Berkeley High School (BHS) attracts students from around the Bay Area; it seems that everyone wants to be a Jacket. There is only one restriction for admission to BHS: students must live in Berkeley. This regulation has led to students living outside Berkeley to use addresses within the city that are not their own in order to gain admission, a practice known as “zipcode faking.” Although an illicit means of enrollment, the tactic should be a call to action for school administration to be more lenient with out-of-district students.
419 out-of-district students are officially enrolled at BHS, making up about 13% of the student body. Although these numbers seem reasonable, the acceptance rate for out-of-district students is actually low. This year, 216 students attempted to transfer in, and only 152 were accepted. That means that nearly 30% of the out-of-district students that applied got in, a data point of concern for out of district parents who want their children to attend Berkeley schools.
“We believe that our policy is fair for everybody,” Francisco Martinez, Head of Admissions for the Berkeley Unified School District, said when asked about the lottery system for out-of-district enrollment. “Good grades, good attendance, and good behavior. Those are the three criteria… that we have to be looking at (for the lottery system),” Martinez said. However, the lottery system does not ensure success even for students who meet these criteria. One junior, who asked to remain anonymous, lives in Oakland and currently reports a Berkeley address to the school district. They reported exemplary grades, attendance, and behavior when initially applying to the Berkeley School District, yet along with their sibling was denied enrollment to Berkeley schools. The pair opted to report a false address and have been attending Berkeley schools for seven years.
Some argue that if the school administration gives more opportunities to out-of-district students, the BHS hallways will become even more crowded. This concern can be addressed by the simple fact that non-Berkeley residents attend BHS regardless of legal opportunities; it’s merely a question of whether BHS would like them to continue to do it covertly or not. If acceptance rates were to be raised, out-of-district families would be incentivized to apply through official channels, allowing the school to ensure that population demographic statistics are accurately reported.
Falsely reporting zip codes to guarantee enrollment at BHS should not be a tactic to which students must resort. The admissions office webpage of the Berkeley Unified School district states “Berkeley is a vibrant community where families from around the world and of diverse heritage live and learn together.”Although administration should not be expected to let every out-of-district student attend Berkeley schools, acceptance rates into the Berkeley School District should be raised to ensure students can attend Berkeley schools, regardless of the district in which they live.