I think this is less of a problem when you’re doing at a natural break for the school (i.e., 8th, when everyone is going to transition to a 9-12 high school.) Some part of it is that you’re asking people who are already inundated with paperwork to do more (that isn’t satisfying the boss’s request) and part of is, in all likelihood, that you are saying that their school wasn’t the best for your kid. While this is almost always going to sound like “not good enough” to the school, you can try to frame it as this being about “fit”, which is less likely to ruffle feathers. Because we were leaving a small public that fed into a large regional HS, we were able to say “being in a small school was so great for DS that we want to go somewhere more like this for the next 4 years.” Another friend played the “DS is an only child and we’d like him to go to BS to have something closer to a sibling experience.” All of these things were true, just not the primary reasons for leaving. A girl who started BS at 10th grade basically said (honestly) that she was socially miserable at her HS (one of the best in a state with good schools). I think the teachers had seen this and recognized that this had nothing to do with them and were very helpful. At this juncture, something like suggesting your job may require relocation (always true!) and you don’t want your child to have to switch schools in 11th or 12th could work. I’m not advocating for dishonesty but for finding a reason – even if it’s not the primary one – that has nothing to do with the school.