Center on Reinventing Public Education

In a growing number of cities where families face a diverse and sometimes confusing set of school choice options, a few pioneering community and education leaders are turning to common enrollment systems in hopes of reducing both the complexity and uncertainty associated with an increasingly fragmented and complicated educational landscape. Common enrollment systems raise challenging questions about who has the responsibility for implementation, and how the system can adapt and change over time. These questions are made all the more challenging when schools in different sectors are competing for students and when cross-sector trust is low. The experiences of cities that have embarked on common enrollment suggest that there is no single best way to meet these challenges, and that resolving these issues once and for all is not a prerequisite for moving forward.
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