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Frequently Asked Questions -
Choice
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How does the school
choice process work today?
Families can apply for a seat at any District
school; however, families are not guaranteed a seat at any school.
Those who apply during the annual Open Enrollment period receive a
higher priority than those who apply at other times or who move
into the District after the Open Enrollment period closes.
During the Open Enrollment period, families fill out
a form, ranking schools in order of preference. Using a series of
tiebreakers, applicants are assigned to schools based on the number
of seats available at each school. Students who apply after the
Open Enrollment period are assigned on a space available
basis.
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How will the school
choice process work under the adopted plan?
When fully implemented, students will receive an
initial assignment to an attendance area
school, based on their residence address. Any student may apply
for assignment to another attendance area school with assignments
determined by tiebreakers. Any student may apply for assignment to
any option
school, with assignments determined by tiebreakers.
Once admitted to any school through the school
choice process, a student may remain at that school through the
highest grade at the school without having to reapply as long as
the services the student needs are available at that
school.
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Is there any
advantage to families that use the early registration
process?
Early Registration will not have any
impact on a child's school assignment. However, we encourage
families who will have a new student entering Seattle Public
Schools to participate in the early registration
process.
We offer early registration as a convenience for
families, enabling them to get a lot of the registration paperwork
out of the way ahead of time. Students who register early will
receive specific information from the District about assignments
for 2010-11. We anticipate sending this information out in
February, prior to the Open Enrollment period in March.
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How will the
District process school choice applications?
When processing Open Enrollment applications for
attendance area
schools and option schools, all
first choices will be processed first, second choices second, and
so on.
If a student is not assigned to their first
choice school, they are automatically placed on the waiting list
for that school. Students may be on only one waiting list at a
time.
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What is meant
by this phrase: “…all first choices will be processed
first, second choices second, and so on.”
This statement reflects the way the District
processes school choice applications. It assumes that a student
wants to enroll in a school other than his or her current
one. A student can apply to an option school or an attendance area
school, including high schools with Open Choice seats.
Please note that the answer below applies
only for applications received during the Open Enrollment
period, which occurs in March. The process is as
follows:
- All applications received during Open Enrollment
are processed together.
- The District attempts to place all students at
their first choice of schools. When there are more applicants than
seats, tiebreakers are applied to determine assignment. For more
information about tiebreakers, please click here.
- If a student is not assigned to a first choice
school during the first round, he or she is put on a waiting list
for that first choice school.
- Applications for students who have not yet been
assigned to first choice schools are then processed for their
second choice school. Please note that they will be assigned to
their second choice school only after the students who
listed that school as their first choice.
- If after all processing is complete a student
does not get one of his or her choices, they will retain the seat
at their current school attendance area or grandfathered
school.
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Can you
provide an example of school choice application
processing?
Assume that a student wants to attend a school
outside her attendance area. She lists School A as her first choice
on her Open Enrollment form and submits it on time. After
processing all applications and considering all tiebreakers in the
first round, the student does not get into as School A; she is now
waitlisted for that school.
The student has listed School B as her second
choice. During the second round of processing, she will not be
assigned to that school until after the students who listed
School B as their first choice. She will, however, continue
to remain on the wait list for School A.
After the district has processed all
applications, the student will either receive an assignment to one
of the schools she has listed—or retain her current school
assignment if there are no seats available at any of her choice
schools.
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Will students
who enter the school choice process lose their current assignments
if they do not get one of their choices?
No. Students do not give up their current seats
until they have been assigned to a different option school or
attendance area school, including high schools with Open Choice
seats.
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If a student
does not like the assignment they receive as the result of the
school choice process, can they keep their current
assignment?
If a student receives a school assignment through
the school choice process, they automatically give up the seat at
their current school. If they are on the wait list, however, and a
seat becomes available at one of their choice schools, they will be
contacted by the District and asked if they still wish to be
assigned to that school.
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Can a student
apply for an assignment to another option or attendance area
school, including schools with Open Choice seats after the
Open Enrollment period?
Yes.
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How does the
District process school choice applications received after
the Open Enrollment period?
Applications received after the Open Enrollment
period are processed on a first-come, first-served
basis.
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What choice options
are available for elementary school families?
A family can apply for a seat at any elementary
attendance area school—including K-5’s and
K-8’s—in or outside of their attendance area. We will
first fill the seats at the school with students who live within
the attendance area; we will fill any remaining seats with students
from outside the attendance area using a series of
tiebreakers.
For more information about tiebreakers, please
click here.
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What choice options
are available for middle school families?
A family can apply for a seat at an attendance
area middle school outside of their attendance area. We will first
fill the seats at the school with students who live within the
attendance area; we will fill any remaining available seats with
students from outside the attendance area using a series of
tiebreakers.
For more information about tiebreakers, please
click here.
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What choice options
are available for high school families?
Each attendance area high school will have Open
Choice seats available for students from other attendance areas who
are applying for assignment to that school. Participation in select
courses or programs is not included as an assignment tiebreaker;
once assigned, students would go through the school’s regular
processes for selection to participate in curricular or
extra-curricular opportunities. Tiebreakers for the Open Choice
seats are sibling and lottery, giving more equitable access to
students throughout the district to attendance area high
schools.
For more information about tiebreakers, please
click here.
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What amount
of movement among area high schools will the New Student Assignment
Plan allow?
The plan supports movement among attendance area
high schools through the availability of Open Choice seats. For
more information about these seats, please click here. It is
important to note, however, that the availability of seats at given
attendance area high school may be greater than 10% of its
functional capacity.
This increase in available seats may take place
for one of two reasons. First, students who live in a school's
attendance area may choose to attend another attendance area school
or an option school, freeing up seats for other students to
access.
Second, the current middle school and upper
elementary school groups are the smallest in the District. As a
result of this facet of the District’s current demographics,
we anticipate an overall drop in the number of high school students
District-wide for several years, before larger groups of younger
elementary grades start moving through the system. In this case,
many high schools will be under capacity for five to seven years
making additional seats available.
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How many Open
Choice seats will be available at each high
school?
The number of Open Choice seats is 10% of the
school’s functional capacity. The specifics of how this will
be phased in will be addressed in the transition plan.
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Will additional
Open Choice seats be available at high schools in West
Seattle?
Adding additional Open Choice seats for two
specific high schools is contrary to the goal of a predictable
student assignment plan with equitable and clear rules. However,
certain data suggest that there may be additional seats available
at high schools in West Seattle beyond those reserved for Open
Choice.
Currently, nearly 60% of the students attending
Chief Sealth High School come from the proposed attendance area for
Chief Sealth and more than 20% from the proposed attendance area
for West Seattle High School. Conversely, more than 50% of student
attending West Seattle High School come from the proposed Chief
Sealth attendance area, and almost 40% from the West Seattle
proposed attendance area. If these trends continue, there will be
opportunity for movement between the two schools, in addition to
that facilitated by Open Choice seats, as the practical impact of
families’ choices in this scenario is that these schools
would essentially be exchanging seats.
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How, where,
and when can I apply for an Open Choice seat?
Students can apply to a high school with an Open
Choice seat by filling out an Open Enrollment application and
submitting it to the District during the Open Enrollment period in
March.
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Can a student
apply for an Open Choice seat at more than one
school?
Yes. However, they must rank their choices in
order of preference.
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What choice options
are available for international school families?
International schools are considered attendance
area schools under the new student assignment plan. A family can
apply for a seat at one of these schools as it would to any school
outside its attendance area. We will first assign students to the
school who live within the attendance area; we will fill space
available with students from outside the attendance area using a
series of tiebreakers.
For more information about tiebreakers, please click here.
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What choice options
are available for families who live in an international school
attendance area, but whose students are better served by an
English-language based education
At the elementary school level, Beacon Hill and
Concord will continue to offer English-language based instruction
in their buildings. For the attendance area served by John Stanford
International School, the school will be linked with a nearby attendance area
school in the same service area. If a
family does not want the language immersion program at John
Stanford, or if the language immersion program is not appropriate
for a student, the linked school will serve as the attendance area
school.
At the middle school level, Denny and Hamilton
will continue to offer English-language based instruction in
addition to an international schools program. We also anticipate
adding another international middle school.
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If a student
currently attends a school outside of their new attendance area,
will they remain at the school after these recommendations are
implemented?
Yes. Students will be allowed to complete the
last grade at the out-of-attendance-area school they now attend as
long as the services the student needs are available at that
school.
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What happens once
a student completes the last grade at a school outside their
attendance area?
General education students will receive an
initial assignment to their attendance area
school for their next grade. For example, a student who
completes their last grade at a non-attendance area elementary
school would be assigned to feed into the middle school in their service area. If a
family wanted the student to attend any other school, they would
need to apply through the normal application process. Please note
that the student in this example would be eligible for the feeder
school tiebreaker if they applied to attend the middle school fed
by the elementary school they attend. For more information about
tiebreakers, please click here.Students in the Accelerated Progress Program (APP) will
move to the next school in their pathway.Students in bilingual education programs will move to the
next school in their feeder
pattern.
Students in special education programs will move
to the next school in their feeder pattern, provided that the
services needed for the student are available there. Otherwise, the
student will be assigned to a school that offers the services they
need. Typically, this will be at another school in their service
area or in a linked service area. In rare cases where services are
only offered in limited sites, the student will be assigned to the
school that offers the needed services.
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What
transportation is available to schools and
programs?
Transportation availability varies. Please click
here to see a
list of transportation-related questions.
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What tiebreakers
apply to schools and programs?
Tiebreakers vary. Please click here to see a list
of tiebreaker-related questions.
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Will some
students in a high school attendance area be denied seats due to
the availability of Open Choice seats?
No. High school attendance area boundaries are
drawn to accommodate both the students projected to attend from
within an area and a certain percentage of students from
outside the attendance area.
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What happens
if there are more students within a high school attendance area
than the capacity of the school—will the District eliminate
the Open Choice seats?
Our demographic model is designed to predict
enrollment through 2015. However, we will continue to monitor
population data and adjust our projections accordingly. In
addition, the district is in the process of developing a
capacity-management policy to take a more proactive approach in
addressing shifting demographic patterns. This approach to capacity
management will include ongoing monitoring of demographic and
enrollment changes to better anticipate any modifications that may
be needed in future years.
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Why
don’t high schools have feeder patterns?
The locations of middle school and high school
buildings in Seattle make feeder patterns
impractical. But even if the middle and high school buildings were
located in alignment with each other, high school students often
have many different academic and extracurricular interests. As a
result, some students may want to attend a program at a school
outside their attendance area; the opportunity to participate in a
particular academy offered at a school is a good example. Also,
since most high school students get a bus pass to take Metro
transportation, any student can get to any high school.
Open Choice seats enable students to apply to a
high school with a program that interests them. The seats
identified as Open Choice seats are built in to an attendance area.
In other words, the attendance area boundary does not fill the
school, assuring availability of Open Choice seats. However,
it’s important to note that getting a seat in a school does
not automatically mean a student gets into a
program.
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Comments or questions on the New Student
Assignment Plan - Choice?
Last Updated:
November 18, 2009
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