High School Attendance/Enrollment Zoning and Assigning in varying cities and counties

A memoire of my experience attending a school district that put its numbers first and students second in terms of high school enrollment policies. My big question is at the end of my rant.

I grew up in the Seattle Public School District, from 1993 (district based preschool, K-5 beginning 1996) to 2009, where it was norm to attend your neighborhood K-5 School, options to attend neighborhood/zoned middle school or K-8 school, but for high school, there weren't enough high schools throughout the city for students to attend, and not all neighborhoods or clusters of zip codes had a high school to call their own, so many students would be assigned to the nearest high school: A) based on their enrollment zone for K-5 school; B) based on nearest high school with a traditional, comprehensive curriculum (not alternative/option/vocational/magnet program); C) based on diversity population percentages of that individual student's ethnicity (not just race alone) in comparison to how many more students that high school needs of that ethnicity; D) based on race of Asian, Pacific Islander, White, Black, Latino or Middle Eastern and what the majority race of a high school currently is, thus they would be enrolled there; E) very few high schools in SPS are typical FEEDER/RECIEVING-ONLY high schools, to be fed students from nearby middle schools, which would be fed by nearby elementary schools.

Basically, you could live in majority-one-race zip code or enrollment zone, your neighborhood high school is already the majority of your ethnicity/race, and bc that school has met the status quo in how many % students are what ethnicities, you might be considered "one too many", thus you're enrolled/assigned to attend a high school OUTSIDE of Your Enrollment Zone, by anywhere from 1 high school away to 8 high schools away from your enrollment zone and home address. Seattle's high schools run from South to North, and from the farthest south SPS zipcode, some students would/could be assigned to attend a high school that EIGHT ZONES AWAY, with a 50% chance of being provided district-run yellow school bus route, or be given a Metro bus pass (known as the Orca Card).

I attended the farthest North high school in the SPS. It was 3 zones away from my enrollment zone. That was for 9th and 10th grades. Then I attended the high school that was designated for my enrollment zone, one neighborhood away but in my Assigned Zone. There were not enough high schools for a growing city, for many neighborhoods, and for many new students arriving after 9th grade, coming from other districts/states/nations. Hundreds of thousands of students in the history of SPS have had to struggle and endure the challenges of attending a high school nowhere near their homes, far away by school bus or public transit, earlier wake-up times than transportation options would even begin their routes, and living too far from home to attend after-school clubs and events, or to participate in league-based athletics, let alone hang out and and socially interact with friends on campus or in the high school's main neighborhood.

MY QUESTION FOR THE MASSES: WHAT OTHER ***URBAN* SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN THE US AND CANADA RUN THEIR HIGH SCHOOL ENROLLMENT PROCESSES IN A SIMILAR FASHION, AND TO WHAT EXTENT DO THE STUDENTS SUFFER AT THE COST OF NOT ENOUGH SCHOOLS?** (this question applies to urban school districts, with the exception of suburban allowed. It does not apply to Rural school districts that would ultimately resort to Zoning their schools as "FEEDER/RECIEVING" schools, and ultimately if you live in a rural county with only 1 high school available, despite transportation challenges it does not equate to the urban setting).

Submitted December 24, 2021 at 11:49PM by bebespeaks https://ift.tt/3JjCoBe