Student Assignment System: SFUSD Application Process

You have the option of applying for any school in San Francisco. You will have a preference for your attendance area school if you list it on your application, but there is no guaranteed assignment to any school, even your attendance area school.

Attendance area school:
Every home address in San Francisco will have an attendance area school. Please note:

• There is no guaranteed or automatic assignment to any school
• You must list your attendance area school on your application if you would like to apply there
• Go to the sfusd school locator to locate your attendance area school

City-wide school: does not have an attendance area.
City-wide schools are:

• Newcomer programs and schools (programs targeted to non-English speaking students new to SFUSD)
• Language Immersion Programs listed as discrete choice with distinct enrollment capacities
• Montessori
• K-8 schools

Student Assignment System – Elementary school.
Tie Breakers are used in the following order to place children in schools when there are more applicants than seats available for a particular school.

• Siblings:  younger siblings of students who are enrolled in and will be attending the school during the year for which the younger sibling requests attendance
• SFUSD PreK:  students who live in the attendance area of the school and are also attending an SFUSD PreK program in the same attendance area
• Test score areas students who live in areas of the city with the lowest average test scores
• Attendance area:  students who live in the attendance area of the school.  (Not applicable for city-wide schools.) 
• Others:  If the above tie-breakers do not resolve ties, then ties will be resolved by random lottery.
  

If you do not get one of your choices, you will be offered your attendance area school if it has openings. Otherwise you will be offered the school closest to your home with openings.

The new middle school feeder pattern assignment policy, adopted by the Board of Education on June 14, 2011, will take effect beginning with students who start kindergarten in 2011.

Students currently enrolled in grades 1-5 will apply to middle school based on choice. These applicants must submit an application and may rank any number of middle schools and programs in order of preference. When the number of requests for a school or program is greater than the number of seats available, preferences, known as tiebreakers, will be used in the following order:

1. younger siblings
2. the middle school designated as the “feeder” school based on the student’s elementary school
3. students living in areas of the city with the lowest average test scores (known as CTIP1).

If the applicant does not list his feeder middle school on his application, and he did not get one of his listed schools, he will be offered his feeder middle school provided space is available. If no space is available, then an offer will be made for a school with openings.

Beginning in spring 2017 students exiting 5th grade (those students who start kindergarten in fall 2011) will receive an initial 6th grade offer to their feeder school. Students will also have an opportunity to submit an application to attend other middle schools or programs for any openings that may be available.

For the Elementary to Middle School feeder patterns please see February 1, 2011 list (pdf). Also see a Map (pdf) of the proposed feeder patterns.

What Parents Look For in a Middle School:

SFUSD Middle School Comparison Chart (pdf)
Thanks to PPS-SF volunteers Anne Crawford, Michelle Parker and Eos des Feminis for putting in countless hours to fill in this middle school comparison chart. We developed this chart during our middle school community forums in spring 2011 as an example of an inventory assessment of middle schools from a parent perspective. We presented the comparison document to the Board of Education Curriculum Committee and SFUSD staff on June 6. District staff will be using the document to help inform their own middle school inventory assessment, which will be presented to the Board of Education and the public in time for the School Enrollment Fair in November 2011.

You have the option of applying for any and all high schools in San Francisco.

• You must apply.  You will not be pre-assigned to a high school.
• There are no attendance area boundaries for high school .
• Students are encouraged to get involved in their high school search by attending tours, open houses and shadowing (following a current high school student through their day).

For SFUSD public school enrollment.

• Submit an application listing all schools in order of preference by January 27, 2012  IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are applying to Lowell High School the deadline to submit your SFUSD application is December 16, 2011.  See below. 
• Offer letters will be mailed on March 16th, 2012.
• Register at your offered school no later than April 13th, 2012.  If you do not register, your seat will be given to another applicant.

Public schools with unique enrollment requirements:

Lowell:

• Submit a 1) Lowell application and 2) SFUSD application form by December 16th 2011. If you would prefer to go to Lowell over other schools, list Lowell as your first choice school on the SFUSD application.
• Admissions criterion:
  - Academic grades during the first semester of the 8th grade
  - All 7th grade academic grades
  - 7th grade standardized test scores.
• Students coming from private school will take the CAT6 offered by Lowell in January 2012.
  
  If your child does not make the official grade/test score cutoff, other assets are reviewed by a committee at your child's middle school.  This committee will look at achievements in sports, arts, or unique hardships and make a case for Lowell acceptance. Gather all of the supporting material for the committee before the December deadline and be as detailed as possible in your application.

Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (SOTA):

1. Submit SOTA application packet by December 2, 2011 at 3:00pm and sign up for an audition in your desired art discipline (dance, creative writing, visual arts, piano, orchestra, band, drama, theater tech, and vocal). You may only audition for one art discipline at a time. Turn the application in at the SOTA school office before the December 2nd deadline at 3:00pm. Visual Arts, Media, and Creative Writing applicants must also submit a portfolio to SOTA by this time. Auditions can fill up so apply as early as possible.
2. Attend an Audition in your art discipline on January 7th.   
3. You must also turn in an SFUSD application to the Educational Placement Center  (EPC)  at 555 Franklin Street by the proposed SFUSD deadline of  January 27, 2012.  Include SOTA as one of your school choices on your SFUSD application.
4. A second audition round will be held on March 3rd.  Application deadline for this audition date is Feb. 10, 2012 at 3:00pm. 

Go to www.sfsota.org for more information on application requirements and deadline dates.

Charter Schools:
Charter schools have a separate application process and sometimes require an essay, so check with each school individually.

Important Update regarding Transitional Kindergarten (TK) in SFUSD

Updated January 25, 2012
Effective immediately, SFUSD will not be offering Transitional Kindergarten (TK) for the 2012-2013 school year. Only students turning 5 years old on or before Nov. 1 will be eligible for Kindergarten entry for the 2012-2013 school year.

In the Governor’s proposed budget for the 2012-2013 school year, school districts would not receive any funding for Transitional Kindergarten, and the state would not mandate districts to offer it. Given that SFUSD cannot afford to offer Transitional Kindergarten if it is not funded by the state, SFUSD will not plan to offer Transitional Kindergarten for the upcoming school year.

While the California Department of Education continues to provide updates and the situation may change over the course of the next several months, SFUSD is moving forward on the assumption that there will be insufficient funding to offer Transitional Kindergarten in the 2012-2013 budget. SFUSD is providing this notification so that families who were interested in TK can take action to make alternative arrangements for their children for the 2012-2013 school year. Read more >

FAQ (pdf) from SFUSD

Flyers in English, Spanish and Chinese (pdf)

What is Transitional Kindergarten? [ Excerpt from the SFUSD Transitional K Brochure]

Transitional Kindergarten is an early child-hood education program that builds a bridge between preschool years and traditional Kindergarten. With increasing academic demands and structure in Kindergarten, some parents are aware that their children may not be ready for the traditional Kindergarten program. Read More >