the district. So the data doesn't really translate from charter into the, the data that's required for this report. But, um, you know, I do think in the future it's a good idea to also get more data on charter schools as well, but it wouldn't be resident versus non-resident data. Thank you. Christine, do you have anything to add to that? Is there more to the story on that?

Uh, that's right. So this section of the code currently only applies to, um, districts and, uh, district schools, uh, not charter schools. So this would just be a first step of getting that, um, in increasing compliance and getting the, the state board to report that too.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, my question was also about the charter schools, but beyond that, I know that a lot of districts already do this, but I don't see what advantage there is in knowing that. Um, I've seen schools in Granite District that are, uh, thriving because they have open enrollment, because there's specific programs. They have IB programs or other programs that I think it, it's been a a great thing for parents and kids to be able to select schools. It used to be very difficult to get into a school if you weren't in the boundaries. And I think it's created competition and it's created places for parents to take their child to the school that best suits them. And I, I like that. So I, I just don't know what this bill would do to add more report. It just makes more reporting for districts and they already do a lot of reporting. They're already required to report and to post it on their website. It's just that mo most of them actually do not currently do that, but they are required to in statute. Um, and I'm sure most of them make an effort to, but for whatever reason, um, it's not making it to the website. But I think the advantage in my mind is that, um, parents would be able to see where there may be openings as well as, you know, it's not just informational, but it looks like that may be a place that we could find, you know, an education for our child. There's so many different reasons that someone may choose, you know, maybe a program, maybe a great program or there could be so many different reasons. But, uh, and of course we do already have open enrollment, but, um, Christine, do you have anything to add to that about, you know, why?

Yeah, why would this I think, yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, so this, this does increase, um, the purpose is to increase compliance at the district level. Like they said, this is already a requirement. Um, but for the state level report, I think the value there is to also increase, uh, analysis of year over year trends. Um, so that's useful for parents, but also for policy makers as they're looking at enrollment and maybe where, where open enrollment is happening more or less, um, and issues to highlight there. So we just don't have that view. There's no way to, to really get a statewide view of open enrollment in Utah at this time.

Could I just ask one more question? Please. I know that a lot of schools with open enrollment actually advertised Cottonwood High has Ames Academy within its general population, so the kids can take other classes, um, outside of, uh, engineering and math and so on. And then they advertise. They also advertise that they have late start, and that's something. So, uh, I'm just saying, is this bill really necessary? And the one thing I'm concerned about, and I'll just let you respond to this, is it in any way, can you think any way it could be used punitively to, for people to say, well, they don't really do that, or it's not that great of a school, or, you know what I'm saying? I I just don't wanna see it used in a negative way and I don't know why we actually need it.

Well, one word that you used earlier was, um, competition. And I really see this as a great way for K through 12 public schools to this would demonstrate where students are gravitating, what programs are students interested in, um, what maybe many students would be interested in a late start, or maybe even an early start or, you know, the various things that they may choose to, um, to switch into it out of their boundary school. So I think that transparency, it would be much more, um, it would be a much broader picture of the whole state, um, and where students are moving within traditional K through 12 schools rather than having to seek alternative education, maybe through homeschooling or online schooling or some other charter school or whatever. So to me, it kind of is kind of a hybrid almost of, you know, that competitive, it, it, it introduces a little element of competitiveness, which I hadn't really considered until your comment, but I think that's really a benefit of it. It helps parents have an overview of their educational options and help guide their students to where their interests might lie. And I think also, um, the transparency, it's currently impossible to get a real picture of statewide open enrollment situation because there's no statewide, I mean, one district, some districts are very good at reporting data and they have, it's very clear and easy to see probably the one that you described that has even advertising for programs, but others are not as open with their data. They're just not, um, putting it on the website as they're required to do. So. I do think there are some real advantages to it within K through 12 traditional education.

Um, Representative Acton, as I'm looking at this, uh, on line 77 it says the number of non-resident and student enrollment requests, non-resident student enrollment requests accepted. And then the calculation line 88, the calculated the number of non-resident students. Uh, just just for abundance of clarity, what is a non-resident student? Is that a student that lives outside the, uh, LEA, uh, sorry, the district, uh, uh, boundary school. Is that, is that what we're talking about here? Yes.

So, so what we're trying to do is we're trying to figure out how many of the students, what percentage of the students attending a particular school live outside of the boundaries for that school. Is that the whole purpose of this? Well, that's the open enrollment. Yes, I believe so. Um, you know, you raise a good question though. And, and I'm gonna have to ask Christine on this. I believe the open it, it, it means that they live outside of the boundaries of that school. For example, my children, Uintah Copper Hills High School, that was their boundary school. If they had chosen to go to West Hills, I'm sorry, if they had chosen to go to West Jordan High School, they would've presumably been non-resident and that would've been tracked. Is that, do you know, or would they have to leave the district?

That's my understanding. Non-resident student is just those that aren't assigned to that particular school. School. So that Utah has a very open, open enrollment policy. So it can be intro or inter-district. Right. Um, but not a resident just means, uh, not assigned to that school.

Okay. I think that helps. Um, it also explains why, um, charter schools have a little bit of an interesting dynamic in this case because they have a geographic, they typically have a geographic boundary, and, um, they are in, in many cases, they're not authorized to enroll students outside of that boundary, which is, uh, an interesting concept when you start to think about this in the contracts of our district boundary schools.

Um, and we do also report, um, the, uh, enrollment cap. We also in report the number of students that are actually enrolled. And what you're trying to do here, if I understand correctly, is just understand for each given school, how many students are enrolled outside of the, outside of that boundary that's assigned to that school. That's the whole purpose of this right here. And then, and to make that information public Yes. And exactly make it public.

Good evening. Uh, my name is Cody Stewart. I'm speaking on behalf of Yes, every Kid. It's a national, uh, advocacy organization, not for parental, uh, flexibility and options in education. Uh, we very much support this legislation. We think that it, it actually makes a very good open enrollment system in the state of Utah even better, um, to, to address perhaps some of the questions that have been asked. I think looking at it from the perspective of, of parents, what, what this, what this bill will do is it'll actually gives parents more information, more access to information. As has been said, a number of schools are already, um, are already complying with this, but some, some are not. So those that are complying won't have to change anything. But there are some schools that that could do a little bit better. And we hope this bill will encourage 'em to do so. But again, from the perspective of parents, what we wanted to see is, is give them the ability to know where are openings, where are, where, where can they go? Because right now, again, that's available in some locations, but it's hard for a parent to actually find out of these two schools, where could our kids go if we wanted to? So we think this bill is a very common sense, simple way to, to address that issue. It'll increase transparency, give more information to parents and families so they can make the best choices for their, for their kids. Uh, with that we urge, urge the, uh, the committee to support the legislation. Thank you.

Uh, chair Walter, vice Chair Buffet, and members of the House Education Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on House Bill 5 28. My name is Jude Schwaba and I'm a Senior Education Policy Analyst with recent foundation, a National 5 0 1 C3 public policy research and education organization, uh, with expertise across a range of policy areas. Our K 12 education team is a leader in public school, open enrollment policy research, publishing, an annual report, uh, rating each state's open enrollment, wellness, open enrollment benefits, students and districts helping many students attend access schools that are a better fit, uh, whether it's they one to attend schools that are more highly rated, escape bullying, uh, access college level or specialized courses and enjoy smaller class sizes. Um, however, identifying open enrollment effects on families, taxpayers, and districts is only possible if detailed open enrollment data is available. And unfortunately, this is where Utah's open enrollment, offshore HV 5 28 would remedy this by establishing an annual open enrollment report published by the State Board of Education, uh, which would include district level data, data such as the number of transfers and so forth. These data improve, uh, transparency are key to understanding how districts implement their policies. Uh, sta uh, statutes in 17 states, including Montana, Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho, require state agencies to publish some or all the data proposed to HB 5 28. Utah is unusual because unlike other states with strong open vulner laws, it doesn't collect open term data or publish it on at the state level. Uh, overall, HB 5 28 is an excellent addition to Utah's law because it would significantly improve open enrollment transparency. And in doing so, it would improve Utah's grade on our report, uh, from an A to an A. And so thank you for the opportunity to, uh, speak on the bill.

Um, do we need to adopt the first sub? I think we do, right?

Okay, I move that we adopt, uh, first substitute to house Bill 5 28.

It? No, I'll waive.

Um, the, the sub, it just clarified, um, that it's, uh, school districts and it also changed the effective date and the reporting dates to align with other reporting dates for SBE. It just makes it easier for the state board.

To you. Yeah, I move that we favorably recommend House Bill 5 28 as substituted.

Would you like to speak to that? I'll wave

Um, I would just say, you know, it does help parents, it gives them an overview of educational options and, um, it's easier to analyze trends in open enrollment throughout the state. So I would appreciate your support. Thank you.

Okay. Is this on? Yes. It sounds like it's okay. Yes, you are on, um, yes, it's local school board reporting. And until now I hadn't even thought about the fact that it has that word reporting, which to me is a red flag. But I want to reassure the committee that, um, this does not require any sort of new report. It's, um, it's, it's already in code that school districts are required to post open enrollment data on their websites each year. This bill does not add to that reporting requirement at all. It simply requires them also to send that data to the state board, um, and they can just copy and paste it to them. It also requires the state board to publish the data as part of their data gateway. So, um, open enrollment data helps in several ways, but it gives parents an overview of educational options out there within the traditional K through 12 system so that they don't need to seek elsewhere for education if they choose not to. If they'd like to stay in the traditional schools that K through 12, they may, and with more options. And then it's also better transparency and that will reveal which programs students are gravitating toward or, uh, making it easier to analyze trends statewide. And I do have a representative or two from Sutherland Institute available if we have any questions about the bill. But with that, I am open for any questions from the committee.

Good afternoon. Uh, and thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. Uh, my name's Aaron Smith. I'm the Director of Education Reform at Reason Foundation. Um, for those of you who aren't familiar with Reason, we're a national 5 0 1 C3 nonprofit research organization. And, um, we do a lot of work around public school, open enrollment, um, and we've been studying and publishing and research on the issue for, for about the past six years. Um, so as many of you might know, um, research shows that strong public school, but enrollment policies can benefit both students and school districts alike. Um, and transparency is a critical component of open route enrollment. Um, but currently Utah's, uh, law falls short on this one specific measure. Um, so as a result, it can be difficult for policymakers, families, taxpayers, and others to assess how the policy is functioning. Um, and most importantly, um, whether it's working for Utah students. Um, so this bill would, would address the problem by establishing an annual report published by the State Board of Education. Um, that would include key straightforward data such as the number of transfers and denials by school districts. Um, about 17 states currently have similar provisions in place, um, including states like Arizona, uh, Montana, Nevada, and Idaho. Um, and Wisconsin's been doing this successfully for, for about the last two decades with its open enrollment program. Um, so in summary, HB 5 28 would improve open enrollment transparency and ultimately strengthen Utah's law. Thank you for the opportunity.

Um, that is really, um, Anything else? No, nothing else really. Okay,

Thank you Madam Chair. I would, um, move that we favorably recommend House Bill 5 28. First substitute to,

Um, just, you know, helping parents with a better overview of all their educational options, more transparency. Um, and I just appreciate your support and I don't like the big jumbotron. That's my only comment, but if I don't look up there. Senator Owen, Thank you.

Uh, just, I really like some of the work you've done in this bill representative, especially where you don't share the information about their athletic ability or if they're special ed. So we're not just trying to select out and, um, choose schools or report, um, to try to change that population, but it's open that way. So I think it's really good information that's already being collected. Just we should share it.

Representative Acton.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Yes. Um, each year, school districts across the state, uh, send a report or post a report to their websites about open enrollment statistics in their area. But this bill requires them to just copy that, send it to the state board as well, so that they can publish it to the data gateway that they operate. And it gives a statewide picture of open enrollment trends in traditional K through 12 schools so that, um, we can see where students are gravitating and, and, um, what options may be available for parents. And that's what the bill does. Um, so I'm open for questions.

non have act for summation. Yes, I just wanted to say, um, it makes the data more useful when you have a statewide picture of it and, um, it, we can see where the great programs are that are attracting students. It may be great teachers, it may be great coaches or that, just that sort of thing. We can just have a better view. So with that, I appreciate your support.