Delineating school attendance boundaries to improve diversity and community integrity

The delineation of school attendance zones (SAZs) is a critical aspect of educational policy, influencing student distribution, resource allocation, and educational equity. SAZs determine which students attend specific schools based on geographic boundaries, shaping the demographic composition of schools and the opportunities available to students. Designing SAZs is a complex and challenging task, as it requires balancing multiple, often conflicting objectives and constraints. These include minimizing student travel time, promoting diversity and reducing segregation, balancing school capacities to prevent overcrowding or underutilization, and maintaining zone contiguity. In this paper, we present a multi-objective spatial optimization model to address these competing priorities. We applied this method to redraw the attendance boundaries of elementary schools in the Riverside Unified School District, California. The results demonstrate that our model can significantly reduce school segregation while minimizing student travel time and maintaining contiguous attendance zones. By generating a set of Pareto-optimal solutions, this approach equips policymakers with the tools to make informed decisions on SAZ delineation that improve both equity and logistical efficiency.