BREA : District Approves ‘Family Transfers’

Trustees of the Brea Olinda Unified School District have decided to allow students whose older siblings attend a school outside their attendance boundaries to go to the same school.

The move now allows the district to approve “family transfers” when room is available. In the past, some students were accepted at schools outside their attendance boundaries, but some of their siblings were not. That left some parents sending their children to different elementary schools.

Several parents complained that the situation caused emotional hardship as well as transportation problems.

Trustee Lynn Daucher said the past practice was a way to keep schools from getting overcrowded.

The district has a new policy that randomly chooses who will be allowed to transfer to schools of their choice. Now, the chosen students’ siblings also may go there, as long as there is room available, officials said.

“We decided that we would reunite families if possible,” Daucher said. “We think it’s a wise decision to keep families together whenever possible.”