Board OKs Policy on School Choice : Education: New guidelines give parents greater freedom to select campuses outside the neighborhood. But there are still some limitations in the plan.

Parents in the Los Angeles Unified School District will have greater freedom to choose the school their child attends under new guidelines unanimously approved Monday by the school board.

The new policy replaces regulations in force for many years that have made it difficult for parents to send their children to public schools outside their neighborhood. But in practice, the new rules also pose obstacles to free choice of a public school.

Under the new guidelines, parents will have the unlimited right to withdraw children from their resident school without the principal’s permission and in effect shop for a new school that has space within the district. Students will not be able to sign up at an integrated school if their enrollment upsets the racial balance.

The new approach was prompted by a state law authored by Assemblywoman Dede Alpert (D-Coronado) that ordered every school district in California to adopt the same open enrollment policies as part of a nationwide trend--sparked by the school voucher movement--to give parents a greater choice in selecting a school.

“I think it’s a landmark in the school reform effort to open school choice to every family in the district,” said Board of Education member Mark Slavkin. He said the new policy will allow parents to become more involved in their child’s education “rather than feel their children are assigned to a school by default.”

School principals and district officials will determine the number of available enrollment slots at every elementary, middle and senior high school. Officials estimate that about 50,000 spaces will be open at about 500 schools. Magnet schools are not affected by the new rules.

Students from the neighborhood--as well as students bused in for integration and to relieve overcrowding--will still have first choice at space in a school. The new policy also says that no student will be displaced from a school to make room for new applicants.

Students will be able to enroll at any school that has space, provided their arrival does not knock the campus out of integrated status. Schools are considered integrated when white students make up 30% to 70% of the student body. However, most schools in the district have student populations that are majority Latino, African American, Asian American and other nonwhite youths and will not be affected.

The racial and ethnic balance of the school from which the student withdraws is not a relevant factor under the new policy. Permission will not be required to leave any school--a major change from past practice.

The key date for parents will be May 16, when district officials will release applications and the count of available seats at each school. Enrollment season for the 1994-95 school year will close on June 13.

If more students apply to a school than there are open seats, a lottery will be held. The state law signed by Gov. Pete Wilson last summer prohibits schools from making admission decisions based on academic achievement, language skills or athletic talent and mandates that all selections be made on a random basis.

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Parents whose children attend traditional calendar schools--those running from September to June--will receive acceptance notices around June 17. Year-round schools will issue their notifications about June 30, officials said.

All California Interscholastic Federation rules apply to students who use the new rules to transfer, meaning that varsity level athletes would have to give up competitive team sports for a year to change to schools not in their neighborhood.

Under the state law, the district is not required to provide transportation to open enrollment students. District officials said that space may be open on some bus routes. Transportation availability will be determined two weeks after the start of the school year.

For years, the district has offered several popular but limited school choice programs that will continue. About 30,000 students are enrolled in magnet schools, for which applications are now being accepted. Another 40,000 youths attend schools outside their neighborhood as part of a voluntary integration program or to relieve overcrowding. And 5,000 attend other schools close to day-care providers or their parents’ jobs.

Also, a little-publicized permit plan had already allowed parents to send their children to any school that had space, but few took advantage of it because of complex applications and red tape. It required approval from the principal at the former school and from Downtown administrators.

Sue Di Julio, principal of Overland Avenue Elementary School on the Westside, said her office has been deluged with phone calls from school-shopping parents every time the choice issue has been publicized. She expects big demand for about 35 open seats in her school.

“We’ve had open enrollment permits in the district before, but it was not very well-publicized and few people knew about it,” Di Julion said. “I don’t think the new policy is really much different, but it feels good because now parents feel that they are in control. . . . We are all sitting back to see what is going to happen.”

Ellen Ruben Gabrielson, Parent-Teacher Assn. president at Overland, has been helping Di Julion field calls from parents.

“The idea that parents can come to a school of their choice with a free ticket, as opposed to all that paperwork, is very appealing,” Gabrielson said. “The opportunity will be great if it can be implemented hassle-free.”