Conejo Valley Schools Allow You To Choose Your School
The Conejo Valley is known for its excellent schools. Being home to some of the highest rated schools in the state creates high demand for our schools from families all over. But many parents don’t know that you can apply to transfer to the best school for your child even if you don’t live within the school boundaries.
Conejo Valley Schools
There are 3 school districts within The Conejo Valley:
- Las Virgenes Unified School District (LVUSD) covers Agoura Hills, Calabasas, and the L.A. County section of Westlake Village. It has 8 elementary schools, 3 middle schools, and 2 high schools. LVUSD has a strong reputation and is often the preferred district for parents.
- Oak Park Unified School District (OPUSD) is a small school district with 3 elementary schools, 1 middle school, 1 high school and is Oak Park specific. It has the best reputation for academics. To the point that parents cater their home search around acceptance into this district.
- Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) is the largest and covers Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, and the area of Westlake Village in Ventura County. It has 17 elementary schools, 5 middle schools, and 3 high schools. Most schools are very good to excellent, but with 17 elementary schools you can imagine that scores range depending on the neighborhood. Schools on the Westlake Village side are higher regarded and highly sought after. The Thousand Oaks side has excellent schools too, but not all. It’s worth doing your research.
Choosing a school district can be very overwhelming and confusing. I’ve lived here my entire life and it’s often confusing. Fortunately, there are tons of tools and resources to help guide you.
The first step is to determine which school your home is assigned. Boundary lines can run right through the middle of your neighborhood so don’t assume your child will go to the same school as your neighbors. Fortunately each district provides an easy to use Street Index to locate your correct schools. Here are the links: LVUSD, OPUSD, CVUSD,
How to Choose Your School
Did you know that all three districts offer both School Choice and Interdistrict Transfer? If you don’t know what that means, I’ll explain.
School Choice
With School Choice, you have the option to request that your child attend any school within the district. There is some paperwork to fill out and it is subject to approval. But from what I understand, it mainly has to do with space availability at the school you are transferring. I’ve heard from people who have done it that it’s a rather painless procedure.
Here are the links to each districts School Choice requirements to learn more: LVUSD, OPUSD, CVUSD
Interdistrict Transfers
Depending on the needs of your child, you may decide that you’d prefer to switch to another school district. In that case, you can request an Interdistrict Transfer. For example, let’s say you live in Agoura Hills, but you would really like your kids to go to Westlake High. There are two items you need to make that happen. First, you need a release from your current district, and second, you need acceptance from your desired district.
It’s certainly not a guarantee that you will be granted either. If the school you are requesting the release needs students, it may reject your request. And if the school you are requesting is full or not accepting transfers, then you’re out of luck.
I personally have done this and it was no problem. I lived in Westlake Village and my kids attended CVUSD. We moved to Oak Park and my kids didn’t want to leave their friends at their current school. I would have preferred to have them attend Oak Park schools. Oak Park is a great school district and they could have walked to school, but ultimately I caved and requested an Interdistrict Transfer and it was granted easily.
Here are the links to each districts Interdistrict Transfer requirements to learn more: LVUSD, OPUSD, CVUSD
Eligibility and rules can change at any time, so please make sure you investigate with the school districts before making a decision on where to live.
Moving to the Conejo Valley
To make your home search easier we created over 100 Neighborhood Tours. These tours break down the neighborhoods by name and price range. Within each page is a detailed overview of the neighborhoods including what makes it stand out, what’s to love about it, what’s not to love, the floor plans, neighborhood highlights, schools, demographics, the ideal (best fitting) buyer, a video tour, and any available homes for sale. You can check them out here.
