The Board of Education shall permit the enrollment of students from Ohio school districts only in a school or program of this District, providing each enrollment is in accordance with laws and regulations of the State concerning Inter-District Open Enrollment, the provisions of this policy, and the administrative guidelines established to implement this policy.

This policy shall be reviewed annually by the Board to determine whether to adopt a resolution to continue the policy or to rescind Inter-District Open Enrollment. The Board reserves the right to modify the conditions under which Inter-District Open Enrollment would continue for any particular program, classroom, or school.

The Wauseon Exempted Village School District Board of Education resolves to permit the enrollment of students, admitted under R.C. 3313.98, tuition free, from all adjacent and other districts subject to the policies, rules, regulations and conditions contained hereafter:

This resolution permitting inter-district open enrollment shall become effective July 1st, 2005, and shall remain until the Board chooses to amend the policy.

Students/parents accepted into the inter-district open enrollment program shall be accepted for one (1) school year.

Native students (school residents of the Wauseon Exempted Village School District) shall have priority to all programs, buildings, and grade levels over inter-district open enrollment applicants.

Children of employees admitted tuition free by Board policy, and present tuition students, shall have priority over inter-district open enrollment applicants.

Special education students from those districts in the special education consortium in which Wauseon Exempted Village School District is a participant shall have priority over inter-district open enrollment applicants.

No student shall be accepted under the inter-district open enrollment program into a class, course or program that is not housed within the Wauseon Exempted Village School District proper, with the exception of the Post Secondary Option Program and Four County Career Center. The Wauseon Exempted Village School District shall not be required to create or add education programs or units to serve inter-district open enrollment students. Additionally, enrollment limits for special education and vocational units shall not be exceeded.

Any student accepted into the inter-district open enrollment program who is a special education student shall be required to attend the school within the District where services specified in the student's IEP are currently available.

Students with disabling conditions may be rejected for inter-district transfer if the services described in the student's IEP are not available in the Wauseon Exempted Village Schools.

If the Board of Education elects to renew this policy for future years, any student/parents who were accepted into and completed this school year in the Wauseon Exempted Village School District under the inter-district open enrollment program and who are eligible (reside in an adjacent or other Ohio district) and reapply pursuant to a succeeding year inter-district open enrollment program shall have priority over new inter-district open enrollment program applicants provided they meet the other eligibility requirements of this policy.

Any student/parent who ceases to reside in an eligible adjacent or other Ohio district during this school year who has been enrolled pursuant to this inter-district open enrollment policy shall forfeit his/her right to attend Wauseon Exempted Village School District under the inter-district open enrollment program unless the parents move into another qualifying district. If the parents fail to do so, the child shall be withdrawn from school.

No student shall be accepted into the Wauseon Exempted Village School District under the inter-district open enrollment program who has been suspended or expelled from school for at least ten (10) days in the current semester or the immediately preceding semester.

In addition, no student shall be accepted into the Wauseon Exempted Village School District under the inter-district open enrollment program who has been convicted and/or ruled a delinquent child for committing any of the crimes listed below:

Conveying deadly weapons or dangerous ordnance;
Possessing deadly weapons or dangerous ordnance;
Carrying a concealed weapon on school property or at a school function;
Trafficking in drugs;
Murder or aggravated murder;
Voluntary or involuntary manslaughter;
Assault or aggravated assault;
Rape, gross sexual imposition or felonious sexual penetration;
Complicity in any of the above offenses.

Inter-district open enrollment program students must provide their own transportation to Wauseon school buildings.

It is the responsibility of each student/parent who is accepted in the inter-district open enrollment program and who desires to participate in interscholastic athletic competition to take all necessary steps and present evidence of such to the superintendent of schools that they have met all standard/eligibility criteria of the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

In order for an open enrollment candidate to be accepted into the Wauseon Exempted Village School District under this policy, the following conditions shall be met:

The Wauseon Exempted Village School District must have available space and teacher(s) for the applicant.

An applicant will not be accepted if doing so would result in class sizes that exceed a pupil/teacher ratio as follows:

Kindergarten to 8th grade, 25 to 1. (Limits for grades 7 & 8 shall be based upon a twenty-five (25)-pupil average per section.)

Grades 9 to 12, students shall not be assigned to any course or individual classroom that has a pupil/teacher ratio greater than twenty-five (25).

Open enrollment students who are excessively truant are subject to discipline pursuant to the terms of the Student Code of Conduct, up to and including suspension, expulsion, or permanent exclusion.

APPLICATION PROCESS

The following shall be the process for applying for and processing applications to the open enrollment program:

Applicants applying for inter-district open enrollment must enter at the beginning of the school year. No students shall be accepted in the program after the school year begins. (Students who were residing within the Wauseon School District, or were Open Enrollment students within the Wauseon School District at the beginning of the school year, and subsequently moved to another Ohio school district during the course of the school year will be reviewed on a case by case basis.)

Student/parents wanting to enroll in the inter-district open enrollment program must submit a completed electronic application beginning April 15th and no later than June 1st of each year. One (1) electronic application must be submitted each year for each student who requests an inter-district transfer.

No later than June 20th of each year student/parents will be notified of acceptance into the inter-district open enrollment program.

Once the Superintendent has determined the student openings available for the upcoming school year pursuant to this policy, placements will be filled by those continuing open enrollment students from the previous school year, then all others on a first come, first served basis.

Applications received beyond the deadline of June 1st and prior to the first day of the school year will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Applications received on or after the first day of the school year will be considered for enrollment to the Wauseon Virtual Academy only.

Revised 8/13/01
Revised 6/20/05
Revised 3/27/08
Revised 4/14/14
Revised 1/22/15
Revised 12/9/19