"Sometimes it works for people and sometimes it doesn't," says Josiane Hudicourt-Barnes, a teacher at Graham and Parks School and mother of three.

Sousa noted that opportunities for transfer do exist when people don't want to stay with their assigned school.

Information Helps

Parents aren't alone in making choices. They're aided by the four full-time staff members of the Parent Information Office, who are responsible for school registration each year and field queries and complaints regarding the system from Cambridge residents the rest of the year.

Registrar Eileen Bacci orients parents who are new to Cambridge's controlled choice process--guiding parents and students through the barrage of mandatory paperwork that must accompanies the registration process.

"We are always paying attention to constant outreach," Superintendent Mary Lou McGrath says. "It's very hard--I don't think we ever get it 100 percent."

McGrath says equal access can depend on the information being provided.

"We've found that a lot of the choosing is by word of mouth," Giroux says.

"People that are aware of various educational concepts might do some reading...on using more manipulatives in math and that sort of thing," Giroux says. "This is one of our major problems. If you get someone from Haiti...who's fleeing oppression, many times people from that kind of background are looking for a school close to their house."

"It's an educational program just to acquaint them with what the choices are," Giroux says.

Giroux explains that the office conveys its message in a variety of settings and languages, posting notices in day care centers, preschools and in community centers before information sessions and school tours for the parents in November of each year.

The job is challenging, but not impossible. "There is really not a language group that doesn't have someone [to help translate] or that you don't understand," Bacci says.

When parents make their choices, informed or not, they consider factors such as the location of the school, academics, special focus, siblings, trendiness and approach to education.

"Parents choose schools for various and sundry reasons," Bacci says.

When Cambridge implemented the school choice program, it tried to give students a real choice.