Public high schools--attending outside of your zoned district possible? (Atlanta: homes, transfer)

[sabrosina]

My neighbor's daughter attends a high school that is not the high school our subdivision is assigned to. How is that possible? I ask because my kid is in private school (middle) to avoid the school we're zoned for, but I would really prefer for him to be in public high school when the time comes.

Without pestering my neighbor, who I barely know, I'd love to know how one accomplishes this? Is there an actual application process or is there some underhanded pay-off thing going on?

Thanks for any help.

[flyonpa]

You can apply for a Hardship Transfer (Deadline is 2/28/16)

Hardship Transfer Information

Does not mean it will be approved.

HS transfers are mostly made for CURRICULUM that is not offered at the student "Home" school, (also Medical, Special Ed).

Does your neighbor work for the Fulton BOE? That also is a allowable reason.

[Mattie]

It's not only allowed for hardship cases though. You can request an intra-district transfer if there is room in the school you prefer. I'm not sure how frequently requests are approved in these cases.

Intra District Transfers

[flyonpa]

Originally Posted by Mattie

It's not only allowed for hardship cases though. You can request an intra-district transfer if there is room in the school you prefer. I'm not sure how frequently requests are approved in these cases.

Intra District Transfers

Are there any schools not making Adequate Yearly Progress in North Fulton?

[CMMom]

It's also possible that the child has a condition or disability that the local school doesn't serve. Sometimes, kids will be sent to a different school in the county that has the needed program.

[dblackga]

If the other school offers a curriculum that isn't available at your zoned school, parents often apply for an intradistrict transfer. But keep in mind that the school is not obligated to accept outside-the-zone students, and if they are that good of a school, they may not have room, anyway, because the good schools tend to max out due to people flocking to live in that zone.

For example, Riverwood HS in Sandy Springs has always attracted out-of-zone students who were anxious to participate in their IB program. I know one family from DeKalb County who did private school for 8 years, then their child got into Riverwood on an application from outside the county/zone for the IB program. They had to pay tuition to attend Riverwood, but it was 20% of what they were paying at the private school.

That was several years ago, I'm not familiar with the current transfer rules. But yes, it is done.

[lastminutemom]

Fulton has some school choice -- I know that North Springs and Riverwood High have programs and I know there was talk about Northview (something with foreign languages?) having some spaces for students to opt in after the last round of redistricting. There also may be some vo-tech programs that allow movement as well.

I wonder which Fulton high school you are trying to avoid?

Riverwood no long accepts out of county students but N. Springs still does.

[Mattie]

Originally Posted by flyonpa

Are there any schools not making Adequate Yearly Progress in North Fulton?

No, good catch. I didn't see the OP's location.

[sabrosina]

Its not that I'm necessarily trying to avoid the High School that we're zoned for (Roswell), but it gets very mixed reviews from parents, and doesn't offer some of the courses my kid is interested in (Latin). When we moved here from a little over a year ago we just selected a private school from the start, not giving much consideration to high schools, because our plan was only to be in the Atlanta metro area for the three years of middle school.

We still might be moving on (my husband's company is expanding into Europe), but the timing is looking like it might be off, so high schools are now of some importance to me. We could still go the private route, but there are some fantastic public schools around us (counter to what we thought before moving here, and committing to the private middle school) that offer the rigor that we want for our kid (who enjoys the challenges of maths and sciences himself).

Anyway--its good to know there is an official process. Milton High is equidistant to Roswell from our home, and does offer Latin, so I thought I'd look into it. Hopefully something will come of it.

Edited to add: Our neighbor's kid is in Cambridge High and came from a homeschooling background prior to starting there. I wonder what circumstance caused their request to be granted?

[aries4118]

Roswell High is an excellent school with a stellar reputation. It is consistently "ranked" as one of the top 25 high schools in the state, and is consistently on various Metro Atlanta top 10 lists.


From where are you getting information?


Make your life (and your child's life) much easier--go to Roswell High School. It's great--and free.