No more ‘failing’ schools. See which schools Alabama labels for ‘priority,’ expanded school choice

Nearly 100,000 students in 206 of Alabama’s public schools have a big decision to make before March: Will they stay in their school or will they go?

Those 206 ‘priority’ schools earned either a ‘D’ or ‘F’ on the most recent report card. Those D’s and F’s matter in a different and important way this year, as a new provision of the Alabama Accountability Act kicks in.

See 2023 report card grades for each public school in Alabama here.

According to legislation passed in 2023, students in schools that earned a ‘D’ or ‘F’ have new options:

School officials have until Jan. 16, 2024, to notify parents of their choices, according to state education officials. Parents have until Mar. 1, 2024, to decide. It’s not clear how many scholarships might be available for students who want to transfer from public to private schools, but the state will have at least $40 million to hand out.

Until this year, students in schools where achievement was in the bottom 6% statewide - called “failing” schools - were the only students eligible for the options. Every year since 2013, between 75 and 79 schools landed on that failing list, far fewer than the 206 schools that must offer expanded choices for the 2024-25 school year.

Most students who had the options under the old rules chose to stay in their neighborhood school, state officials said, but no publicly available data exists to know for sure.

Which schools are priority schools?

AL.com took a look at the 206 priority schools to see what those schools look like and where students will have a new choice.