Schools across Ohio might have to significantly reduce the number of students they accept during open enrollment because of changes in the way they’re funded by the state. Schools are classified as either a Guaranteed District or a Formula District - the difference is that guaranteed schools no longer get stipends per student they accept during open enrollment.

“Open enrollment would help us. We’d get a little over $6,000 per student from other school districts but with the new formula that's not the case anymore,” Adam Fisher, Treasure of West Bridge Local Schools said. 

Open enrollment is when a student attends a school in a district they don’t live in. For guaranteed school districts in Ohio they get, at the very least, the exact amount of money that they got from the state in 2019 regardless of if the student body number rises.

With the incentive to accept more students through open enrollment gone - districts just can’t justify having as many come through their doors because they can’t hire more staff for those students.

“We have a certain amount of money coming from the state. It would make sense that we want to make sure that we take care of the kids that are here,” Fisher said.  

“Some districts are saying based off those financial circumstances it doesn't make financial sense for us to accept open enrollment students,” Ryan Ghizzoni, Director of Ohio Analytics said. 

Schools like West Branch are now playing with the idea to reduce their number of open enrollment students, while other schools like South Range closed open enrollment for multiple grades and are limiting the amount of open enrollment for others. 

“I’m not seeing districts - if a student is already open enrolling in that school district - cutting it back and saying ‘you can no longer come here,’” Ghizzoni said. “Most of the districts are saying they’re not going to accept any new open enrollment students.”

However, schools are not allowed to get rid of open enrollment entirely without penalty. If a guaranteed district reduces their open enrollment by 20 students or 10% from the previous year they will get a reduction in funding from the state. 

The classifications of the districts are ever changing and are evaluated by the state each year. 

“Some of those districts can come off of guarantee. Some other districts, if they're seeing a decline in enrollment, can go on the guarantee. It just really depends on a number of factors from property values, to income levels, to enrollment,” Ghizzoni said.

Guaranteed schools in Mahoning County include: Canfield local, Jackson-Milton local, Poland local, Sebring local, South Range local, Springfield local, West Branch local and Youngstown City. Guaranteed schools in Columbiana county include: Beaver local, Leetonia Exempted Village School District and United local. Guaranteed schools in Trumbull County include: Bristol local, Lakeview local and Southington local. 

A total of 259 schools across Ohio are guarantee schools.