The Fresno County Office of Education provides the California State Department of Education with information necessary for the allocation of Title I funds. A mainframe application, paper-based maps, and well over 600 man-hours were used to assign 50,000+ students to their school of residence. A new system was implemented last year that utilized ArcView GIS. The new approach has cut the time to complete the project by more than half and has proven to be far more accurate and manageable than its predecessor. GIS addressed a critical need and opened new avenues of service that were not considered previously.