I. The School Board shall establish residential attendance zones for each school based upon the Superintendent's recommendation. All students, unless otherwise provided by School Board rule or authorized by the School Board’s order, shall attend the school serving the student’s residential attendance zone. Each residential attendance zone shall be established to achieve maximum utilization of all School Board facilities and to consider the time and distance of travel for students. The instructional capacity for each school will be set yearly after the recommendation by the Superintendent or his/her designee. A student’s residence is the residence of his/her parent(s), legal guardian, legal custodian, or other such person as defined by any order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction of the state of Florida and by Florida Statutes. Any student residing in the School District shall be assigned to a school for attendance by the Superintendent or designee based upon their designated attendance zone or acceptance to a different school through the District’s school choice options as defined in Policy 5.201.

A. If a student has been expelled from another school district, the Superintendent or designee may recommend to the School Board either that the final order of expulsion be waived, and the student admitted to the District or that the final order of expulsion be honored, and the student not admitted to the District.
B. A student may be permitted to attend a school in another residential attendance zone pursuant to the Controlled Open Enrollment Policy (Board Policy 5.23) or under the provisions for School Reassignment. Student reassignments shall be granted based on the requested non- districted school having physical and programmatic available space.
C. A student eighteen year of age or older who has interrupted his or her education and who subsequently desires to enter Sarasota County Public Schools shall enroll either in the adult high school or another alternative program. The student may not enroll in a regular high school. In extenuating circumstances, a principal may recommend an exception to this policy to the appropriate District-level administrator.
D. Students may not be enrolled in a regular high school for more than 10 semesters, unless the principal approves the enrollment beyond 10 semesters. The principal will consider the reason the student wants to continue high school, the educational progress to date, and the commitment to education. Semesters begin when the student first enrolls in ninth grade in any public or private school.
E. Students may not enroll in a regular high school if they cannot earn the number of required credits to graduate by their 20th birthday, unless enrollment is approved by the principal.
F. For students with disabilities who have not graduated with a standard diploma, the district will provide services until the end of the school year in which the student turns 22 years old.
G. The Superintendent or designee is authorized to assign a student to any program or school as deemed to be in the best interest of the student or School District.

II. This policy shall establish the School Board’s expectations when it becomes necessary to reorganize the School District’s school attendance boundary lines. The changing of school attendance boundary lines may be necessary due to growth, change or shift in the distribution of student population, the construction of a new school, or any other occurrence which takes place in the community which makes it necessary to redistribute the student enrollment population to assure the most appropriate housing of students within the district’s operating school buildings.

The School Board remains committed to the establishment and operation of school attendance boundaries which assure availability of program, staff and facilities to meet student educational needs and to assure wise and prudent use of staff, facilities and finances. In so doing, however, it may be necessary, from time to time, to call for the redrawing of attendance boundary lines of specific school attendance areas, or even system-wide, to capture the most efficient educational and economical benefit to students, parents, taxpayers and the community.

On the occasion when such action is deemed necessary, the School Board and the Administration will be guided by the following standards of expectation..

A. No later than the first Board meeting in December of each school year, the Superintendent shall determine whether there is a need for any new or revised attendance boundaries based on the facility being over-crowded or under-utilized or because the District is opening a new school.
B. Where the Superintendent has identified the need for a boundary change, the Office of Planning shall develop feasible potential attendance boundary scenarios for review.
C. When drawing feasible potential attendance boundaries, the Office of Planning shall strive to create multiple scenarios for public presentation and feasibility to meet as many of the following variables whenever possible:
Use natural boundaries (bridges, waterways, major thoroughfares and roadways),
Current capacity and utilization at all schools within the study area impacted,
Address growth (current and projected planned development),
Portable reduction plan within district’s educational facilities plan,
Geographic proximity,
Transportation efficiency and logistics,
Safety considerations (hazardous walking conditions within a two-mile radius, etc.),
Avoid dividing students within the same neighborhood or street,
Avoid multiple moves for impacted students in a study area,
Programmatic equity..
D. The District may form a Boundary Advisory Committee to review feasible potential attendance zones and provide feedback. The Office of Planning will organize and work directly with this group. The Boundary Advisory Committee may be formed with the following membership:
Chief Operations Officer;
Executive Director of Facilities;
Director of Planning;
Appropriate Chief of Elementary, Middle, or High Schools;
Director of Transportation or Designee;
Office of School Choice representative(s);
Food & Nutrition Services representative(s);
Planning Department representative(s);
Principal of each school potentially affected by boundary changes;
School Advisory Committee (SAC) Chair of each school potentially affected by boundary changes;
Up to four (4) parent representatives from each school potentially affected by boundary changes (jointly selected by the Principal and SAC Chair);
One teacher from each school potentially affected by boundary changes (jointly selected by the Principal and Sarasota Classified/Teacher Association).
E. Each Boundary Advisory Committee meeting shall be properly noticed in accordance with Florida Statutes and open to the public.
F. Following the Office of Planning’s development of feasible scenarios the District shall hold at least one publicly noticed community meeting at each potentially impacted school for members of the community to provide input, ask questions about each scenario, and propose additional scenarios for consideration. Currently enrolled families whose student(s) may be impacted by changes caused by any of the potential boundary scenarios will receive notification of meeting dates and locations.
G. After all public community meetings have been held the feasible scenarios and recommendation shall be presented to the School Board at a regularly scheduled Board Workshop. At a date after the Board Workshop, a Public Hearing shall be held to allow the School Board to receive input from any member of the community wishing to provide feedback. At the next Regular Board Meeting after the Public Hearing, the recommended boundary scenario shall be placed on the agenda for the Board to vote on.
H. After boundary changes are approved by the School Board, currently enrolled families whose student(s) are impacted by the changes will receive notification of the changes.
I. When attendance boundaries are changed, students with one (1) year remaining in their current school will have the option of remaining at that school. This shall not automatically entitle the student to district transportation. When approving attendance boundary changes, the Board, by its own discretion, may extend the option to remain at their present school to other students with more than one (1) year remaining.
J. When attendance boundaries are changed, students attending an impacted school on reassignment, as defined in Policy 5.201 the Board, by its own discretion, may extend the option to remain at their current school.

Sarasota County Schools

Sarasota County Schools