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Archive for June 12th, 2006

Pinellas Schools choice program

Sometimes people will look at new homes with me and say something like, “I see there is a nice elementary school right around the corner. Is that where my kids will be going?”

The answer is always, “Well, maybe — or maybe not.”

Here’s why:

Pinellas County has something called the Choice Plan, in which parents have to apply for their childrens’ admission to a particular school. Any student who is a resident of Pinellas County can apply for admission to any school in the county, no matter where it is.

Parents name schools that are their first, second and third choices. If there is room at the first choice school, that’s where the kids go. If not, they go to the second choice, or occasionally the third choice.

This seems like sort of a complex system, but here is why it is in place:

Up until 2000, Pinellas County had forced busing, a program that had been put in place to force the integration of public schools. In 2000, the school board came up with a plan to do away with the forced busing, and the Choice Plan was a major component of that. That plan finally went into effect in August of 2003.

All this is a bit complex, but it is not as bad as it sounds. Students stand a very good chance of getting into the school nearest to them, if that is what they want. If that school is full, chances are still good to get into a nearby school. Also, if you want your child to go to the very best rated school, there’s a good chance of that happening, too, although the best-rated schools are often in great demand, as you might expect.

There are also magnet schools, and you can apply to those as well. I’ll probably talk about the magnet schools in another post.

Meanwhile, if you want to learn more about the Choice Plan, you can go to the website at www.pinellaschoice.org.

Tags: pinellas county, real estate, schools