Sacramento City Unified cites "overwhelmed" enrollment system keeping hundreds of students home
SACRAMENTO — Despite a picture-perfect first day of school for 6th grader Ayden Schwartz, her start to middle school has been clouded by a backlog of enrollees into the Sacramento City Unified School District.
After her first day of school at Didion Elementary, her grandmother said the family got a phone call about an issue with her enrollment application.
"They said because her registration hasn't been processed, Ayden needs to stay home," said Ayden's grandmother, Felicia Miller. "How do you explain to an 11-year-old you might be sitting around for three weeks while the district processes your enrollment?"
This is a backlog keeping some 300 students out of a classroom while staff tries to catch up, which the district admits could take up to 14 business days.
"They didn't have a plan. They didn't execute the plan, and now the kids are suffering," Miller said.
Sacramento City Unified is blaming a perfect storm of problems that is forcing hundreds of students to stay home weeks after the start of school. Aside from a two-week earlier start date and less time to enroll, the district, for the first time, is including transitional kindergarten in its enrollment processing.
District spokesperson Brian Heap said they are working around the clock to clear the backlog of applications and get kids in the classroom.
"I can tell you that I would be just as frustrated as any other parent would be if my student was not in school right now," Heap said.
The district said that over a two-week period starting on August 12, they had over 750 enrollment applications to their district, with less time to process that paperwork.
"So that shows you what this late-season surge has been like for them, and they've been a little overwhelmed and they're working as hard as they can right now to get caught up," Heap said. "I recognize that that doesn't do much if you're the parent whose child is sitting at home right now."
As for Miller, who is still waiting to hear from the district when her granddaughter can return to class, she is frustrated over the lack of communication and lack of transparency with the district.
"I know it's unlawful for the school district to have kids sitting around, not in school, and the school district is not collecting that state money for average daily attendance. So the school district's losing out on money," Miller said.
A major point that Heap said they are trying to convey to people in the district waiting to be admitted into a classroom is to check their voicemail or their emails for district communication needing paperwork like proof of address or vaccination records.
"So really imploring them to do that, check your emails, check your voicemails if they're one of these folks because maybe that's what's going on, too," Heap said.
The district said there is no current timeline for when they could sift through, process and assign these kids appropriate school assignments but assures the community they are working around the clock including weekends to get this fixed.
"I just want you to know I'm a parent, too, and I recognize how frustrating this is, and I'm sure that there are some people saying, 'How is this possible in the year 2024?' " Heap said. "And without making excuses, just offering explanations, I would just say we've had a really historically high number of late enrollees and it's just overwhelmed the system."
Ayden is one of the 300 students sitting at home right now hoping for the phone call that they can return to their 6th grade classroom and finish out the year.