Denver Public Schools school choice process for 2015-16 opens today

The Denver Public Schools school choice process for 2015-16 opens today.

This is the fourth year Denver parents will use the district’s unified enrollment system to apply to enroll at public and charter schools around the city.

Applications are due on Jan. 30, 2015. Parents find out in March if their child has gotten into their desired school.

This year’s enrollment will look most different for parents in southwest and parts of southeast Denver, where the district has created new enrollment zones modeled off of those in the far Northeast part of the city. Those zones mean that students will be given preference for several schools in their geographic area rather than being automatically assigned to a school.

For the first time, parents can also use the district’s new parent portal to sign up for schools.

Brian Eschbacher, the district’s director of planning and analysis, said the system has become increasingly complex over time. “It started off as pretty basic, and as people have gained trust in it, we’ve been able to personalize it more.” Some of those tweaks include requiring schools to hold a certain number of places for students who are moving into the district or a school’s zone after enrollment has already closed.

A report from the Center for Reinventing Public Education, a research group that supports school choice at University of Washington, found that while Denver parents felt more educated than average about the options in their city, they were dissatisfied about transportation options and feared that it increased inequity in the district.