Open enrollment, a policy widely supported by parents, allows students to transfer to K-12 public schools outside of their residentially assigned campus if space is available. In practice, this can allow students to find the right educational setting for them to thrive.
However, “about 39.4 million students, or 80 percent of students enrolled in public schools, reside in states with weak or ineffective open enrollment laws,” according to the Reason Foundation’s 2025 ranking of states’ open enrollment laws.
The nonprofit ranked and graded states based on best practices related to open enrollment laws including statewide cross-district open enrollment; statewide within-district open enrollment; children having free access to all public schools; public schools being open to all students; transparent reporting by the state education agency; transparent school district reporting; and transfer applicants having the ability to appeal rejected applications.
“Strengthening these policies would be a significant boon to the 49.4 million students enrolled in public schools in all 50 states,” according to the Reason Foundation.
California’s grade
All considered, California received a D- and ranked 13th overall. It was one of two states to receive a D. Six states (including neighboring Arizona) received As, seven earned a B, two got Cs and 33 states (including neighboring Nevada and Oregon) scored an F.
California fully incorporates concepts around within-district open enrollment, districts being free and open to all students, and the ability to appeal a rejected transfer application in its laws. Its open enrollment laws partially cover statewide cross-district open enrollment and don’t include transparent reporting by the California Department of Education or school districts, according to the analysis.
According to the Reason Foundation’s Senior Education Policy Analyst Jude Schwalbach, California policymakers can strengthen open enrollment by consolidating various cross-district open enrollment options into the District of Choice program, making it statewide and removing sunset provisions; requiring all districts to post available capacities by grade as well as relevant policies and procedures to their websites; and ensuring basic aid districts are “financially incentivized to enroll transfer students.”
Learn more about recent research on open enrollment here.
