ADMISSION TO THE CORPORATION (LEGAL SETTLEMENT)

The School Corporation (“Corporation") will educate, tuition free, students who have legal settlement in the Corporation, and students enrolled according to the requirements of I.C. 20-26-11. The following provisions describe circumstances that require clarification or determination of legal settlement and circumstances under which a student may enroll without legal settlement.

A. Children of Divorced Parents

Children of divorced parents may attend school in this Corporation if one (1) parent resides in this Corporation and a timely election is made utilizing the "Custodial Statement and Agreement: Divorce, Separation, or Abandonment" form provided by the Indiana State Board of Education.

B. Student Residence Change

In considering the continued enrollment of students whose legal settlement changes during the school year, the effective date of the legal settlement may be extended until the end of that school year, at the election of the parent or student eighteen (18) years or older. After the end of the school year, that student may apply for enrollment as a transfer student. If a student has completed grade 11 in the Corporation, the election will extend to the end of the following school year in grade 12.

C. Residency of Students with Military Parents

Pursuant to IC 20-26-19 et. seq., a student meets the residency requirements for enrollment in the Corporation if the parent of the student meets the following:

1. The parent is transferred to or is pending transfer to a military installation within Indiana while on active duty pursuant to an official military order.
2. The parent submits to the public school: A) an application, as determined by the public school, for enrollment in the public school; and B) documentation, as determined by the Indiana State Board of Education, regarding the transfer or pending transfer.
3. The parent intends to reside in the attendance area of the Corporation.

D. Students of Qualified Employees Without Legal Settlement

Pursuant to I.C. 20-26-11-6.5, and except as permitted by law for discipline or attendance issues, the Corporation shall accept a student who does not have legal settlement in the school corporation if:

1. The student's parent is a current employee of the transferee school corporation with an annual salary of at least;
2. Eight thousand dollars ($8,000); or,
3. three thousand dollars ($3,000) earned due to being included as an employee in the extracurricular portion of the transferee school corporation's current collective bargaining agreement;
4. The student's parent currently resides in Indiana.

Continued Eligibility / Change in Employment Status. 

A student accepted under this Section D remains eligible only while the student’s parent continues to meet the employment requirement in Item 1 and residency in Item 2. If the parent’s employment with the Corporation ends for any reason, the nonresident transfer under this policy shall not automatically continue for the following school year. To remain enrolled for the next school year, the student must submit a new application through the Corporation’s transfer process during the applicable application window and meet eligibility requirements in effect at that time.

E. Transfer Students

Students without legal settlement in the Corporation may be enrolled in compliance with I.C. 20-26-11-32 and the procedures established in this Policy.

Definitions:

Transfer Student: A student without legal settlement in the Corporation who seeks enrollment pursuant to I.C. 20-26-11.

Capacity: The maximum number of students that may be served by school and grade level without materially affecting educational services, staffing ratios, cost, safety, compliance, or other reasonable interests of the Corporation.

ADM Count: The number of eligible students enrolled in the corporation on the spring Average Daily Membership (ADM) count date (typically in February).

Available Transfer Seats: For each grade level, the number of transfer seats available for the upcoming school year is calculated as: Available Transfer Seats = Capacity - ADM Count. If the ADM Count is equal to or greater than Capacity, the number of available transfer seats is zero.

     1. Continuing Transfer Students

Without regard to the number of Available Transfer Seats, the Corporation shall accept a student who was enrolled in the district as a Transfer Student at the end of the prior school year, except as described above in Section D and as permitted by law for disciplinary or attendance reasons. However, continued enrollment is not guaranteed and remains subject to policy change.

     2. Capacity, ADM Count, and Available Transfer Seats

The Superintendent or designee shall annually calculate the Available Transfer Seats and present the non-resident enrollment notice to the Board for approval, at or before the March Regular School Board Meeting. The corporation may temporarily exceed Capacity when a student's admission is required by State or Federal law, but will not accept any new transfer students if there are no Available Transfer Seats. Capacity, ADM Count, and the Available Transfer Seats, consistent with I.C. 20-26-11-6, will be published on the Corporation website.  Available Transfer Seats may further be limited so as not to exceed the Maximum Enrollment.

     3. Decision for Determining Capacity: by grade level capacity or district capacity.

A link to Capacity shall be posted on the Corporation website and updated annually.  Any changes shall be recommended by the Superintendent and approved by the Board.  The link to Capacity information is included in this policy for reference: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTO9d-u_IDcp1a9MnzlMhha4mcmTqDcQs3FYP04-Ww6MmOyQ8lxj62bQkYkIo3wQUsG9rKZbuWwQqrP/pub?

Capacity for each grade level shall be as indicated in the linked table available on the WLCSC website: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTO9d-u_IDcp1a9MnzlMhha4mcmTqDcQs3FYP04-Ww6MmOyQ8lxj62bQkYkIo3wQUsG9rKZbuWwQqrP/pub?

  Transfer applications shall be considered starting with the kindergarten class and move to each subsequent grade level (first, second, third, etc.).  Except as where prescribed by law, no other transfer students will be admitted if the grade-level Capacity is reached or if the total corporation enrollment would exceed 2320 through the admission of transfer students.

     4. Transfer Applications and Student Priority

All transfer requests will be reviewed annually. Subject to Available Transfer Seats, the Corporation will enroll additional Transfer Students in the following priority order:

i. Students residing in the same household as current transfer students;

ii. Other students eligible for transfer enrollment according to Indiana law.

Transfer students will not be charged tuition. However, the Corporation reserves the right to charge tuition if permitted or required by law.

If the number of requests to transfer exceeds Available Transfer Seats, transfer applications shall be prioritized as described. After the priority rule has been applied, the students to be enrolled in each grade level shall be determined by a publicly verifiable random selection process in which each application submitted on or before March 31 has an equal chance of being selected. The random selection shall occur on/before the last Friday in April. This date shall be submitted to the Indiana Department of Education and published on the Corporation website.

Transfer applications may be submitted from January 1 through March 31. Applications submitted during this window will not receive preference based on the date submitted and selection will be based only on the priorities listed above and, if necessary, the lottery process. Any student not initially selected in the lottery will be added to a waitlist based on a random drawing for priority order. Any remaining Available Transfer Seats after April 1 may be filled on a rolling basis as applications are received, up to the fall ADM count day. If an accepted transfer student does not enroll within 30 days of email notification of transfer offer, the resulting vacancy may be filled by another transfer applicant, and if the grade level was subject to a lottery, the vacancy shall be offered to the next student on the lottery waitlist.

Transfer applications shall be considered without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, disability, religion, socioeconomic status, or any other protected class. Once admitted, transfer students shall be treated equitably and afforded equal access to programs and activities corresponding to students with legal settlement.

     5. Transfer Student Eligibility Requirements

Pursuant to state law, a student's application to transfer to the Corporation may be denied or a transfer student’s enrollment discontinued if the student has been suspended for ten (10) or more school days, or suspended or expelled for possession of a firearm, deadly weapon, or a destructive device, causing physical injury to a person, a violation of the Corporation's drug or alcohol rules during the twelve (12) months preceding the student's request to transfer.

A transfer request may be denied if the student has a history of unexcused absences and the Corporation believes that, based upon the location of the student's residence, attendance would be a problem if the student is enrolled with the Corporation. A history of unexcused absences for purposes of this policy, means at least five (5) unexcused absences or tardies in a semester or ten (10) unexcused absences or tardies in a school year. Any denial on this basis shall be supported by a written determination.

     6. Transportation

Transportation will not be provided by the Corporation for transfer students accepted for enrollment, unless the transfer student has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) in which transportation is required to be provided as a related service.

     7. Additional Matters Related to Transfer Students

Parents who are Corporation employees or parents with a transfer student already enrolled in the Corporation and wish to enroll another household member must give notice to the superintendent or a designee of their wish to transfer the child into the Corporation before March 31 of the prior academic year. This notice is required in addition to submitting the standard application form.

The Superintendent, or designee shall annually provide information to the Board summarizing transfer enrollment, capacity utilization, and fiscal impact at or by the Regular December Board Meeting. This policy shall be reviewed annually, at or by the Regular December Board Meeting for compliance, effectiveness, and financial impacts.

F. Students facing Expulsion from other Indiana Schools

The Corporation will not enroll students who are expelled from another school corporation or charter school, or who withdrew from another school corporation or charter school to avoid expulsion, during the period of the expulsion or proposed expulsion.

G. Summer School

Nonresident students may be accepted into the Summer School Program provided by this Corporation and may be charged a fee.

I.C. 20-26-11
I.C. 20-26-11-32

I.C. 20-33-8-25(b)(7)
I.C. 20-26-19

West Lafayette Community School Corporation

Adopted: March 9, 2026

Revised: [date]