photo by: Journal-World

Lawrence Public Schools district offices pictured in April 2021.

To comply with a new state law, Lawrence school district leaders will soon vote on a policy that governs how and when students who reside in other districts can transfer into the Lawrence district.

In the 2023 legislative session, the Kansas Legislature passed a law that, beginning in June 2024, will let students apply to districts other than their own if those districts have space to accommodate them. The law also requires districts to adopt a policy by January 2024 that governs how they’ll handle these transfers, and the Lawrence school board will hold a public hearing and consider adopting its policy at its meeting on Monday.

The policy the district will consider is a model policy that was written by the Kansas Association of School Boards, board member Kelly Jones told the Journal-World this past week.

“A district could write a policy that’s different from the model policy that KASB has provided,” Jones said. “The KASB model policy is consistent with what’s in the (state) statute, so I don’t think many districts will.”

The transfer rules were discussed during a policy committee meeting this past week. At that meeting, Jones said that while an influx of nonresident transfers would be tough to project, she thought it would be “hard to imagine” parents or students “opting to drive distances past other (school district) buildings to go to a school in another district.”

“It will be interesting to see whether that’s something that will start happening more widely around the state,” Jones said.

Jones also said during the meeting that the new rules will likely require districts to make more use of consulting firms. At its last meeting earlier this month, the board approved a contract for up to $80,000 with one consulting firm — Overland Park-based RSP and Associates — for enrollment projections and other demographic data.

“Because of the new statute, we have to engage with (consultants) more regularly,” she said. “So rather than every other year, or every five years, we may have to engage with them annually.”

Kristen Ryan, the district’s executive director of human resources, said that when it comes to transfer students’ eligibility for extracurricular activities, the proposed policy “really doesn’t change the way we do business.”

“Nothing in this policy shall exempt a nonresident who transfers into the district from requirements of (Kansas State High School Activities Association) regarding eligibility for KSHSAA activities,” she said. “So all of those things, like waiting out your time, are still in effect.”

In other business, the board will:

• Consider approving an agreement for truancy prevention services with the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office, the Kansas Department for Children and Families, Douglas County Criminal Justice Services — Youth Programs, Center for Supportive Communities and the O’Connell Children’s Shelter.

• Consider approving, in the consent agenda, repairs and renovations for the Free State High School athletic field press box. The agenda says the project could cost up to $57,700.

• Hold a work session, for informational-purposes, on the current landscape for virtual schools around the state, with a focus on the district’s Lawrence Virtual School.

The board’s work session begins at 5 p.m. Monday at district offices, 110 McDonald Drive. The regular meeting follows at 6 p.m.