Open Enrollment Policies: State Profile - District of Columbia

Open enrollment policies allow a student to transfer to a public school of his or her choice. There are two basic types of open enrollment policies.

• Intradistrict: Students transfer to another school within their resident school district.
• Interdistrict: Students transfer a school outside of their resident district.

Depending on the state, open-enrollment policies are mandatory, voluntary, or both. 

• Mandatory policies require districts to participate in the program.
• Voluntary policies allow districts to choose whether to participate in open enrollment, often allowing districts the discretion to enter into transfer agreements with other districts.
• States with both mandatory and voluntary policies usually require mandatory open enrollment in low-performing schools or districts, in defined regions of the state or in other specific circumstances while allowing voluntary open enrollment in the rest of the state.

View the full open enrollment database here.