Refer to policy J-152. 

APPLICATION FOR GENERAL TRANSFERS 

Parents may apply for a student transfer during the application windows established under Board of Education Policy J-152. Parents may apply for a Transfer as defined in J-152 in any of the following ways:

1. Complete an online transfer request using the application procedure provided on the Knox County schools website at www.knoxschools.org. Complete the Knox County Schools form AD-102and/or AD-102Magnet (available online) and turn it in at any Knox County school or the enrollment office located in the Andrew Johnson Building at 912 South Gay Street, Room 103. 
2. Mail a completed form(s) to the Knox County Schools Supervisor of Enrollment at Post Office Box 2188, Knoxville, TN 37901.  

Parents will be afforded the opportunity to identify three schools to which they would like to transfer their child. Every effort will be made, based on space available, to offer a transfer to one of the three identified schools.  

Throughout the transfer window, schools will weekly forward received transfer applications via school mail to the Supervisor of Enrollment. The Supervisor of Enrollment will ensure that the requests are entered into the appropriate data bases. 

TRANSFER APPROVAL PROCESS  

The Supervisor of Enrollment will provide a list of all transfer requests for students receiving services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to the Executive Director of Student Support Services for review and approval prior to acting on the request.   

The Supervisor of Enrollment will also provide a list of all students requesting transfer for academic course of study to the appropriate grade level Executive Director for verification that the base school is unable to offer a comparable course of study.  

1. Once the above verifications have been completed, all requests for general transfer will be electronically assigned a random number. School assignment will be made in order of the random number, within the ordered priorities listed in section B below.  
2. Priority for assignment will be those requests for transfer made -  
   1. by teachers to transfer their child to the school in which they teach
   2. by contract employees for their children
   3. by students who have a sibling presently enrolled at the requested school who will continue to be enrolled in the year the requested transfer is effective. For purposes of this procedure, a sibling is defined as a brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or foster child living in the same household. 
   4. for continuation in the Project GRAD program
   5. for pursuit of an academic course of study as described in paragraph D of this section
   6. for students enrolled in a school designated as a Priority School by the State of Tennessee 
   7. for students not meeting any of the above criteria  
      Requests for transfer to the same school that are submitted for twins, triplets or other multiple birth siblings will be treated as a single request and all these siblings will receive the same placement based on the following assignment process.  
3. While TCA provides for children of teachers to receive a transfer to the school where the parent is employed, the Knox County Schools will attempt to extend this benefit as broadly as possible to all contract employees. The Knox County Schools will generally attempt to grant employee’s children transfer requests to any school of their choice on a space available basis. 
4. Before any placement of a student is made based on an employee request for transfer, the employee status will be verified based on information maintained by the Knox County Schools payroll office.  
5. Requests for transfer based on academic course of study will be considered only for a complete course of study such as a two, three or four-year program of study that is not available at a base school or where the base school is unable to offer a comparable course of study. Transfers requested for a single class do not constitute a complete course of study.  
6. As the number of transfer requests may exceed available capacity, transfer requests will be honored in order of priority category based on the randomly generated number until capacity is reached. Students who request a transfer, but are not granted any of their school choices due to limited capacity will compose a waiting list. This list will be maintained until the first day of school. Individuals on the waiting list will be offered transfers as space may become available in any of the three requested schools. Once an individual on the waiting list is offered a transfer to any of their requested schools, their name will be removed from the list and no further offers will be made.  
7. Official notification of the status of a transfer request will be made in hard copy through the U.S. mail. Official notification will be made not later than four weeks after the transfer window closes with the exception of requests for transfer for students who will be in Kindergarten.  
8. Projecting Kindergarten enrollments with a high degree of accuracy is extremely problematic. Therefore, with the exception of those transfers identified as priority placement, Kindergarten transfers will be processed and parent notified in the week prior to the beginning of school.  
9. Where possible, e-mail and telephonic notification may be used to speed notification, but the official notification will be via U.S. mail.  
10. Transfers requested during the summer transfer window will be processed in the same manner as described for all other general transfers. Priority placement transfers will be made and a randomly generated list will be compiled of all other requests. If the randomly generated list is for transfers to a school with a previously existing waiting list, this additional list will be appended to the end of the existing list.  

TRANSFERS TO THE BEAUMONT MAGNET HONORS ACADEMY AND THE WEST HIGH SCHOOL INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE PROGRAMME

Transfers to the Beaumont Magnet Honors Academy and the International Baccalaureate Programme at West High School are based on a student’s abilities as demonstrated in a test administered by the school. Once all students requesting transfer have been tested, transfers will be granted based on space available. The same random process and waiting list procedure used for all general transfers will apply to the transfer requests for students who meet the established academic criteria.  

APPEAL OF GENERAL TRANSFER ACTIONS 

Policy J-152 establishes a protocol for appealing a transfer action. The appeal committee identified in this protocol will consist of three administrators not associated with the enrollment or transfer process, appointed in writing by the Director of Schools. One of the three will be appointed as committee chair. All requests for appeal will be forwarded from the enrollment office to the committee chair. The chair has the option to individually resolve the appeal if possible, or to convene the full committee for a review of the appeal. 

REVOCATION OF TRANSFERS 

In cases where a student granted a transfer fails to maintain an appropriate academic, attendance and disciplinary record, the principal may make a formal written request to the Supervisor of Enrollment that the transfer be revoked. This request must detail actions that have been taken in an effort to address the academic, attendance and disciplinary needs and issues of the student. It should also indicate how the student might benefit from a return to the student’s base school or placement in another educational setting. 

The Supervisor of Enrollment (in consultation with the Director of Schools) and the Director of Schools are the only persons who may revoke an approved transfer.  

CONTINUATION TRANSFERS 

A continuation transfer may be granted to students who change residence to another school zone during a school year, and who request to remain at their current school.  

Parents may request a Continuation Transfer by contacting the Knox County Schools Enrollment Office. If the enrollment office and the principal of the student’s current school determine the student to be in good academic and disciplinary standing, the student may be granted a continuation transfer through the school’s terminal grade with no transportation provided by the Knox County Schools.  The student must remain in good standing in order to retain the Continuation Transfer. The procedure for revocation of Continuation Transfers is the same as for General Transfers. 

Continuation Transfers are not applicable to students whose zoned school may have changed due to a changed in enrollment zones approved by the Board of Education