Minnesota Schools Statewide Enrollment Options And the Impact on SRTS

STATE

In 2014, the Minnesota Legislature allocated $1 million from the general fund from that fiscal year’s budget to the SRTS Program as proclaimed by Minnesota Statute 174.40. MnDOT was tasked with administering the program and allocating the funding to communities. Under the 2014 state program, requested funds could be used only for construction costs, which must be clearly identified in the SRTS budget proposal. Applications could have been submitted for projects with a total cost as low as $50,000, which made them useful for spot improvements. Regardless, it was still recommended that the minimum project cost at least $100,000 to make efficient use of the funds and limited amount of administrative time at the local level. It is uncertain if this program will receive funding again in the future.

M IN N E SOT A S C HOOL S ST A TEWI D E E NROLL M E NT O P TION S A ND T HE I M PA C T

ON SR T S

Minnesota law allows parents whose children are Minnesota residents the choice to enroll their children in a regular public school district other than the one in which they reside.15 While not required to provide transportation, school districts will often send buses into the immediate neighboring districts with the practical and alluring promise of front-door pickups. To compete, local school districts have then felt compelled to offer equivalent transportation services, even for students living within immediate proximity of the local school. This has had the unintended consequence of undermining many SRTS efforts. In communities where WCI has completed SRTS plans, the SRTS team had observed students being picked up by the local district bus only to be transported to the school a block away, a distance walked in no more than a minute. However, some school districts have eliminated busing for students within the Walk / Bike Zone without hazardous traffic barriers after WCI made the policy recommendations to do just that in their respective SRTS plans..

15

Minnesota Department of Education. Enrollment Choices Statewide Enrollment Options (Open Enrollment) Key Topics, webpage. http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/StuSuc/EnrollChoice/003871. Accessed on January 14, 2016.

Chapter 2: About Safe Routes to School (SRTS) | P a g e 49