MADISON COUNTY — The Indiana Department of Education recently released the spring 2017-18 Public Corporation Transfer Report. The report helps administrators better understand the mobility of students living within the boundaries of their school corporations.
The state transfer reports show most local students stay in their own district for their education, while South Madison Community School Corp. and Frankton-Lapel Community Schools both attract students from other districts.
On the spring count day in February, the South Madison Community School Corp. had 4,239 students settled within its district boundaries. Of those, 3,999 attended South Madison Community School Corp. schools, meaning 240 went elsewhere for their education.
A deeper look at the figures show 213 of the students attending other schools elected to attend another public school, while 27 decided to attend a non-public school through Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program.
While the district lost out on those 240 students, 412 students with settlement outside South Madison Community School Corp. boundaries made the decision to transfer into the district.
That gave the district a net total influx of 172 transfer students above its student boundary number.
“We are pleased that almost 95 percent of the school aged kids that live within the South Madison boundaries choose to attend our schools and that we also attracted over 400 students from outside our district as well,” Assistant Superintendent Mark Hall wrote in an email to The Times-Post.
The South Madison district keeps track of the number of non-resident students who attend its schools, so that number was not surprising when the figures came out, but it is difficult to keep track of the number of school-age students who live in a particular school district, so the report was welcome.
“The enrollment data provided by the transfer report reaffirms the level of support and value that our community and surrounding communities have for our school system,” Hall said.
Frankton-Lapel
At Frankton-Lapel Community Schools, 2,261 students were reported within the settlement boundaries.
The report shows 2,181 of those students attend school in the district, meaning it lost 80 students last year to other districts.
Sixty-four students within the district boundaries attended a different traditional public school corporation or public charter, while 16 attended a non-public school through Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program.
While the district lost 80 students from its neighborhood, the district attracted 831 students with settlement outside of the Frankton-Lapel Community Schools boundaries who transferred into the district for their education.
That gave the district a net total of 751 transfer students above its student boundary numbers.
Superintendent Bobby Fields said he was not surprised by the numbers.
“We have had that many transfer students district wide for the last several years,” he said.
When former Gov. Mitch Daniels changed the rules on transfer tuition several years ago, the Frankton-Lapel school board decided to accept transfer students if there was room for them.
“We had a huge interest in our schools district wide from students outside of our district,” Fields said. “By filling our open spots with transfer students, we are able to offer a more in-depth curriculum than we would be able to otherwise.”