Part II: Process and Procedures Placement Process and Procedures of Elementary-Aged Students
This portion of the memo now transitions to providing a summary of the actual procedures used for the enrollment of elementary-aged students. As originally noted above, the enrollment process is guided by the District’s policy JC-R, “Enrollment of Students” , which is also included as an addendum to this memo. One of the most important takeaways one should derive from this memo is that a family’s experience with the open enrollment process is heavily dependent on the “point of entry” into the school system, and whether certain demographic features apply to them. For example, a student who enters the A-B school system through the Kindergarten lottery has a much higher chance of being placed in a school of their preference, than a student who enrolls in an elementary grade after the Kindergarten lottery. Enrolling through the Kindergarten Lottery The Kindergarten Lottery begins with the District establishing the number of Kindergarten sections that will be placed at each elementary school. This process is based on overall enrollment projections within the District, and how many sections may be needed to stay within the School Committee’s established class size guidelines. The number of K sections assigned to each elementary school is then based on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, the availability of classrooms at each school and staffing cycles. Most recently, the increased space at the Gates School and Douglas School have led to plans for additional sections placed at those two schools. Please note that determination of how many K sections are placed at a particular school is NOT based on recent or historical patterns of family preferences, nor meeting anticipated interest nor demand of incoming Kindergarten families. Section numbers at each school are established independent of patterns of demand for a particular school . Families who register their child for Kindergarten before April of the previous year are entered into the Lottery system. As part of the registration and lottery process, families are invited to attend a webinar that provides a broad overview of the registration process and elements of open enrollment. Each elementary school then hosts an “open house” where families can visit each school to learn more about that school’s community and gather information they believe might be useful in identifying their order of preference. As for the lottery itself, participating families are asked as a final step to submit to the District their list of preferences for school placement, from first choice to sixth (last) choice. As part of that process, families are also asked to share other information that may influence the placement process, such as proximity to school and sibling attendance (more on that below).
Once each family’s list of ranked choices is received, the District determines placement based on the following criteria:
➔ Students on IEPs who require a specialized program that is housed at a particular school will have priority for placement at that school based on agreement between the family and the Director of Special Education.
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