The Sacramento City Unified School District reached a settlement with the California Attorney General after an investigation into its enrollment policies. The investigation found that the policies favored families with higher incomes and better access to technology, and affected Black and Latino students, English learners, and students who are homeless or in foster care, as reported by KCRA.
The state’s complaint said SCUSD’s enrollment process required some families to travel up to 1.5 hours by public transit, attend school visits during workdays, fill out "lengthy questionnaires," or commit to volunteer hours for their child’s admission. The district had removed these requirements before the investigation. The settlement requires Sacramento City Unified School District to follow a five-year plan, including creating a centralized assistant superintendent to oversee enrollment and ConCapping, which moves students when class sizes exceed limits and affects Black and low-income students more. Attorney General Rob Bonta said, "Every student has the right to equal access to a quality public education. That starts with enrollment," and added, "I am confident that (sic) Sacramento City Unified will implement these necessary reforms to ensure that state laws are followed and no one is unfairly disadvantaged when it comes to enrolling their kids in school," according to ABC10.
SCUSD said it will improve "oversight, communication and transparency around enrollment options," update its ConCap process, and restart a working group. The district is giving every student a laptop for home use and has started holding regional registration fairs. Superintendent Lisa Allen said, "We recognize that even one enrollment process failure is too many, and represents a failure to properly support a student and their family," as stated by KCRA. The Attorney General’s office noted that transportation problems after mid-year transfers caused students to be late or have behavioral issues. Allen added, "While we stand by our enrollment practices, we recognize there are areas where the district can further improve," as mentioned by ABC10.
