Open Seat Transfer explained

The Muscogee County School District’s student transfer process that was known as HB 251 because of the Georgia House bill that created it seven years ago has a new name but essentially the same procedure.

Based on a state-approved waiver, the district’s student transfer requests that were under House Bill 251 now are called Open Seat Transfer. The district’s deadline is June 15 for the application period that started Wednesday.

Parents and guardians may complete and submit an electronic application online at www.muscogee.k12.ga.us by clicking on the OST link. Applications on paper are available at any school or in the central registration office at the Muscogee County Public Education Center, 2960 Macon Road.

Asked how the OST process is different from transfers under HB 251, the district’s communications director, Valerie Fuller, told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email, “Students who display disruptive behavior and/or excessive tardiness and absences may be subject to reassignment to their home school under an Open Seat Transfer (OST).”

Regardless of the name, as with HB 251, OST allows students to transfer without a hardship reason as long as space is available. Students are selected through a lottery. The district doesn’t provide transportation for transfer students, and appeals aren’t allowed. The district’s hardship application period was May 2-20 this year.

HB 251, which went into effect in 2009, requires school districts to notify parents and guardians by July 1 each year which schools have space available for transfer students. The law also mandates the application period must be 14 days to apply.

Asked which schools have space available for transfer students this year, Fuller said, “We are in the process of accepting Open Seat Transfers (OST), processing hardship applications, magnets, kindergarten registration, new students to the system and those who have changed residences since the last day of school. Keep in mind, if a parent/child has changed his or her residence since the last day of school, the school of assignment may be affected. So, the number of spaces available for the 2016-2017 school year have not been determined.”

Since the bill was enacted, 644 Muscogee County students have transferred through HB 251.

Fuller noted student athletes should consider Georgia High School Association eligibility rules before deciding whether to seek a transfer.

Those who don’t know their assigned school may find out online by typing in their legal address at locator.muscogee.k12.ga.us. For more information about transfers, call the district’s central registration office at 706-748-2222.

This story was originally published June 3, 2016 at 1:36 PM with the headline "Open Seat Transfer explained."