Ohio’s open enrollment policy may be a boon to restless students seeking a better situation, but also an enormous financial blow to the jilted school districts.

The policy, created by law, allows students to attend tuition-free a school district outside their residential area. Open enrollment was designed to provide flexibility to students and their parents. But the loss of the state’s per-pupil funding can create big budgetary headaches.

Ashtabula’s schools lost an estimated $1.8 million in per-pupil assistance when 372 students who live in the district opted to attend class elsewhere, said Superintendent Joseph Donatone.

Conversely, districts in demand can see their funding grow through the policy. Buckeye Local Schools saw a net gain of some $781,000 via open enrollment this school year.

At issue is the per-pupil state funding that follows a student wherever he or she goes. On average, each enrolled student is worth about $5,500 to a school districts.

Open enrollment figures for county school districts for 2007-2008, provided by superintendents, showed many students were on the move during the year. The figures include:

* Ashtabula Area City Schools — Gained 44 students, lost 372

* Buckeye Local Schools — Gained 226 students, lost 84

* Conneaut Area City Schools — Gained 30 students, lost 41

* Geneva Area City Schools — Gained 207 students, lost 170

* Grand Valley Local Schools — Gained 93 students, lost 59

* Jefferson Area Local Schools — Gained 87 students, lost 84

* Pymatuning Valley Local Schools — Gained 40 students, lost 60

Ohio schools are not obliged to offer open enrollment, but the vast majority do, according to the Ohio Department of Education Web site. Of the state’s 662 districts, only 173 (26 percent) do not offer the policy. Another 117 restrict open enrollment to adjacent districts only, while a whopping 372 districts — more than half — offer enrollment with no strings attached.

The seven Ashtabula County districts listed above are in the latter category.

Students migrate for many reasons, superintendents said. Some children or parents may be unhappy with a teacher or principal, officials said. Others may be enticed by another district’s new buildings or extracurricular offerings.

Simple convenience is also a big incentive — especially with fuel costing more than $3 a gallon.

Parents may want their children to attend schools in the community where they work, while others may discover they can cut travel time by attending a neighboring district.

Districts don’t openly compete for students and their all-important state funding, but many advertise their enrollment dates. “Financially, it’s advantageous,” said Buckeye Superintendent Nancy Williams.

Districts on the receiving end of open enrollment cite a variety of reasons for their popularity. In Grand Valley, new buildings didn’t hurt, said Superintendent William Nye Jr.

“We offer attractive facilities,” he said. “Some people like to go to smaller schools, while others may switch for athletic reasons.”

Schools losing students to others are working hard to improve their image and desirability. Conneaut touts their new buildings, improved test scores and award-winning high school. It’s too soon to tell if the pending loss of some sports programs to budget cuts will impact enrollment, said Superintendent Mary Zappitelli.

“Our open enrollment figure is pretty typical,” she said.

Pymatuning Valley has seen a loss of students “the last three or four years,” said Superintendent John Rose. PV’s proximity to other districts doesn’t help, he said.

New schools on the way in Ashtabula should help stem the bleeding, Donatone said. The district already has worked hard to improve test scores, going from a two to nine to 12, he said.

“We’ve beefed up our curriculum at Lakeside High and Lakeside Junior High,” Donatone said. “And, next month, we’ll have an open house at Lakeside High School.”

Open enrollment doesn’t mean open doors for every kid in every grade. Schools often limit enrollment to specific classes where vacancies exist. Such restrictions keep schools from accepting more kids than they can comfortably handle with the staff on hand.

Districts have to keep tabs on enrollment to avoid hiring additional teachers, whose salaries can erase any gains in per-pupil funding, said Jefferson Superintendent Doug Hladek.

Geneva is on the plus side of open enrollment, but Superintendent Ron Donatone is no fan of the policy. Students who migrate weaken their parents’ voice in school affairs, because mom and dad don’t live in their child’s school district, he said.

“It erodes the electorate’s control over the schools,” Ron Donatone said. “Once a parent decides to move a student, they don’t care about levies in their resident district and they can’t vote where their student attends. The concept of local control and a district answering to parents and voters goes out the window,”

“It was a poor law from the very beginning,” Ron Donatone said. “It’s one of the state’s ways of setting up a competitive atmosphere.”