Recently the Darien School Board voted down a program that would have opened the Darien school district to a small number of students—16 kindergarteners from Norwalk—through the Open Choice program.

The program, in existence for decades, allows urban students to attend public schools in nearby suburban towns. It allows suburban and rural students to attend public schools in a nearby urban center, and enrollments are offered by school districts on a space-available basis in grades K-12. The program includes several major cities and their surrounding districts, and more than 250 children from Bridgeport are participating and attending in suburban towns around Bridgeport.