Moving to Columbus from Overseas and need help understanding the school district system. (2010)

[dlah]

We are moving from Overseas to Columbus Ohio and we have a 5 year old child. We do not understand how the Ohio School District works. Specifically, if you live in a particular school district, can you choose to enroll your child in any one of the number of schools in the district? Also can the elementary schools reject your enrollment even if you live in the school district? What are the magnet schools? One more thing, we are due to move in January 2010 at which time my child will be 5 (turning 6 in March 2010), will she be enrolling in K for the remainder of the school year? Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give me....

[coach123]

As far as school districts go, for the most part your child would have go to the school in the district you live in and more importantly pay taxes in. There are only a couple districts in central that will do out of district enrollment and there usually would have to be a special circumstance. With the exception of Columbus school district, most districts will only have a couple elementary, middle, and high schools. Smaller districts will only have one of each. So you will be assigned a school based on where you live in the district. With Columbus school district, there are several dozen schools and you can send your child to any one of them as long as there is space. However, I would not recomment Columbus school district. You can also send you child to a private school, although you will still be paying school taxes depending on the district you are in.