School attendance zones (SAZs) serve as the student catchment areas for public schools in a school district. SAZs are the geographic boundaries that determine the student residences that a school serves. In some cases, schools that participate in a school choice program will also have defined attendance areas; in these cases, we will represent school choice and the attendance boundary.
Schools with more than one attendance zone
In some cases, it is necessary to create multiple school attendance zones for a public school because a school serves students spanning multiple education levels. For example, a school can be represented with three separate boundaries: one serving the primary education level, one serving the middle school education level, and one serving the high school education level.
This can also happen (albeit much less frequently) when a specific grade range in a school comes from a different geographic area than the rest of the school. This situation is typically encountered when students are being transitioned from one school to another over a period of several years.
Multipart school attendance zones
School attendance zones may, in some instances, be represented by a multipart polygon. These multipart polygons share the same ID and function the same as any single-part polygon.
Attendance zones that cross district boundaries
School attendance zones may cross school district boundaries. Examples include a high school that serves students from surrounding districts or when there are different school districts for primary and secondary schools.