Schools not reducing acreage in accordance with relaxed state policies, possibly a result of lagging state guidance

Noreen C. McDonald & David A. Salvesen & H. Renee Kuhlman & Tabitha S. Combs, "The Impact of Changes in State Minimum Acreage Policies on School Siting Practices," Journal of Planning Education and Research 34 (2014): 2

The take-away: Despite the fact that “several states recently have changed state school siting policies to give school districts more flexibility to build schools on smaller sites […], [this] study showed that these changes have not yet strongly impacted siting practices or school acreage purchased by school districts” (177). The article explains this lag in terms of a failure of state guidance to reflect these new state policies. 

Abstract: Researchers and advocates have linked state guidelines on minimum acreage for schools to the abandonment of historic schools and increased barriers to walking and biking to school. This study examined how the elimination of minimum acreage standards in four states affected school planning processes and outcomes using mixed methods. We found that states changed school acreage policies because of concerns about sprawl and the rising costs of education facilities. However, changes in state acreage policies have not been accompanied by changes in district-level school planning processes and therefore on-the-ground impacts have been minimal in the years immediately after the policy change.

Full article (requires access)