The Geographical Boundaries page lets your district define attendance zones — the geographic areas that map student home addresses to specific schools. Once configured, the system automatically determines the correct school of residence for any address submitted during enrollment or boundary review. This page is designed for staff users of the Admin Portal who manage district configuration.
From this page, you can:
- Upload, validate, and delete boundary files for any school year
- View how attendance zones and school overrides work together
- Test any address against your configured zones
- Create per-school boundary overrides for non-standard catchment areas
To access this page, navigate to Administration > District & Schools > Geographical Boundaries in the left sidebar.
Table of Contents ↑
Prerequisites
Concepts & Terminology
Page Layout
When to Use Geographical Boundaries
Before Uploading
Uploading District Boundaries
Validation Results
Managing Existing Boundaries
Map & Zone List
Individual School Boundaries
Testing an Address
Frequently Asked Questions
Prerequisites ↑
Access to Geographical Boundaries features is restricted to the Admin role. Only Admin users can upload, validate, delete, and manage boundary files and school overrides.
| Action | Admin |
|---|---|
| View district map and zones | Yes |
| Test an address against zones | Yes |
| Upload district boundary file | Yes |
| Delete a boundary record | Yes |
| Upload per-school override | Yes |
Concepts & Terminology ↑
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Attendance Zone | A polygon (boundary) tied to one or more schools by grade band (elementary, middle, high). An address that falls inside a zone is routed to those schools. |
| District Boundary | The full set of zones uploaded for the entire district, typically derived from a single GeoJSON or shapefile import for a school year. |
| School Override | A per-school polygon that supersedes the district-wide zone for that single school. Used when a school has a non-standard catchment area. |
| GeoJSON / Shapefile | Industry-standard geographic file formats. Shapefiles are uploaded as a .zip; GeoJSON is uploaded as a .geojson file. |
| School Year Inheritance | The system automatically uses boundaries from the prior school year if no new boundary is uploaded for the current year. |
| Geocoding | Converting a human-readable address into latitude/longitude coordinates. |
| Polygon | A closed shape defining a zone's boundary on the map. |
Page Layout ↑
The Geographical Boundaries page is organized into two tabs. A school year selector in the page header determines which year's boundary record is loaded and defaults to the current school year (August cutoff).
- District tab — manage the district-wide boundary file for the selected school year. This is the primary workspace.
- Schools tab — manage per-school overrides for individual schools that need their own polygon.
When to Use Geographical Boundaries ↑
Use this page in the following situations:
- Before each new school year — upload or inherit the boundary set for the upcoming year, ideally before guardian enrollment opens. The system automatically inherits from the prior year if no new file is needed.
- After a redistricting decision — re-export from your GIS system and upload a new file for the affected year.
- When a school opens or closes — adjust polygons and update zone properties so the new or closed school is reflected.
- During address troubleshooting — use the Address Test Search to confirm what zone an address falls into.
Before Uploading ↑
System Requirements
Before uploading a boundary file, confirm the following:
- Schools must already exist in District & Schools.
- You must have a GeoJSON file or zipped shapefile.
Preparing Your Boundary File
To prepare your GIS boundary file for upload:
- Export attendance-zone polygons from your GIS system (ArcGIS, QGIS, etc.).
- Save as
.geojsonor zip the shapefile components (.shp,.shx,.dbf,.prj) into a single.zip.
Uploading District Boundaries ↑
To upload a district boundary file:
- Open Geographical Boundaries and click the District tab.
- Use the school-year selector in the header to choose the year this file applies to (e.g., 2025–2026).
- Click Upload Boundary File.
- Choose your
.geojsonor.zipshapefile from disk.
- Upon selecting Upload Boundaries, the user is directed to the Import Boundaries view.
- Choose the school on the left, and the detected boundary on the top right
Managing Existing Boundaries ↑
Downloading a Boundary File
To download the active boundary file for the selected year, click Download GeoJSON on the Boundary Status card. The file downloads with a name like attendance-boundaries-2025-2026.geojson (based on the school year selected).
Deleting a Boundary Record
To remove the boundary record for the selected school year:
- On the Boundary Status card, click Delete.
- Confirm the deletion in the dialog that appears.
Map & Zone List ↑
The District tab provides several tools for reviewing your boundary configuration:
- Map panel — renders all zones for the selected year. Clicking a zone selects it and highlights its row in the list.
- Zone list — every polygon with its ID and matched school(s). Use the visibility toggles to show or hide individual zones on the map.
- School Detail — see an expanded view of the boundary of a single school.
- Zone summary table — counts of zones per grade band and per school, useful for spot-checking coverage.
Individual School Boundaries ↑
Use the Schools tab to upload boundaries for an individual school (for example, a magnet program with a custom catchment).
Uploading a School Boundary
To upload a boundary override for a specific school:
- Click the Schools tab and locate the school in the table.
- Click Upload Shapefile or GeoJSON file for that school.
- Click Save.
Once saved, an Own Boundary badge appears next to the school. Address tests against this school will use the override polygon instead of the district file.
Removing a School Boundary
To remove an override and revert a school to the district boundary:
- Click the Schools tab and open the school's row.
- Click Delete Override.
- Confirm the deletion in the dialog that appears.
Testing an Address ↑
The Address Test Search lets you confirm exactly which schools an address resolves to.
Running an Address Test
To test an address against the configured zones:
- Open the Test Address Boundary panel.
- Type a full address (street, city, state).
- Press Enter or click Test.
- Review the result:
- Resolved Address — the geocoded address used for the lookup, with latitude/longitude
- District status — Within District or Outside District
- Matching Schools — every school whose zone contains this address (multiple matches are normal when grade-level zones overlap)
- Override badge — indicates the match came from a per-school override rather than the district file
If No Schools Match
If the test returns no matching schools, check the following:
- Confirm the address is inside the district polygon.
- Verify the boundary file for the selected school year is loaded.
- Check the Zone List for gaps that may leave the address uncovered.
Frequently Asked Questions ↑
Boundaries exist for other years but not the selected year — how do I add one?
The system automatically inherits the most recent prior year's boundaries. If you need to upload a new file for this year, click Upload Boundary File and choose your updated GeoJSON or shapefile.
An address test shows "Outside District" — what does that mean?
The address geocoded successfully but its coordinates fall outside every zone polygon. Confirm the address with the family and route to a manual review.
How does the system handle boundaries for new school years?
When you switch to a new school year with no boundary record, the system automatically inherits the boundaries from the most recent prior year. This inheritance is instant and requires no manual action. You can delete the inherited record and upload a new one if boundaries have changed or leave the inherited record in place.