It is our desire that your student be in an educational environment most suited to his or her learning and individual achievement. While it is our hope that the school to which your student is zoned is your school of choice, there are options and opportunities for transfer should that be of interest or need to your student and family. 

Please read the information below before submitting your electronic Transfer Request. 

HARDSHIP TRANSFERS

While every effort will be made to honor hardship transfers, no transfers will be accepted to the following schools as the number of students currently enrolled and expected for the 2023-24 school year already substantially exceeds the total amount to which those facilities were designed.

The schools NOT available for Hardship Transfer include the following:

Millbrook Elementary               Paul Knox Middle                Midland Valley High

Other schools that are at or near capacity will be considered only in extreme hardship cases. These include the following:

Special exceptions will be considered, but are not guaranteed for siblings of currently enrolled transfer students. Transfers may be granted for all other schools based on capacity on a first-come, first-served basis. Friday, March 24, 2023, is the deadline to submit hardship transfer requests for the 2023-24 school year. If anticipated capacity at a particular school is reached prior to the deadline, that school will no longer be an available option for transfer. Please note that there are no transfer options for four-year-old kindergarten.

MAGNET SCHOOL THEMATIC PROGRAM TRANSFERS

Requests for attendance to one of Aiken County’s magnet schools, including East Aiken School of the Arts (elementary), Jackson STEM Middle School (Science Technology Engineering & Math), or New Ellenton STEAM Middle School (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math) or to the various thematic programs in the district, may be made on the Student Transfer Request form. The deadline for submitting paperwork for these transfers is also Friday, March 24, 2023.

KINDERGARTEN TRANSFERS

All requests for five-year-old kindergarten transfers must be made as part of the online kindergarten registration process. Because of the uncertainty of kindergarten enrollment, parents may not be notified of approval until August 2023. As noted above, there are no transfer options for four-year-old kindergarten.

If a request for transfer was previously approved, you do not need to request transfers each year. Transfers are approved through the fifth grade for elementary, through the eighth grade for middle, and through graduation for high school. While every effort will be made to keep students at their school of transfer, space limitations may make it necessary to rescind previously approved transfers.

Continued approval of a transfer is contingent upon the student following the Code of Student Conduct. Transfer students must be in regular attendance, arrive at school on time, and be picked up promptly afterwards. Excessive code of conduct violations or poor attendance in previous years may be used as a determining factor in denying a transfer. The transportation of transfer students is the responsibility of the parent or legal guardian.

Key dates to remember:

January 30, 2023

Choice/transfer information and applications are available on the district website by the end of the day.

January 30 – March 24, 2023

Choice/transfer applications will be accepted by email only. A statement of why the transfer is requested should be included in the email.

March 24, 2023

Choice/transfer application deadline.

April 15, 2023

Parents who submitted applications by the deadline will be notified of their choice/transfer application status.

April 28, 2023

Deadline for appealing transfer decisions to the Area Advisory Council.

As a reminder, schools that are at capacity will not be available for transfer. While we cannot guarantee every request will be approved, we have been able to approve many requests in recent years. If you have any questions about the process, please call 803-641-2420 or email LeAnne Jolley, Secretary for the Director of Administration, at JJolley@acpsd.net.