A New Frontier for Public School Choice in South Carolina
With the signing of S.62 during the 2025 legislative session came a revamped Education Scholarship Trust Fund program designed to withstand any further constitutional challenges that may come its way. The bill also included a requirement that the South Carolina Department of Education develop model guidelines that traditional public schools must use to create an interdistrict transfer policy – effectively creating interdistrict open enrollment in every school district across the state. These model guidelines were released in mid-November 2025 for public comment, and we recently submitted feedback to the Department of Education.
Generally speaking, the model guidelines are well-drafted and address many of the most important aspects of an effective open enrollment policy that Jude Schwalbach at the Reason Foundation has identified, including prioritizing the interdistrict transfer applications for current students’ siblings, protecting students from arbitrary annual reapplication requirements, aligning the application and decision timelines to the disbursement timeline for families taking advantage of the Education Scholarship Trust Fund (ESTF), and creating a process by which families can appeal denied applications. However, we believe that the guidelines could be even stronger with a few targeted improvements, namely:
- Eliminate Transfer Fees for Students
- Increase Clarity Regarding Capacity Studies
- Grant Mid-Year Transferees Automatic Matriculation
- Protect Students from Denial due to Academic Ability
- Create a Timeline for Student Record Transfers
For more details, see our full public comment below, which we have submitted to the South Carolina Department of Education.
