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By Megan Tagami at Honolulu Civil Beat
Geographic exceptions were intended to give families more flexibility with their children’s education, but the process may be exacerbating educational inequality.
More than eight months before her son started kindergarten, Nicole Gomez started the intensive process of choosing an elementary school. Her family is zoned for Lanakila Elementary in Honolulu, but she wanted a campus with more extracurriculars and after-school options for her son.
Unlike other states, Hawaiʻi has no magnet schools and offers few school choice options within the Department of Education. But the state does allow parents to ask special permission to switch schools — a process known as geographic exceptions or GEs — so Gomez and her family started the months-long process of applying to three additional public elementary schools.
Once she heard back from principals in the spring, she had only 10 business days to decide.
“You have to move fast,” Gomez said. “You’re wrapping up the year, and it gets a little busy.”
Roughly 13% of Hawaiʻi students received a geographic exception last year. The process was created in 1996 to give students access to special programs not offered at their neighborhood school or attend campuses in a location more convenient for their parents. Over the last two decades, however, parents have increasingly used it to send their children to better-rated schools, often in more affluent neighborhoods.
Critics say the application process lacks transparency and question whether principals have too much leeway in selecting which students to accept.
Not all families benefit equally from the system. In the 2022-23 academic year, nearly 30% of Asian students received GEs, even though they made up 16% of the public school population. On the other hand, just 7% of Pacific Islander students attended school using GEs but made up 11% of DOE’s enrollment.
Students who were low-income, special education or English learners were also less likely to tap into the transfer system, according to the DOE.
A lack of clarity around GEs can disadvantage families who aren’t familiar with the application process or don’t speak English as a first language and need translations of the paperwork, said David Sun-Miyashiro, executive director of HawaiiKidsCAN, an educational advocacy group.
“I think there are a lot of logistical issues and issues relating to privilege there,” Sun-Miyashiro said.
GEs can also exacerbate educational inequalities and disadvantage students attending small, low-income schools that may already be struggling to keep their doors open, particularly as the education department considers school closures as enrollment dwindles across the state.
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