TUSD officials offered transfers to 682 students after repealing a desegregation policy that limited moves that might affect schools' racial balances, but only 107 students accepted.
The small number of transfers — out of about 59,000 students in the Tucson Unified School District — may be because most highly sought-after schools already were filled to capacity, said Chyrl Hill Lander, a district spokeswoman. The school year also had started when the board rescinded the decades-old policy.
Before the start of the school year, district officials announced they would strictly enforce that enrollment transfer policy, which allowed transfers outside students' neighborhood schools only if the moves improved racial balances at the new schools. The strict interpretation of the old policy for the current school year meant some students couldn't attend schools they had attended just last year.
People are also reading…
But after the federal judge overseeing the case declared that transfer policy unconstitutional, the TUSD governing board approved the open-enrollment policy, on Aug. 28.
Since 1969, when the district began federally ordered desegregation efforts, student transfers and placements had been defined by the old policy, known as "Board Policy 5090." TUSD has been under a desegregation order since 1978.
U.S. District Judge David C. Bury ruled the policy was unconstitutional, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling that rejected race-based student placements.
Bury's ruling was part of a larger interim order requiring TUSD to show it has fulfilled the desegregation order while also filing a plan for student placements and transfers.
