The Troy School District’s “Schools of Choice” (SOC) program, an initiative that provides enrollment opportunities to non-resident students, has long been a tool to manage enrollment and welcome new families into its acclaimed schools. Districts can choose to participate, and the scope of that participationâspecifically, number of seats available at each grade levelâis determined at the local level. For the upcoming 2025-2026 school year, an analysis of recent enrollment data reveals a striking and divergent trend: a significant struggle to attract students from within Oakland County, set against a surge of applications from families in adjacent counties that far outstripped the available seats.
This pattern raises important questions about regional educational landscapes, demographic shifts, and the district’s appeal to the very communities that lie just beyond its borders.
A Widening Gap: Analyzing a Decade of Choice
Michigan’s school choice legislation is split into two primary categories. Section 105 allows students to transfer between districts within the same intermediate school district (ISD)âin Troy’s case, Oakland County. Section 105c extends this option to students in districts whose ISD is contiguous with Troy’s, opening the door to families in neighboring counties like Macomb and Wayne.
Based on enrollment projections, district leadership recommended opening a specific number of seats for the 2025-2026 school year, which the board approved in February 2025:
- Section 105 (Oakland County residents): 52 kindergarten seats, 25 first-grade seats, and 1 combined 6th-8th grade seat.
- Section 105c (non-Oakland County residents): 6 kindergarten seats, 1 first-grade seat, and 1 combined 6th-8th grade seat.
The results of the subsequent enrollment lottery were stark. For the 52 kindergarten spots open to Oakland County families, only 37 applications were received. Similarly, the 25 first-grade seats drew only 19 applicants.
Conversely, the story for out-of-county applicants was one of overwhelming demand. 54 applicants sought the six available Section 105c kindergarten seats, creating a long waitlist and a highly competitive lottery.
This imbalance isn’t a one-year anomaly but rather the culmination of a developing trend. Historical data shows that in the past, the district’s kindergarten offerings were met with intense demand. In the 2012-2013 school year, for instance, Troy advertised 100 kindergarten openings and received 188 applications. As recently as the 2019-2020 school year, 50 advertised kindergarten spots drew 143 applications. While the number of advertised openings has decreased significantly since those peak years, the demand from out-of-county families has exploded, while in-county interest has visibly softened. Note that actual enrollment will likely be less than the applications received, creating further distance between the districtâs target and what students they were able to recruit.
What’s Behind the Trend?
The district’s recommendations are not made in a vacuum; they are carefully calculated based on factors like current enrollment, historical trends, available classroom space, and future projections. For the 2025-2026 school year, projections estimate a kindergarten class of 778 students and a first-grade class of 786. Note that before the pandemic, these were 835 and 887, respectively, in 2019-20, largely driven by TSDâs loss of TSD resident market share but also due to dwindling out-of-district students. The Schools of Choice program is a strategic lever to help meet these targets and ensure building capacity is optimized, but only if sufficient demand exists.
Several factors could explain this geographic divergence between Oakland County residents and non-Oakland County residents. One possibility is that other school districts within Oakland County have enhanced their own programs, making them more attractive to their resident families and reducing the impetus to look elsewhere. The proliferation of charter schools and other educational options gives families more alternatives than ever. For many families, the logistical advantages of a neighborhood school may outweigh the benefits of commuting to a different district, even one with Troy’s reputation.
Furthermore, the impact of the Schools of Choice program is not felt evenly across the district. An analysis of recent data shows a significant variation in SOC student populations at the building level. For example, at Hill Elementary, SOC students make up nearly 13% of the total enrollment. Wass and Wattles Elementary also have substantial choice populations, at 7% and 6% respectively. In contrast, Schroeder Elementary has no SOC students, while Bemis and Morse Elementary each have only one. This uneven distribution highlights that the program is used to strategically fill available space in specific buildings. The practice of placing middle school choice students “according to available space” further underscores this building-level approach to managing enrollment.
While TSD is simply being strategic with these allocations, the program does raise equity concerns for the community as SOC students are, on average, more economically challenged. Indeed, 21% SOC students in grades K-5 are economically disadvantaged compared to 12% economically disadvantaged among TSD resident students in that grade band. Similarly, 18% of SOC students in Grades K-5 are special education students compared to 12% of non-SOC. Both economically disadvantaged and special education students fall into what is often referred to as âstudents requiring additional supports,â which often means that they are more costly to educate than students not meeting either of these criteria. Concentrating these students at elementary schools such as Hill, Wass, and Wattles risks overburdening the limited resources of those schools.
Looking Ahead: An Opportunity for Reflection
The 2025-2026 Schools of Choice results provide the Troy School District with a valuable, data-driven opportunity for strategic reflection. The immense demand from outside Oakland County is a powerful affirmation of the district’s brand and academic excellence. However, the empty seats intended for in-county students signal a critical disconnect with its closest neighbors.
Moving forward, the district could benefit from exploring the root causes of this trend. Why are families in contiguous counties clamoring for a seat at the table while many in Oakland County pass on the opportunity? Engaging with local communities, surveying families on their educational priorities, and highlighting the unique programs Troy offers could be crucial next steps. The empty seats are more than a statistical footnote; they represent a missed opportunity to build stronger regional ties and bring more students into the district. Understanding this enrollment puzzle is essential for ensuring the long-term vitality of the Troy School District as a premier destination for all families in the region, both near and far.
Failure to successfully recruit students from outside the district is as problematic as the districtâs failure to retain TSD resident students. And both very likely share a common root cause: the erosion of TSDâs reputation as an elite public school district in the state of Michigan.