The House Education Committee will hear a bill that would ban school district attendance boundaries during their meeting at 2 p.m. today and that same bill also may be heard in the Senate Finance Committee at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Senate Bill 1685, sponsored by Sen. Paul Boyer, would ban attendance boundaries for district schools, require schools to give enrollment preference to students residing in their enrollment area, pupils returning to the school from the prior year, and siblings of pupils already enrolled.

Senate Bill 1685 would also require schools with enrollment that exceeds capacity to use an equitable selection process such as a transparent lottery , with the exception that preference shall be given to sibilings of a pupil selected through the equitable selection process.

Click here for an Arizona School Boards Association summary of SB 1685

“We’re seeing in in House Ed on Tuesday, and then it’s looking to kind of make an appearance as a strike everything amendment in Senate Finance to the bill House Bill 2427 as well so we’re going to be watching out for that one,” said Rico Yanez, ASBA governmental relations intern.

“We don’t actually know what the plan is, since we’re not really enthused about the bill for reasons that we’ll talk about,” said Chris Kotterman, director of governmental relations for Arizona School Boards Association. “They haven’t really told us what the plan is, but it could move through the House or the Senate at this point, depending on which route they choose to go following.”

There are a couple of concerns about the bill, Kotterman said.

#Legislative Legit: SB 1684 on open enrollment, school boundaries

Video edited by Jacquelyn Gonzales/ AZEdNews