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Out of District Transfers

Thank you for visiting our website to learn more about our student transfer policy. This information is intended for individuals who live outside of the Owasso Public Schools district and wish for their student(s) to attend an OPS school. If you have recently moved or are planning a move to the district and are looking to enroll your student(s), please visit our Enrollment page or contact the Enrollment Center at 918-274-1904.
 
We appreciate your interest in Owasso Public Schools, where our mission is to provide a safe environment that equips, educates, and empowers students on their journey toward outstanding character and success. We do our best to welcome additional students to our district whenever it is possible.
 
OPS makes decisions about student transfers in accordance with district policy and state law. You can view our comprehensive district policy below; however, we are providing the following information for your convenience:
 

  • The state Department of Education requires that the following form be completed to apply for a transfer: Student Transfer Form. Parents who need access to technology to print or complete the form, or those wishing to fill out a paper copy, can visit the Enrollment Center, located at 202 East Broadway. 

  • Owasso Public Schools will begin accepting transfer applications for the 2022-23 school year on May 1, 2022. Decisions about transfers for the 2022-23 school year will be made after July 1, 2022, once capacity data has been determined for each grade level and site within the school district. We will contact parents directly about the approval status of their child’s transfer.

  • Mid-year transfer requests will be considered within 10 days of the district receiving the application. 

  • New transfers are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Students who attended the district on a transfer during the 2021-22 school year will be automatically accepted pending approval from the district. The law also gives preference to children of active-duty military personnel.

  • To accept a transfer, enrollment in the grade the parent requests must be under the district-established capacity. The district’s capacity and vacancy numbers for each grade and school can be found below.

  • Transfers may be denied based on capacity, attendance and/or discipline issues.

  • Transfers for siblings must be considered separately.

  • If the grade a student requests is overcapacity, he/she will be offered the opportunity to be placed on a waiting list.

  • Transfer students must abide by eligibility requirements established by the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association (OSSAA) for OSSAA-sanctioned activities.

  • If a transfer request is denied by the administration, the parent or legal guardian of the student may appeal the denial within ten (10) days of notification of denial to the Board of Education. The Board of Education shall consider the appeal at its next regularly scheduled board meeting if notice is provided prior to the statutory deadline for posting the agenda for the meeting. For more information on the appeal process, please review the district’s student transfer policy below.

If you have any questions about the transfer process, please contact Cherie Vanlandingham at 918-928-4400 or cherie.vanlandingham@owassops.org.
 
Ator Elementary
Grade Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
Pre-K 40 39 1
Kindergarten 60 57 3
1st Grade 60 57 3
2nd Grade 60 67 0
3rd Grade 60 61 0
4th Grade 80 72 8
5th Grade 60 61 0
 
Bailey Elementary
Grade Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
Pre-K 40 34 6
Kindergarten 60 66 0
1st Grade 60 64 0
2nd Grade 60 62 0
3rd Grade 80 92 0
4th Grade 80 70 10
5th Grade 80 89 0
 
Barnes Elementary
Grade Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
Pre-K 40 30 10
Kindergarten 80 82 0
1st Grade 80 81 0
2nd Grade 80 83 0
3rd Grade 80 87 0
4th Grade 80 89 0
5th Grade 80 93 0
 
Hodson Elementary
Grade Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
Pre-K 40 38 2
Kindergarten 80 84 0
1st Grade 80 72 8
2nd Grade 80 83 0
3rd Grade 80 80 0
4th Grade 80 94 0
5th Grade 80 99 0
 
Mills Elementary
Grade Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
Pre-K 40 40 0
Kindergarten 80 71 9
1st Grade 60 70 0
2nd Grade 60 62 0
3rd Grade 80 80 0
4th Grade 60 70 0
5th Grade 80 79 1
 
Morrow Elementary
Grade Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
Pre-K 40 41 0
Kindergarten 100 107 0
1st Grade 80 93 0
2nd Grade 80 94 0
3rd Grade 80 75 5
4th Grade 80 95 0
5th Grade 80 90 0
 
Northeast Elementary
Grade Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
Pre-K 40 26 14
Kindergarten 80 80 0
1st Grade 60 62 0
2nd Grade 80 68 12
3rd Grade 80 81 0
4th Grade 80 77 3
5th Grade 60 77 0
 
Smith Elementary
Grade Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
Pre-K 40 32 8
Kindergarten 60 65 0
1st Grade 60 61 0
2nd Grade 60 73 0
3rd Grade 60 55 5
4th Grade 60 58 2
5th Grade 60 68 0
 
Stone Canyon Elementary
Grade Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
Pre-K 40 46 0
Kindergarten 100 108 0
1st Grade 100 105 0
2nd Grade 80 88 0
3rd Grade 80 90 0
4th Grade 80 96 0
5th Grade 80 98 0
 
6th Grade Center
Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
750 736 14
 
7th Grade Center
Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
750 746 4
 
8th Grade Center
Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
750 765 0
 
Owasso High School
Grade Capacity Current Enrollment Available Openings
9th Grade 750 777 0
10th Grade 725 722 3
11th Grade 725 717 8
12th Grade 700 684 16
 
 
The school district will not accept or deny a transfer based on ethnicity, national origin, gender, income level, disabling condition, proficiency in the English language, measure of achievement, aptitude, or athletic ability.
 
Transfers that have previously been approved by the school district will remain in effect for future school years unless the district provides notification to the parent or legal guardian that the transfer is not going to be continued for an upcoming school year due to capacity, disciplinary action or attendance issues. The district will not require parents to resubmit a new application each school year and will advance the previous application of an enrolled student amending only the grade placement of the student.  
 
The school district will begin accepting applications for the next school year starting May 1st. Receipt of properly completed applications will be documented by the district so that the district may review those applications in the order submitted for purposes of capacity limitations. The administration will not approve or deny transfers received for the next school year until after the July 1st capacity data is determined for each grade level and site within the school district. 
 
A transfer may be requested at any time in the school year. State law does limit the ability of a student to transfer no more than two (2) times per school year to one or more school districts in which the student does not reside. Exceptions to this limit will exist for students in foster care. Students are legally entitled to re-enroll at any time in his or her school district of residence.  Any brother or sister of a student who transfers may attend the school district to which their sibling transferred as long as the school district has capacity in the grade level and the sibling does not meet a basis for denial as listed below.  A separate application must be filed for each student so that the district can timely consider requests in the order applications are received. The transferring student will be allowed to attend a District school site that has not exceeded its capacity of the transferring student’s grade level. If there are more than one District school sites available for the transferring student, the District retains the sole discretion to determine the school site the transferring student will attend.
 
It is the policy of the Board of Education that any legally transferring student shall be accepted by the district under the following circumstances:

  1. The district has the capacity to accept the student at the grade level at the school site;

  2. The transferring student has not been disciplined for:

    1. violation of a school regulation,

    2. possession of an intoxicating beverage, low-point beer, as defined by Section 163.2 of Title 37 of the Oklahoma Statutes, or missing or stolen property if the property is reasonably suspected to have been taken from a student, a school employee, or the school during school activities, or 

    3. possession of a dangerous weapon or a controlled dangerous substance while on or within two thousand (2,000) feet of public school property, or at a school event, as defined in the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Act.

  3. The transferring student does not have a history of absences. “History of absences” means ten or more absences in one semester that are not excused for the reasons provided in 70 O.S. § 10-105 or due to illness. 

By the first day of January, April, July, and October, the Board of Education shall establish the number of transfer students the district has the capacity to accept in each grade level for each school site within the district. The number of transfer students for each grade level at each site that the district has the capacity to accept will be posted in a prominent place on the school district’s website.  The district shall report to the State Department of Education the number of transfer students for each grade level for each school site which the district has the capacity to accept. 

The Superintendent, or his or her designee, shall report to the Board of Education the capacity for transfer students at each grade level and each school site.  The number of authorized teaching positions, classrooms available, class size at each grade level and each site, and/or other such factors shall be reported to the Board when determining the capacities at each site.  After review of the report, the Board shall approve the capacity for transfer students at each grade level and each school site as it deems appropriate. The Superintendent, or his or her designee, shall report to OSDE and publish on the district website the capacities determined by the Board. 

A student shall be allowed to transfer to a district in which the parent or legal guardian of the student is employed as a teacher as per 70 O.S. § 8-113. 

The school district shall enroll transfer students in the order in which they submit their applications. If the number of student transfer applications exceeds the capacity of the district, the district shall select transfer students in the order in which the district received the application.
 
Students who are the dependent children of a member of the active uniformed military services of the United States on full-time active-duty status and students who are the dependent children of the military reserve on active duty orders shall be eligible for admission to the school district regardless of capacity of the district. Students shall be eligible for military transfer if:

  1. At least one parent of the student has a Department of Defense issued identification card; and

  2. At least one parent can provide evidence that he or she will be on active-duty status or active-duty orders, meaning the parent will be temporarily transferred in compliance with official orders to another location in support of combat, contingency operation or a national disaster requiring the use of orders for more than thirty (30) consecutive days. 

If a student with a disability applies for a transfer, the student must supply all documentation of the resident district relating to the student’s previous and current IEPs and Section 504 Accommodation Plans so that this district may: 

  1. Determine whether the district currently has appropriate programs, staff, services, and placement needed to fulfill the current or anticipated IEP or Section 504 Accommodation Plan of the student; and

  2. If a preliminary determination is made that the district has the appropriate programs, staff, services, and placement needed to fulfill the current IEP or Section 504 Accommodation Plan of the student if the transfer application is approved, conduct the statutorily-required joint IEP or Section 504 conference with the district of residence before a final determination of approval or denial is made.  Notwithstanding the provisions of this policy, students with disabilities may be educated in this district pursuant to special education cooperative agreements between this district and other school districts. Such transfers will not be deemed to be parent-initiated or student-initiated transfer applications governed by this policy.

If accepted, a student transfer is granted for the existing school year and may continue to attend in future years. At the end of the school year, the district may deny the continued transfer of the student due to capacity or for disciplinary reasons or a history of absences.  

If a transfer request is denied by the administration, the parent or legal guardian of the student may appeal the denial within ten (10) days of notification of denial to the Board of Education. The Board of Education shall consider the appeal at its next regularly scheduled board meeting if notice is provided prior to the statutory deadline for posting the agenda for the meeting.  If notice is after the deadline for posting, the board may consider the appeal at a special meeting of the Board of Education. 

Appeal process: The appeal must be submitted in writing by the parent or legal guardian to the office of the Superintendent of Owasso Public Schools. This will be a paper appeal and will include the written documentation utilized by the school district as well as a written response from the parent or legal guardian which explains why he or she believes the policy was not followed. During the appeal, the board will review the action of the administration to make sure that the district policy was followed with regard to the denial of the transfer. The Board of Education will meet in an executive session to review the educational records of the student. If the policy was not followed, the Board of Education shall vote to overturn the denial and the transfer will be granted.
   
If the Board of Education votes to uphold the denial of the transfer, the parent or legal guardian may appeal the denial within ten (10) days of the notification of the appeal denial to the State Board of Education. The parent or legal guardian shall submit to the State Board of Education and to the superintendent of the district, a notice of appeal on the form prescribed by the State Board of Education. 

A student who enrolls in a school district in which the student is not a resident shall not be eligible to participate in school-related extramural athletic competition governed by the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association for a period of one (1) year from the first day of attendance at the receiving school unless the transfer is from a school district which does not offer the grade the student is entitled to pursue as per 70 O.S. § 8-103.2.

REFERENCE:   70 O.S. §1-114, 70 O.S. §1-113, 70 O.S. §5-117.1, 70 O.S. §8-101, et seq., 70 O.S. §24-101, et seq.; §24-102, Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, Atty. Gen. Op. No. 87-134, April 1, 1988.