Current Student Assignment Plan:

School Choice:
Resident Seattle families may apply to any Seattle Public School for which they qualify (grades K-12 and preschool, where applicable). Students may enroll at any time. However, priority assignment for students occurs during the Open Enrollment period. Preferences may be given to certain schools based on the students' resident addresses.

School Boundaries and Clusters:

Elementary Boundaries

• An elementary school boundary is called a "reference area" which is the area immediately surrounding a school site.
• A student's home address determines his/her elementary reference area school.
• Student's who apply during Open Enrollment receive assignment priority if they choose their reference area school. (Priorities for special programs may vary.)
• The "reference area" for alternative schools might include a combination of elementary school clusters. Regardless of where they live, students can apply for any alternative/non-traditional school. Students in certain clusters get priority for those schools.

The Seattle Public Schools District is divided into sixty elementary school reference areas. These reference areas are contiguously grouped into nine geographic clusters. They are the North, Northeast, Northwest, Queen Anne/Magnolia, Central, South, Southeast, West Seattle North, and West Seattle South clusters. Each cluster has four or more elementary schools. Clusters are used to determine transportation and mandatory assignments. Mandatory assignments are made when space is not available in any of the schools chosen by a family to the school closest to the home residence with available space.

Middle School Boundaries
A middle school boundary , or regional reference area, is a combination of elementary school reference areas. Each region has two regular middle schools. Regions are used to determine transportation and assignment priorities. Students who apply during Open Enrollment receive assignment priority for regional school choices.

The boundary for grades 6-8 for non-traditional K-8 schools is the same as the cluster boundaries for their elementary grades. Exception: Grades 6-8 at Salmon Bay. This boundary is a district-wide boundary.

High School Boundaries
All high schools are part of the same district-wide region.

Addresses:
The primary or home address of the student is the residence of his/her parent(s) or legal guardian(s). This address determines the student's reference area school and is used in calculating the region, distance for tie breaking purposes, and initial transportation eligibility. If the address is outside the boundaries of the school district, the student is a non-resident. Non-residents may enroll subject to requirements for non-resident students.

Transportation:
Elementary
Middle School
High School

Applying for School:

Parents/guardians may apply for new schools or new programs within a school (such as Spectrum) for the next school year during the annual Open enrollment period for all grades, mid-January through mid-February. On-time applications received during this registration period are processed as a group. If there is not enough space in a chosen school, tiebreakers are used to determine which students receive assignments to a school.

After the on-time enrollment period, students are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis in  order of the application received date.

The priority order of tiebreakers for on-time applicants is:

1. Sibling:
   Preference is given to student with a sibling living in the same residence who is already attending and who is expected to continue in a chosen school. Linkage is provided when all siblings applying are new to a requested school - if one gets in, the other(s) may receive linkage credit to the same school. Sibling preference is ranked higher than sibling linkage.
   
   
2. Region:
   
   Elementary School Reference Area
   Preference is given to elementary students living in the reference area of a school. For alternative schools and programs with eligibility requirements, the reference area is the relevant clusters. The region for New School is the South and Southeast clusters. All other students are treated equally.
   
   Middle School Regional Reference Area
   Preference is given to middle school students living in the region of the school. For non-traditionally graded schools with both elementary and secondary grade levels, the designated elementary clusters are considered the region. For middle school grades at Salmon Bay and all-city schools, the region is the entire school district.
   
   High School Region
   This tiebreaker does not apply; the entire district is considered as the region.
   
   
3. Program Preference
   Applicants for sixth grade who attend fifth grade at Thornton Creek and who choose Salmon Bay for sixth grade receive preference (2009-10 school year). Applicants for sixth grade who attend fifth grade at John Stanford International School and who choose Hamilton for sixth grade receive preference (2009-10 school year).
   
   
4. Distance
   For traditional schools, a student living closer to a school has priority over a student living further away. Distance is calculated as the straight-line distance from the home to the school. (This tiebreaker does not apply when making assignments to most alternative schools, to all-city schools, or to Spectrum and APP programs. The tiebreakers for alternative/non-traditional schools, including whether or not distance applies, are included with each school's description.)
   
   
5. Lottery
   Each student is given a random three-digit lottery number generated by the computer. If the above tiebreakers do not break the tie, then the student's lottery number will be used to determine the assignment.
   

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