Withdrawing a Student
There are recent new laws affecting students transferring from a charter school to a district school. If you determine SLArts is not a good fit for your student, we want to help families plan accordingly and not be caught off guard. Unfortunately, if these new requirements are not followed, a student could lose their spot at SLArts and subsequently not be able to enroll in the district school of their choice either.
Utah state law establishes procedures that govern the withdrawal of students from charter schools for enrollment in district schools. See Utah Code. § 53A-1a-506.5 and Utah Admin. Rule R277-472.
Specifically, Utah law states that parents are to provide notice by June 30th of their intent to withdraw from a charter school and enroll in another school (either a district school or another charter school) for the following year. If the parent applies for admission to their school district of residence for the following year before June 30th, the school district must accept the student into the student’s school of residence.
For example, if, during the 2021-22 school year a parent intends to withdraw their student from SLArts and re-enroll in their neighborhood district school for the 2022-23 school year, they should notify both SLArts and their local school district of that intent prior to June 30, 2022. The district is required to enroll the student in their local neighborhood school.
If a parent wants to withdraw a student from SLArts after June 30th or during the school year, state law requires the parent to first go to the school district or other charter school and obtain a letter of acceptance for enrollment in the new school. The parent then needs to give the charter school a copy of that letter of acceptance. Also, in this situation, the local school district is not required to accept the student into their school of residence if the parent did not notify the district before June 30th. The district is only required to accept the student into a school in the district that has “adequate capacity”.
For example, if the parent in the above example fails to register the child in the neighborhood district school prior to June 30, 2022, the district doesn’t have to allow the student to enroll in their neighborhood school if that school doesn’t have “adequate capacity” for that school year. The district would then tell the parent which school does have capacity for their child and the parent would be responsible for transportation to that school.
School districts should post information to their websites about which schools in the district have adequate capacity. If they have not done so, you should contact the district office and request that information.
If you choose to withdraw your student from SLArts, then change your mind, you will have to re-enter the Admissions Lottery for the following school year. Unless you have a Lottery preference (sibling enrolled, child of faculty, alumni family) we cannot guarantee re-entry into the school regardless of the situation.
Please contact Jen Guillory in the main office, [email protected] to arrange for withdrawal.