House Bill 1435: School Portability (Open Enrollment)

February 5, 2025March 5, 2025 Bill Tracker

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On February 6, the House amended and passed HB 1435. The bill will now be transmitted to the Senate

Explanation of the Bill

The committee substitute for House Bill 1435 would make it easier for students to transfer from one public school district to another. 

Currently, a student’s transfer has to be approved by the boards of their current district and the receiving district. HB 1435 would remove the requirement of the current district’s approval, so that a student would only need the approval of the receiving district. 

Protocol for Transfer

After receiving a transfer request, the school board of the receiving school district would be required to vote on the receipt of the student within 60 days of receiving the request.The decision of the school board would be final and binding for the remainder of the school year.  If the board does not vote within this time period, the request would automatically be approved.

The receiving school district would also be required to notify the student’s original school district in writing upon receiving a student’s transfer request.

Transfer of Siblings
Siblings of a student who transfers school districts under this process would be eligible to transfer to the same school district. 

Athletic Eligibility

The athletic eligibility of a student who transfers school districts would be determined in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Mississippi High School Association. 

District Policies

Each district would be required to adopt policies to govern the transfer process and post these policies to its website. These would be required to prohibit discrimination based on residential address, ability, disability, race, ethnicity, sex, or socioeconomic status. They would also be required to prohibit the selection of students based on academic or athletic performance. However, schools could still use existing criteria to determine entry into specialized schools or programs (such as gifted programs) as long as the same criteria were applied to all students who submitted transfer requests. 

Any school district receiving a student would be given sole discretion to decide which school within the district the accepted student could attend. 

Capacity and Transfer Data

The local school board would have sole discretion to calculate the capacity of each grade level in each school within the district to determine how many transfers the district could receive. 

Information about capacity in each school district would be posted on the district’s website before the start of the academic year. 

The district would be required to update the capacity of each grade level at least two times during the school year. It would also be required to report the number of transfer requests, number of accepted transfer students, and the number of denied transfer students at least two times per school year.

By August 1 of each year, the Mississippi Board of Education (MBE) would be required to publish the capacity and transfer data from each school district in the previous school year, including the number of participants, denied requests, and other relevant information. The MBE would report this to the Legislature by December 31 of each year. 

Funding

For students transferring to a new school district, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) would pay the new school district the funding formula amount associated with the student. If the student transferred in the middle of a school year, the receiving district would receive the share of funds proportional to the remaining months in the school year. 

Student Portability and Open Enrollment Fund

HB 1435 establishes the Student Portability and Open Enrollment Fund in the State Treasury. The purpose of this fund would be to cover the local portion of Mississippi Student Funding Formula (MSFF) funds of students transferring districts. This would be allocated to the receiving districts on a first-come, first-served basis. 

This would consist of monies appropriated to, or transferred into, the fund by the Legislature; monies transferred to the fund from the federal government, local governments, or other state agencies; gifts, donations, or grants; earnings on monies in the fund; and any other monies collected for the program. 

PEER Reporting Requirement

The Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) would be required to provide a comprehensive report to the legislature after one year of the law’s implementation. The report would include information on basic administration, education functions, demographics, fiscal impact, and equity and transparency in adopted policies.

This act would take effect on July 1, 2025. 

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