Wait Pool

SFUSD will contact families (by email and phone) starting on August 14, 2023 through September 1, 2023 if they have received their Wait Pool school. Families have 24 hours to respond after receiving their offer.

Please wait for staff to contact you - we may not be able to answer questions about the Wait Pool because we will be busy contacting families. 

If you DO NOT receive an email or phone call during that time period, that means you did not receive your Wait Pool school.

No. Unlike in other application rounds, if you submit a Wait Pool application and a space becomes available for your student, we will not automatically change their enrollment.

We will make multiple attempts to contact you to receive your decision to Accept or Decline: 

• If you Accept the offer for the Wait Pool school, your student’s enrollment will be changed at that point.
• If you Decline the offer, your student’s current enrollment will remain valid, and they could continue attending the school they were assigned to previously.
• If we do not receive a response from you within 24 hours, you may lose the opportunity to Accept the Wait Pool offer. 

Applicants need to submit a completed application by August 9, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time online; by email or in a drop-off box by 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time. 

If this is your first time applying for 2023-2024:

1. Complete the SFUSD online application or the paper TK-12 General Application and include all required documents. If this is your first time applying online, visit sfusd.edu/ola for instructions. 
2. Submit your completed application and required documents by the deadline online, by email, or in a drop-off box.

If you have already participated in Main Round and/or Round 2 for 2023-2024:

1. Complete the Wait Pool Application either via the online application or on paper: English | 中文 | Español | Tiếng Việt | Tagalog | العربي .  You can also pick up a paper application at our 555 Franklin Street office.
2. Submit your application by the deadline online, by email, or in a drop-off box.

Ways to submit: 

• Online: Use your ParentVUE account (select the "online forms" tab) OR the Online Forms Portal. 
• Email: Email your documents to enrollinschool@sfusd.edu. If you are sending a scan or photograph of your documents, please make sure your images are clear and legible to avoid any delays. 
• Drop Off: Drop off your documents at one of the following locations: 
  • Educational Placement Center. See office locations and hours. 
  • After business hours, drop off your application in a secure dropbox at the SFUSD Office lobby at 555 Franklin Street (just inside the front door).

• Any student may choose to take part in SFUSD's wait pool process, even those who applied for Main Round, Round 2, New-to-SF Enrollment or Open Enrollment. 
• However, if you submitted a Round 2 application, please wait to see your Round 2 assignment before applying for the Wait Pool.
• Once you have received a wait pool assignment, you are no longer eligible to participate in a wait pool for another school.

After July 16, Open Enrollment begins, and any school/grade/program without any Wait Pool requests will be available for Open Enrollment.

The list of schools with active Wait Pool requests will be posted here before Open Enrollment begins in July 2023. Schools with Wait Pool requests are generally not available during Open Enrollment.

Lists will be posted here on these dates:

• Schools with Active Wait Pool Requests (as of Monday July 3, 2023)
• Schools with Active Wait Pool Requests (as of Friday, July 14, 2023)
• Schools with Active Wait Pool Requests (as of Friday, August 4, 2023)
• Friday, August 11, 2023

If you no longer want your wait pool request or need to change it, please email enrollinschool@sfusd.edu as soon as possible. Please remember that once you have received your wait pool assignment, you are no longer eligible to participate in a wait pool for another school.

If you did not submit a wait pool application by August 9, you need to speak with an Enrollment Counselor to enroll your student in a school that has available space and no wait pool. 

If you want to enroll your student in a school that is not available at that time, you will have the option to join the late waitlist for one school:

• The Educational Placement Center would then notify you if a space becomes available for your student at this school, so that you do not need to check back multiple times to see if a space has opened up
• If a space does become available at your requested school for your student, you will have 24 hours to decide whether you wish to accept or decline the offer

Students in the late waitlist will only receive an offer AFTER everyone who submitted an on-time wait pool application has received an offer, which is not guaranteed to happen. On-time wait pool applicants will always have priority over late applicants. The notification period for all wait pool and late waitlist offers is August 14 to September 1.

Students are eligible to participate in the late waitlist if they did not submit an on-time wait pool application, OR they cancel their on-time wait pool application before receiving an offer.

Students who already received a wait pool offer are not eligible to submit another request in the late waitlist, regardless of whether they accepted the original offer or declined it. 

Interdistrict applicants are eligible to participate in the late waitlist, but will not get priority over applicants who live in San Francisco.