The school committee unanimously voted to be a School Choice District for the 2019-20 school year.

School choice was first enacted in Massachusetts in 1991 and provides parents the option of enrolling their children in a community other than their hometown.

Thursday night’s vote ensured that the Wareham Public School System will remain a receiving district. Students from other school systems are welcome to apply for school choice, provided that there are enough slots available.

“We have a cap on grades, so we will not exceed class sizes to accept school choice students,” explained Wareham Public Schools Superintendent Kimberly Shaver-Hood.

The Wareham school district has been open to incoming students from other schools for several years.

“Every year the school committee needs to vote to be in a district that would accept school choice students,” said Shaver-Hood. “We’ve always accepted the student,” she added.

According to the preliminary data published by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 53 out of district students were enrolled in Wareham Public School System during the 2018-19 academic year, which brought the town $299,871. Meanwhile, the town’s school system had about 246 students transfer out of the district, which cost the town $1,602,158.

Wareham Week has not yet received confirmation of this data from the Wareham Public School superintendent.