Open Enrollment begins for Seattle Schools

The Open Enrollment period for Seattle Public Schools begins today, March 15, and runs through April 15.  This is for students who are new to the district, including incoming Kindergartners.  Here are the following steps you need to take to enroll your child for the fall:

Click here to go to the Seattle Public Schools website for step-by-step instructions and enrollment forms. First, you need to determine which school is in your attendance area.  It’s pretty straight forward if you choose to send your child to that attendance area school, and all you need to do is submit the enrollment form with proof of residence documentation, your child’s immunization certificate, and a copy of your child’s birth certificate.  If you choose to send your child to a different school, you’ll have to complete an additional form called a “choice application.”

Once you download and complete the forms, you can send everything to Seattle Public Schools via fax: (206) 252-0761, e-mail: [email protected], or to their mailing address:

SPS Service Center
MS 11-174
Seattle Public Schools
PO Box 34165
Seattle, WA 98124-1165

You can also drive the documents down and hand deliver them to:

Seattle Public Schools
John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence
2445 3rd Avenue South
(3rd and Lander)
Seattle, WA 98134
Driving Directions

Here’s how the Open Enrollment process works (from the SPS website):

1. All current students, and all new students for 2011-12 who completed early enrollment by January 31, 2011, will get an assignment letter in mid-March (right before Open Enrollment begins on March 15, 2011).

Assignment letters will confirm continuing assignments or provide notification of new assignments for 2011-12. These are initial assignments, and nothing further is required if the family wishes to keep the initial assignment. These families will know by mid-March where the student will attend school in September 2011.

2. If a student wishes to attend a school other than the school listed in the initial assignment letter, then they need to submit a choice application during Open Enrollment.  Students may list several choice schools in order of preference.  Students may apply for any combination of attendance area schools and/or option schools.

Open Enrollment is March 15-April 15, 2011.  Applications may be submitted at any time during that period, there is no benefit to submitting an application either earlier or later during Open Enrollment.  All applications received during Open Enrollment are processed together after April 15, 2011.

3. Students who submit a choice application during Open Enrollment will receive a new assignment letter by the end of May.  This letter will inform the student of which school they are assigned to for the 2011-12 school year, and which waiting list (if any) they are placed on for the 2011-12 school year.

4. Waiting lists are monitored continually throughout the summer and continuing until September 30.  If space becomes available, then families are contacted to confirm reassignment to the waitlisted school.  All waiting lists are dissolved after September 30.

The complete 2011-12 student assignment transition plan was approved by the school board in late-January.  Click here for the full NSAP 2011-2012 Transition Plan.