School Board Considers Changes To Enroll Indy

During Tuesday's Indianapolis Public Schools board meeting commissioners heard recommendations on possible changes to Enroll Indy, the enrollment systems for IPS students in most city charter schools.

School board commissioner Kelly Bentley says the district has made too many changes in its enrollment policy in recent years.

"We make changes to this every year, and I think it's very challenging to our families and our communities," Bentley says. "And I bet you money that most of them don’t know about these potential changes and we’re going to hear about it after we vote on Thursday.” 

If approved, the changes would include redefining the district’s loyal application priority to only include families that stayed in IPS schools after not receiving their top school the previous year.

Other proposed changes would try to ensure students enrolled in popular programs plan to remain in them by having families apply to Enroll Indy. This would show the district they intend to hold their already guaranteed seat. This proposed change is directed towards students enrolled in IB and performing arts programs. 

IPS enrollment director Patrick Herrel says some proposed changes would help keep the district from holding unwanted seats.

"We saw a good amount of under enrolling on the front end," Herrel says. "So we saw at even some of our highest demand schools they assumed all students would take those seats - they didn’t."

If approved, these changes would be effective for the 2019-20 school year.

The board will vote on proposed changes at Thursday's meeting.