Enrollment Process Simplification

The Enrollment Center is excited to announce changes to SFUSD's enrollment process, aimed at making the process simpler, more transparent and more equitable. There are two key changes: 

• Applicants only need to apply ONCE, the Main Round deadline at the end of January, listing their preferred schools in order. (We used to have a series of applications and deadlines called "Rounds," which we will not have anymore.) Main Round assignments are announced in March, and applicants who do not receive their top choice school will be automatically placed onto the waitlists for their top-choice schools, up to 5 schools, without having to re-apply.
• Applicants will be able to wait on several schools’ waitlists (rather than having to pick just one waitlist choice like they did in the past).

Late applicants who do not apply by the Main Round deadline will be allowed to join the end of waitlists. We will collect those applications starting the day after the Main Round deadline. Late applicants will be behind on-time applicants on Wait Lists, and they are eligible to be placed into any school with open space remaining starting in late April.

Under the previous assignment process in use through the 2024-25 enrollment cycle, families who were not satisfied with their Main Round assignment in March needed to apply again, for Round 2, and then again for the Wait Pool if they were still seeking a placement that they preferred. We heard from families that this process was too complicated, specifically regarding:

• Predictability. The approximately 40% of families who did not get their most preferred school in the Main Round often waitied until August - even after school started - to learn about their final assignment.
• Equity. Participation in the enrollment process beyond the Main Round was much lower among focal families, particularly African American and Latinx families. In focus groups, families share that the multiple deadlines were confusing.
• Re-work. We ask families to re-submit their same choices several times - doing the same work over.

The enrollment process change described above will positively impact everyone who applies by the deadline, by giving them faster resolution, a more predictable process, and better assignment outcomes. 

• Faster resolution for families: In this new process, hundreds of families will start receiving waitlist offers in early April. More families will receive offers as soon as spaces are available, rather than waiting months for subsequent application deadlines.
• Improved predictability: Families will automatically be on waiting lists for their top-choice schools, and they will know their place in line. This creates a clear and automated path for families to get into their desired schools, instead of the uncertainty associated with assignment "rounds."
• More preferred assignments for on-time applicants: All applicants will be on a path to getting into their top-choice schools, without having to re-apply or compete with late applicants for seats that open up. 

The new process will also make the enrollment process more equitable in key ways:

• All families — including focal families — stay eligible to receive their top-choice schools. Of the 1,750 Latinx, African American, Native American and Pacific Islander students who applied on time and were not assigned to their top-choice school last year, only 400 of them re-applied to secure their more-preferred SFUSD school through a second application round.
• It would create more opportunities for students with IEPs to get their final school assignments in time to have essential transition meetings, because a faster resolution process will give more families their final assignments before summer, allowing more time to coordinate special education services. 

Please reach out to the Enrollment Center with any questions that you may have!