When an anonymous student* was in eighth grade, preparing to enter high school, an Enrollment Center Investigator from the San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD) visited their Burlingame home to verify their home address. The visit was part of the district’s effort to prevent residency fraud, which occurs when a student’s address is falsified to bypass the intra-district transfer system and attend a specific school.
“[The district] questioned where I lived, but we didn’t really know the extent of how they were going to see if I live [in Burlingame],” the anonymous student said. “I remember one day after school, a random guy knocked on our door, and I didn’t know who it was. I remember calling my dad because I was really confused.”
According to a district board meeting held in November 2025, Burlingame received 95 intra-district transfer requests this school year. From that total, 44 were granted, 19 were denied, and 32 declined to transfer. Across the district, 76% of intra-district transfer requests were accommodated, a 1% increase from the previous school year. During the board meeting, Superintendent Randall Booker addressed concerns about Burlingame’s declining accommodation rate compared to previous years.
“Part of the other issue we’re seeing is at Burlingame High, which is very, very impacted,” Booker said. “There’s no wiggle room there. I’m not placing all this on Burlingame, but in the past, we’ve had opportunities for movement, where now what we’re seeing at Burlingame is really no opportunities.”
As a result, many students interested in transferring to Burlingame struggle to secure a spot. For senior Stanley Situ and his family, who initially lived in San Francisco, that meant moving to Burlingame before he could enroll as a sophomore.
“I believe they should be more open to students outside [the district], but I do understand they need to limit the number of students coming in because the district only has a select number of schools that they want to cater to their own students,” Situ said. “I just think they should be more open-minded to outsiders moving in for a good education.”
Director of Student Services Sheliah Burnette attributed the lower accommodation rate to two main factors: fewer students attending private schools and a general decrease in enrollment due to the “aging population,” a demographic shift characterized by a higher proportion of people aged 65 or older.
“Anytime now we have low enrollment, that can cause challenges for intra-district requests to balance all schools,” Burnette said. “It doesn’t mean we’ve changed our practices or processes, but we just have less options than we had in the past.”
If a student relocates outside the zoned area for a specific SMUHSD high school, the district considers the student’s grade level and academic progression when determining whether to grant transfer requests.
“If the student is a freshman or a sophomore, we probably would ask them to go through the lottery system for the following year,” Burnette said. “If, say, they’re ending their junior year, and now we’re just looking at senior year, that’s a little bit different. We try to really protect senior status and give seniors privileges. But really, every family is different… it is a whole lot less of a black and white decision as it is case-by-case.”
For junior Jeime Moreno, who lives outside of SMUHSD and enrolled at Burlingame her freshman year, the decision to transfer came down to the opportunities that Burlingame offers.
“My mom works at the school, and she told me how there were a lot more opportunities at Burlingame High School that other schools, mostly where I live, don’t really have,” Moreno said. “So I really wanted to join Burlingame, because I felt it would just be a better experience.”
Situ advised students who complete the intra-district transfer application to simply “apply again if it doesn’t work the first time.”
“If you want to attend a specific school, you should probably go through the intended pathways that are created by the district, generally,” Situ said. “But I understand some parents and students are desperate to go to a school because of the opportunities it has to offer compared to the schools they may have in their own area.”
*This source was granted anonymity because of disciplinary consequences. For more information, read through the B’s anonymous policy.
