School transfers in PAUSD

Palo Alto Unified assigns students to schools by home address. Transfers are the exception. The district treats them that way. Moving between PAUSD schools depends on space. Moving into the district from outside is limited to a short list of categories. The one large standing program is Tinsley, which brings students from the Ravenswood City School District into Palo Alto schools under a court settlement.

This page summarizes the rules on the district's school placement and transfers page, its Voluntary Transfer Program page and the San Mateo County Office of Education's Tinsley page, as they read on November 2, 2026. Send transfer requests and questions to Registration Services at (650) 329-3707. For registration itself, see our enrollment guide.

The 2027 to 2028 windows at a glance

Choice programs are not transfers. They have their own lottery, covered in our choice programs guide.

How placement works first

Every elementary school belongs to a cluster that feeds the same middle and high schools. The district's 2026 information night slides grouped them this way: Addison, Duveneck and Walter Hays in the north cluster; Barron Park, Escondido, Juana Briones and Nixon in the west cluster; and El Carmelo, Fairmeadow and Palo Verde in the south cluster. Hoover and Ohlone are choice schools.

When a neighborhood school is full, a new student may be overflowed to another school in the same cluster. That is not a transfer. The student is automatically waitlisted for the neighborhood school and can move back when a seat opens. Our school boundaries guide explains attendance areas for buyers and renters.

Transfers between PAUSD schools

Current PAUSD students who want a school other than their neighborhood school can file an intradistrict transfer request. For 2027 to 2028:

• Window: January 7 to February 19, 2027, for current PAUSD students.
• Form: an online Intradistrict Transfer Form linked from the placement page.
• Condition: every request is subject to space at the requested school.
• Decisions: for the last cycle, grades 6 to 12 were completed by the end of April. Elementary decisions could come at the end of July, through the summer and up to five days before school starts.

Requests made after the school year begins are considered case by case and only for special circumstances. Two situations work differently. English learners who need the secondary ELD program are granted a transfer to JLS Middle School or Gunn High School, as our English learners guide explains. Students whose IEP team decides on a program at another campus are placed through the IEP process.

Things to weigh

A late summer decision for elementary students can be hard to plan around. After-school care is run by private providers at each campus, so a transfer may mean switching providers. The district does not run general school buses, so families arrange their own transportation. Our Safe Routes to School guide covers walking and biking routes.

Transferring into PAUSD

California generally requires students to attend school in the district where their parent or guardian lives. A family living outside PAUSD must first get an interdistrict transfer approved by its home district. If approved, the request goes to PAUSD.

PAUSD accepts requests for 2027 to 2028 from December 7, 2026 to February 19, 2027. The district says that because of continued high demand it does not expect to approve transfers outside the categories in Board Policy 5117 and its administrative regulation. Those categories, as the placement page lists them, are:

1. The Project Search program.
2. Children of PAUSD employees who work at 80 percent time or more.
3. A junior and senior privilege.
4. Hardship, with supporting documentation from a professional or agency.

For requests received during the window, PAUSD says it will reply no later than 14 days after instruction begins for the school year requested. The district can deny, revoke or rescind an agreement if a student does not keep up acceptable attendance or behavior.

Appeals

Under Education Code 46601, parents have 30 calendar days to appeal a denial to the county board of education. The Santa Clara County Office of Education explains the steps on its interdistrict appeals page.

Transferring out of PAUSD

Residents who want a school in another district file a PAUSD Interdistrict Transfer Request with Registration Services first. PAUSD must approve it before the family applies to the other district. Proof of residence, either a current property tax bill or a lease, goes with the form.

Gardner Bullis for Los Altos Hills families

Part of Los Altos Hills is inside PAUSD. Under a joint arrangement with the Los Altos School District, PAUSD families there can request five-year transfers to Gardner Bullis Elementary School, at 25890 Fremont Road, with two more years available if needed through sixth grade. A separate Gardner Bullis transfer form is on the placement page.

The Tinsley Voluntary Transfer Program

The Voluntary Transfer Program, almost always called Tinsley, began with a 1976 lawsuit by parents in the Ravenswood City School District, led by Margaret Tinsley. They argued that their children were denied equal educational opportunity because they attended racially isolated schools. The case was settled in 1986 with a court order in San Mateo County. PAUSD says the program aims to reduce racial isolation, improve achievement for Ravenswood students and encourage cooperation between districts.

Who can apply

Students of color who live in the Ravenswood district, which serves East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park, can apply when entering TK, kindergarten, first grade or second grade. The settlement uses the state's definition of minority students. White students in the receiving districts can transfer into Ravenswood under the same order. Ravenswood families register with PAUSD using proof of residence in Ravenswood rather than in Palo Alto.

Seats and timing

Six districts receive Tinsley students. The county office lists PAUSD at 60 new students a year, the largest share, followed by San Carlos at 26 and Menlo Park City at 24. For 2027 to 2028:

• Applications opened September 15, 2026 on the county office's site.
• The deadline for the December lottery is November 16, 2026.
• Families who apply by the deadline hear by December 15.
• Late applications run from November 17, 2026 to February 2, 2027 and are considered only if space is available.
• No transfers are made after May 1.

After placement

Students assigned to PAUSD can stay through grade 12. PAUSD runs a VTP bus to East Palo Alto that only VTP students may ride. It posts a yearly transportation schedule. District staff also hold workshops for VTP parents.

Frequently asked questions