This School Choice Waitlist request is for Santiago Hills Elementary School ONLY. If you wish to pursue a school choice spot at ANY OTHER Irvine Unified School District school site, please visit our website at
http://www.iusd.org for the proper school choice procedure.
SCHOOL CHOICE (also referred to as OPEN ENROLLMENT) GUIDELINES:
Reflecting the belief that parents should have a choice of schools, the Irvine Unified School District established at its inception an Open Enrollment Policy. This policy provides the opportunity for parents who reside in the district to enroll their student in any school within the district on a SPACE AVAILABLE BASIS. The School Choice Lottery window was open January 3rd - February 24th. After this date all requests will be put on a waitlist on a first-come, first-served basis.
Each school is required to serve the students who live within its attendance area prior to accepting any students from outside its boundary. To determine your assigned neighborhood school, simply input your address in the School Locator map (found on our website at
http://www.iusd.org/enrollment/index.html).
Though the district supports parental choice and is committed to Open Enrollment, once enrollment reaches school capacity, that school or grade level will be closed to Open Enrollment. The following conditions also restrict the opportunities for Open Enrollment:
- Approvals are for one year and are reviewed each year.
- Parents must provide transportation.
- Space must be available at the requested school.
- Transition to middle school or high school is based not on previous school of enrollment, but on the school attendance area assigned to the neighborhood of residence.
FOR STUDENTS NEW TO IUSD:
You must still register your student at their home school to secure a grade level spot for 2023-24. Should we be able to offer your student a spot at Santiago Hills, we will advise the home school of the enrollment change.
APPROVAL PROCESS FOR OPEN ENROLLMENT:
To assure that the approval process for those interested in Open Enrollment is random and unbiased, a waiting list is maintained at each school based on an annual lottery.
Based on forms submitted by the deadline, principals draw names and establish waiting lists (by grade level at the elementary level). Requests received after the deadline are added to the school's waiting list on a first-come, first-serve basis.
School Choice spots may be offered as early as June but most likely will not be offered until mid August.
Summer registrations must first be considered to determine space availability.
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS:
Acceptance at the School of Choice is for one year and is reviewed each year. Should space availability at the School of Choice for the following year become an issue, provisionally enrolled students are subject to return to their neighborhood school. Under such circumstances, students will be returned on the basis of their enrollment date with last enrollees being the first to return to their neighborhood school. Please note that the school will make every effort to continue enrollment of all students whenever possible; however, it is the primary responsibility of the school to serve the needs of the immediate neighborhood first.
