Ask an Expert: Judy Goddess
Using California School Law To Advocate For Your Kids

What's the best way to get an interdistrict transfer? My son is a high achiever, and I want him to have access to a significantly better high school than any available in our own district.

This is no easy task. In the best of worlds, the two districts already have an interdistrict transfer agreement, meaning they readily accept each other's students. Check on that with your home school's district office.

If the districts don't have this agreement, you need to find out whether the receiving school will accept another student and your home school will release your son. You must do this by filing separate written requests to each district, no later than 30 calendar days before the beginning of the school term. (Call each district and ask exactly where and to whom to send your requests. If you don't receive a satisfactory answer, send them to the superintendents of each district.) If either district refuses your request within 14 days of the beginning of the new school term, your home district must advise you of your right to appeal to the county office of education.

Then you have 30 calendar days to file a written appeal. If you let the 30 days pass, the county board will decide it has good cause to deny your appeal. The board will also check to be sure you exhausted all your options within the districts before you appealed higher up. Otherwise the county will bounce your appeal right back to the districts.

Let's say, though, that the county board agrees to consider your appeal. It has 30 calendar days to hold a hearing. No more than three schooldays after this hearing, the board must decide whether the student may attend the new school.

The California Education Code specifically discusses interdistrict transfers, including what to do when no agreement exists between districts. You can find this information in sections 46600­01.

There is one other possibility. If the school district has designated your home school as a failing one for three years in a row, it must support your transfer request. That's thanks to the new Title I law known as "No Child Left Behind."

As you can see, requesting this kind of transfer requires lots of formal paperwork and adherence to deadlines. But it's not impossible. Good luck.