Districts have the option to offer intradistrict choice in Michigan. If your district allows you to transfer to another school in your district, you will likely have to arrange for transportation on your own unless the district will let you meet one of its buses on its route.

Districts may decide who may transfer using any fair and equal criteria. Districts may refuse the transfer option to students who have recently had severe behavioral problems. Contact your district to learn about its specific criteria.

Interdistrict Choice

The school finance reforms which were passed in 1994 helped turn the wheels of interdistrict school choice. The reforms made a large part of school funding tied to the enrollment. When a child leaves a school, a certain amount of money goes with him. When he moves to a new school, that school gets the funding. Before the reforms, the school didn’t get any extra funding so no school had any incentive to accept transfer students. Since schools could get more funding and offer more programs through accepting more students, many schools opened up to transfers.

Each district chooses whether or not it will participate in school choice. You can only transfer to districts that participate in the program. You can also only transfer to schools within your own intermediate school district or in an intermediate school district that borders your own. Schools will accept transfer students on a first-come, first-served basis and may not discriminate on any factor. Parents are responsible for providing transportation to their child’s school of choice.

Two-thirds of Michigan school districts currently participate in the school choice program.

No Child Left Behind

Michigan has a high percentage of schools marked as Title I, “in need of improvement,” under the No Child Left Behind Act. You may transfer your child if she attends a school that has received this classification. Check the articles Get the Best Education for Your Child in Michigan and What No Child Left Behind Means for Your Child for more insight into this law.

Updated July 2005