Berkeley home with Oakland services/Oakland school district?
Hi everyone! I am currently looking at a home that has a Berkeley address but is zoned for OUSD and Oakland services. I know this is very common for the Claremont Hills area, but this home I am looking at is actually above UC Berkeley campus in the panoramic area – I had never heard of this is zoning from that area, I confirmed that that is the case for this property. Anyways, I was wondering if anyone knows if there are any options to transfer into the Berkeley school district somewhat easily if you have a Berkeley address? My guess is that it is at least somewhat complicated and unlikely, but figured I would ask before I assumed. Thanks in advance for any insight!
Aug 14, 2025
Parent Replies
I was considering a similar situation (house on Woolsey in some Oakland carveout) and BUSD told me it was a no go. You can try to get an interdistrict transfer, but you won't have priority for this reason. So basically if you want your kids to go to Berkeley public schools, I wouldn't buy or rent this home.
Do you know if it only has one APN? We have an Oakland address but our property has two APNs — one in Berkeley & one in Oakland. When we were purchasing the home we called BUSD and they confirmed that since we pay property tax in Berkeley we are eligible for BUSD schools.