Dive Brief:

• This summer, the U.S. Department of Education plans to release a new tool that would map all school attendance boundaries in the country.
• The map will be the first of its kind and will allow districts to upload their own maps or tweak the federal government’s information.
• Districts will be able to use the tool to plan new schools and new bus routes, as well as to pinpoint inefficient boundaries.

Dive Insight:

School attendance boundaries remain one of the most divisive issues for local communities, with even slight adjustments prompting parent protests and pushback from local businesses. In Loudoun County, VA, parents wore matching shirts and protested school board meetings following a recent boundary change.

At the same time, school boundaries often closely follow racial and economic boundaries, and can be an intentional or unintentional driver for segregating school systems. That pattern can be a challenging one to reverse, using attendance lines to integrate schools. While court desegregation orders can play a role as well, many have been lifted nationwide and many districts have backed away from them due to the expense of bussing students, as well as parental backlash.

Some districts have done away with traditional school attendance boundaries entirely, setting up enrollment zones or citywide choice systems. But there’s scant evidence so far that those strategies serve to desegregate schools on their own, either.