What is school choice?

School choice can be best defined as empowering parents to select the educational environment they feel is best for their child. In other words, school choice is parental choice. Some families are already able to exercise school choice simply because they have the resources to move to the neighborhood of their choice or to pay private school tuition. Families that do not have these same resources can only exercise choice through the use of different school choice tools, such as vouchers and tuition tax-credits. The best school choice tools are programs (like vouchers or tuition tax credits) in which education funds follow the child to the school of their parents' choice, whether public or private. Other school choice tools include charter schools, open enrollment, magnet schools, virtual schools (both public and private), privately-funded scholarships, private schools, and home schooling.  more

If a school is identified as being in School Improvement, the school/district is required to offer parents the option of sending their child to another public school (including charter schools) within the school district. If no other school within the district is available, a district shall, to the extent practical, enter into a cooperative agreement with another district that will allow students to transfer.  more