Optional Schools Transfer Procedures

You can apply for an optional transfer for your child as early as February 1, 2008, for the2008-2009 school year. Applications for Optional Schools will be available by the middle of January in any optional school or at the Memphis City Schools, Frances E. Coe Administration Building, 2597 Avery Avenue, Room 106, Memphis, Tennessee 38112.

First Day of the Optional Schools Transfer Process

Place: Memphis City Schools
2597 Avery Avenue (Auditorium)
Time: 6:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Date: February 1, 2008

On the first day of applying for an optional transfer, the Division of Optional Schools staff will accept transfer applications from 6:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. On the first day applications are processed, you are allowed to turn in applications for only one family as you go through the line. City residents will be given priority for the available spaces. Applicants from outside the Memphis city limits will be considered on a space availability basis if they meet the entrance requirements.

Preference for Qualified Siblings

First preference for available space goes to qualified siblings with brothers or sisters who are in satisfactory standing in the requested school on an optional transfer. This sibling policy does not guarantee a space. It only provides preference for available space if the new applicant meets the entrance requirements at the time of application. A sibling is a brother or sister who lives at the same address. This preference to siblings is in effect from Friday, February 1, 2008, through Friday, February 29, 2008.

For all applicants, acceptance into the requested program depends on meeting that school’s entrance requirements based on available information supplied as of the application date.

Equal Access Program for Oversubscribed Programs

If any optional school program has more transfer applications than available space, 80 percent of the space available in these oversubscribed programs will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis by qualified applicants. The names of all remaining applicants will be placed in a computer pool, and the remaining 20 percent of the space will be filled by applicants selected from the pool by computer-generated random sampling, subject to sibling considerations.

The equal access selection by computer will be held on February 7, 2008, in the Frances E. Coe Administration Building, Room 106, and is open to the public. This equal access sampling will apply only to those schools with more applicants on the first day of the transfer process than they have space available.

All applications remaining after available spaces have been filled will be assigned to a waiting list according to numerical order of sign-up of qualified students. The equal access (random sampling) will be used only for new applicants requiring a transfer and only for schools with more applicants than available space when the application process begins February 1, 2008, for the 2008-2009 school year. Final acceptance into the optional program of choice is still based on students meeting all of the school’s entrance requirements.

 

Application for Transfer After the First Day

After the first day of processing optional transfer applications, new applications (with necessary documents attached) may be submitted to the Memphis City Schools, Frances E. Coe Administration Building, 2597 Avery Avenue, Room 106, Memphis, Tennessee 38112. Regular office hours are weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

Applications will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis as they are received. The Division of Optional Schools is the application center for all optional transfer requests. Students must meet all of the school’s entrance requirements at the time of application. All available spaces will be filled as city applicants apply and qualify.

 

Renewal Transfer Process

Applications for Optional Schools must be renewed annually. Students are eligible for renewal transfers to the same school if they remain in that specific school’s optional program all year and maintain the optional school’s renewal requirements. Completed renewal forms should be promptly returned to the school. Once the school reviews the students’ renewal applications, they will forward them to the Division of Optional Schools for processing. All schools will review students’ final report cards to determine final approval. Official notification of the status of the renewal transfer is sent by the Division of Optional Schools.