Despite state legal trouble, Sacramento City school enrollment will look familiar this year

The Abridged version:

• Sacramento City Unified has a list of mandatory reforms to its enrollment practices, following an investigation by the state attorney general.
• But most of these changes, including updates to the district website and improved guidance for administration, will likely not be in place in time for this year’s open enrollment, which kicks off next month.
• The district has struggled to fill a new top role overseeing its enrollment processes and compliance with the law.

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Sacramento City Unified has years of work to do, after an investigation by the state attorney general found the district’s enrollment practices violated California laws and disadvantaged marginalized students.

But parents likely won’t see any significant change to this year’s process, a spokesperson for the district confirmed.

Open enrollment — the opportunity for families to enroll their K-8 grade student in a school other than their neighborhood assigned site — for the 2026-27 school year kicks off Feb. 2. Applications for the transitional kindergarten lottery already opened Tuesday.

The settlement between Attorney General Rob Bonta and Sacramento City Unified includes a five-year remediation plan, with multiple steps meant to eliminate barriers to enrollment for students of color, those with a disability, English learners, low-income families and unhoused or foster youth.

Many of the changes have monthslong deadlines, though, meaning this spring’s process may not look too different from years past.

AG investigation found multiple violations

A year-and-a-half-long investigation by Bonta’s office uncovered various violations related to enrollment and culminated in a laundry list of ordered fixes.

An online-only open enrollment process favored higher-income families with internet access and a computer at home, or with reliable transportation to use technology at the district’s central office in South Sacramento.

Certain schools, like Alice Birney Elementary and A.M. Winn Elementary, compounded issues with mandatory school visits during the workday. Another, Leonardo Da Vinci TK-8 School, required parent volunteer hours in exchange for admission as recently as 2024, the investigation found.

Entrance exams at Phoebe Hearst Elementary and Camellia Basic Elementary may have discriminated against students with disabilities, according to the attorney general.

And the process of contract capping, or “ConCapping,” where students are transferred between sites after the first day of school in order to level class sizes, was found to have hit Black, socioeconomically disadvantaged or unhoused students disproportionately.

The attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

District must respond with changes

Following the investigation, the district’s to-do list is extensive. Deadlines for individual changes, however, can vary from a month to 180 days.

Sacramento City Unified’s ordered changes include:

• Hiring a new deputy chief of schools to oversee compliance with the law and provide regular updates to the board. It’s unclear whether the district can meet the January deadline for this.
• Creating a dashboard with enrollment data such as seat availability and student demographics, for school sites and administrators to use internally. This should be developed by early July.
• Updating board policies to explicitly prohibit barriers like parent volunteer hours and to require interpretation services and other support for parents at the district’s enrollment office. The district must show the attorney general’s office a draft revision within two months.
• Assembling multiple working groups with staff and parents to scrutinize open enrollment and “ConCapping” practices. The district has between 30 and 90 days to form each of these committees.

Opportunity for the district

School board member April Ybarra said she sees the results of the attorney general’s investigation as an opportunity for the district to make deep, systemic changes.

“I’m grateful that somebody with connections and privilege was able to do what people in my community have advocated for for years,” Ybarra told Abridged.

The issues identified officially by Bonta’s office are not new information to many residents of Sacramento City Unified, she said.

For example, Ybarra said she heard from many families in her area of southeast Sacramento whose children were displaced by construction at Fern Bacon Middle School. Parents described a painful process of relocation, she said, after either struggling to navigate open enrollment or not receiving enough communication from the district to apply for an alternative school of their choosing.

“How do we make sure that those families have access to Phoebe Hearst or Miwok (Middle School)?” Ybarra said, referring to some of the district’s most sought after schools during open enrollment.

When will families see action?

District staff is working to implement the changes and meet legal deadlines, Ybarra said. Meanwhile, she said the board will be increasing oversight during this year’s enrollment cycle.

But families currently applying to get their 4-year-olds in a transitional kindergarten classroom or parents about to enter the elementary and middle school lottery may see few immediate resolutions.

Sacramento City Unified has so far struggled to fill the assistant superintendent position to oversee an equitable enrollment process, according to Brian Heap, the district’s chief communications officer.

The role was posted months ahead of the attorney general’s announcement. However, after multiple rounds of interviews, Heap said they have yet to find a candidate qualified and willing to take on the task.

Other changes, including updating information on the district’s website, will not be ready before open enrollment applications open next month, Heap said.

“It’s going to take some time for change to be seen,” Ybarra said.

Savannah Kuchar is a reporter covering education. She came to Sacramento to be a part of the Abridged team and contribute to a crucial local news source.