Rising tensions over enrollment and school choice in SPS
Board Directors Sarah Clark and Joe Mizrahi throw down the gauntlet on SPS enrollment practices
(Above - Patrick Conway testified at the April 23 school board meeting about his child being on the waitlist for TOPS K-8, the designated Deaf and Hard of Hearing school for Seattle Public Schools)
In a pointed op-ed published today in The Urbanist, School Board Directors Sarah Clark and Joe Mizrahi criticized Seattle Public Schools for enrollment practices they say “starve schools and harm students.”
https://www.theurbanist.org/2025/05/08/op-ed-seattle-public-schools-enrollment-practices-starve-schools-and-harm-students
Their warning comes just one day after a heated board engagement at Daniel Bagley Elementary, where district staff gave a brief presentation and answered questions before the community engagement portion of the meeting. Staff confirmed that students receiving special education services are placed on separate waitlists—with fewer seats available. They also confirmed that students are being assigned based on where staff already are, rather than staffing following enrollment demand.
This has had the greatest impact at option schools, where staffing has also been lowered year over year, resulting in long waitlists.
Seattle City Councilmember Tammy Morales was one of the attendees at the Bagley meeting. Morales penned her own op-ed last week for the South Seattle Emerald. She wrote:
“Families are being pushed out of the district... The answer isn’t to block students from enrolling in their preferred school. The answer is to staff and resource schools appropriately.”
https://southseattleemerald.org/voices/2025/05/01/opinion-south-end-students-deserve-school-options-too
She also spoke at the April 23 board meeting:
“Pushing kids away, keeping them on a waiting list for reasons that are still unclear, means that families are looking to charter schools.”
“Lift the waitlist for families who know that the school system is stronger because of school choice, not despite school choice.”
Watch her testimony: https://transcripts.sps-by-the-numbers.com/sps-board/v/SkU6l6sLgLg#01:05:11
At that same meeting, district staff revealed that 20–25% of families who don’t get their school choice assignment leave the district.
In Episode 34 of Rainy Day Recess - Waitlists in Seattle Public Schools, guest host Dawson Nichols dug into this in Waitlists in Seattle Public Schools, asking why so many families are turned away from schools that have room, and why the district won’t explain how those decisions are made.
In Episode 35 - Explaining the Enrollment Enigma, Jasmine Pulido and Christie Robertson broke down the April 23 board meeting where district staff first acknowledged that 20–25% of families leave SPS when they don’t get their school of choice, and that staffing decisions are made before enrollment is finalized.
Many in the community are now calling for the district to release waitlists and enroll schools up to their physical capacity. According to Fred Podesta, doing so would affect 80 of the district’s 105 schools.
This moment echoes an earlier school choice clash from 2017, as evidenced by the board meeting discussion on July 5 of that year. The testimony, staff presentation, and board director discussion are all worth watching:
https://transcripts.sps-by-the-numbers.com/sps-board/v/KrMDogN8dlA
For a deeper dive into how school choice has shifted over the years in Seattle Public schools, the new report Left to Chance, walks through district configurations, governance, and policy changes from 1970:
https://www.sesecwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Left-to-Chance-Report-FINAL.pdf
All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of a $100 million budget deficit, two failed mass school closure proposals, a strategic plan rewrite, a superintendent transition, and 13 candidates vying for 4 school board seats in this summer’s primary election.
What happens now?