PRESS RELEASE: SCUSD Responds to the California Attorney General's Office Investigation of the District's Enrollment Practices

Sacramento, CA - Sacramento City Unified has a strong anti-discrimination policy and champions the principles of equity and access for all public school students. For more than a year, the District has worked cooperatively with the California Department of Justice to examine our policies and procedures with regard to enrollment practices, including the processes we use and how they are communicated to families. 

While the District has deep respect for the work of the Attorney General’s Office and the intent behind this investigation, the findings are not indicative of deliberate or widespread systemic discrimination within our past or current enrollment practices. Instead, they reflect a small number of isolated missteps over a period of years, some of which were presented in the filing without proper context.

Many of the specific concerns raised by the Attorney General’s Office were identified and addressed by the District prior to the start of the investigation. These actions include:

• Eliminating mandatory site visits, volunteer hours, or monetary contributions at certain schools.

• Forming an internal work group comprised of district and school site administrators to study and implement improvements to our process for moving students when classrooms reach their contracted capacity limits.

• Enhancing digital access by providing every student with a laptop computer for home use and hosting regional registration and enrollment fairs districtwide with staffing to help families navigate the process.

“We recognize that even one enrollment process failure is too many, and represents a failure to properly support a student and their family,” said SCUSD Superintendent Lisa Allen. “We look forward to having the support and oversight of the Attorney General’s Office to ensure any enrollment barriers that may still exist for our families, particularly those who are less advantaged, are removed.”

“Every student, regardless of background, or ability, or the neighborhood they’re from, deserves access to the schools and programs that best serve the whole student,” said Tara Jeane, SCUSD Board of Education president. “We are committed to doing the work that will continue to improve our enrollment processes for equity and accessibility. With this agreement, it is our hope that Sacramento City Unified's open enrollment may become a model that public school districts across California can consider.”

As part of the settlement with the Attorney General’s Office, Sacramento City Unified will:

• Improve oversight, communication, and transparency around enrollment options for families.

• Revise relevant board policies and administrative regulations.

• Modify the contract capacity (ConCap) process to ensure continued protections for foster youth and students experiencing homelessness.

• Improve the process for calculating and reporting open seats at campuses.

• Provide additional training to District employees responsible for making enrollment projections and decisions around enrollment.

• Discontinue enrollment practices or processes that the Attorney General’s Office determines to discriminate against students.

• Re-establish the ConCap Work Group to continue the work of exploring changes to the District’s current ConCap process to ensure greater equity and transparency when it becomes necessary to move students from one school to another.