A law that has been in the talks for a while now was finally passed and in the stages moving further to be ready for the upcoming school year.

In 2022 Kansas legislature passed House Bill 2553 stating that any student within the Kansas state lines will be allowed to enroll in the school of their choice as long as capacity applies.

The bill itself states that any child in the K-12 spectrum can request either of the two types of open enrollment. One is inter- district, which allows students to attend another school outside of their district, and the other is intra-district being in which students can attend a different school within their resident district.

The number of kids that are chosen for open enrollment is different for each district. Board members came together to determine how many more students their capacity would allow. “The district had to turn in what their capacity is, ” Principal Frank Bell said.  “At the last district board meeting, they kept it two per class.”

Starting next year, two new students of each graduating class will be chosen to attend USD 231, two new juniors, two new sophomores, etc, this goes for all the schools in the district.

In the aspect of accepting new students and which ones get picked the law states- “A school district shall not accept or deny a nonresident student transfer based on ethnicity, national origin, gender, income level, disabling condition, proficiency in the English language, measure of achievement, aptitude or athletic ability.” ( kslegislature.org)

In the aspect of Gardner Edgerton’s athletic and academic extracurriculars, students won’t be brought in to replace any spots. Just like any other student the new enrollments have to be able to meet the requirements.