Pre-HS Decision Day Tips & Reminders

"The question of whether you get a good education, is up to you - not to the school.
[With education], you're not a passive consumer of a pre-packaged experience."
- Malcolm Gladwell

As we prepare our kids for the upcoming HS decision day, it is helpful to remind our kids that they have the potential to have a great experience many places (not just at their 1st choice school) and that they are largely the ones who will control that.

Some Tips & Reminders before HS Decision day (included below):

1. High School Notification Dates
2. Notification Norms
3. SFUSD Enrollment Process (including rounds 2, 3 & 4!)
4. Independent & Faith-Based Enrollment Process
5. Some Final Thoughts (including a ‘tear jerker’ sample letter to send your student!)

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High School Notification Dates

• SFUSD notifications will be sent out the week of March 23. Families can register to the school to which they were accepted / assigned March 23-27 and April 6-10
• Independent and Faith-Based schools have collectively agreed to mail acceptance letters via the USPS on Thursday March 19th AND to post online notifications on Friday March 20 at 4:00 pm. For Ravenna based schools, you should login to your account to view the decisions. Other schools will either send a link via email or post viewing decisions on their websites. If for some reason you do not hear from a school by Monday, March 23rd, please reach out to that school’s admissions department to inquire.
• Boarding Schools will begin posting notifications in early March. Please check in with them directly as dates and times will vary

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Notification Norms

A few things you can do to help prepare your child for admissions results:

1. Begin by assuring students that there is a plan in place no matter what news they receive this weekend. There will be a high school for everyone to attend in the fall.
2. Remind your children that these high school decisions are not a reflection of the value of their characters, or even necessarily a direct reflection of their qualities as students. Many factors that are out of our control affect admissions decisions, including: number of total applicants, number of boys and girls, number of siblings, schools' desire to have students from a variety of middle schools and zip codes, distribution of tuition assistance, etc. Recognize that regardless of the facts listed above, students will likely view decisions as a value judgement, and they may feel a variety of emotions upon receiving their news.
3. Talk through a few potential scenarios (“Accept”, “Waitlist”, and “Deny” letters), and model how you might receive each piece of news. You might share a story about a moment when you or someone in your family received big news: admissions decision at a school you applied to, results of a job search, etc. Talk through what they might expect to feel, and how they can put their news into context in the grand scheme of things.
4. Honor your child(ren)’s wishes about reading notification information. Most 8th graders want to be the ones to see the results first, and some wish to do this in private. Discuss beforehand what everyone prefers, and come to a decision you all agree upon prior to notification week.
5. We encourage students to go directly home after school if possible on decision day Friday March 20th so that they can be physically and emotionally available to process the admissions information (away from their peers!)
6. Make a family rule that you and your children do not share high school news, or request news from other families, on social media. It is important that everyone has time and space to digest their news away from outside pressures.

Keep your opinions in check at school!

• Please continue to stay positive and open minded about all high schools!
• Some students will be happy, some will be uncertain, some will be disappointed and trying to figure out next steps
• Please be sensitive to other families and students at this time. If a student is unsure of where they will be attending - it could be for a myriad of reasons, including being in a waitpool, having a different opinion from parents/guardians, financial constraints

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SFUSD Enrollment Process
[from Parents for Public Schools https://www.ppssf.org/high-next-steps]

REGARDLESS of if you are happy with your assigned school or not:

• Register at your assigned school.
• If you are pleased with your assigned high school, congratulations! You are done as soon as you register by the deadline.
• Registering at your assigned school will not hurt your chances in next rounds and could possibly help your chances in future rounds.

If you are NOT happy with your assigned school:

• Apply for the May Placement Period (Round 2.)
• If you would like to apply for another school, then you should register at your assigned school and submit a May Placement Period application at the EPC by the deadline.
• You do not need to resubmit proof of address documentation with your Round 2 application, unless you have moved, but you do need to submit the application in person at the Educational Placement Center (EPC). Make sure you bring your ID.
• SFUSD Application Forms
• Parents should only list schools on their May Placement Period applications that they want more than the March Placement schools where they registered their children. If the district is able to offer you another school in the May Placement Period, you will automatically lose your March Placement assignment.
• Applying for SFUSD May Placement Period
• Applying for the June Wait Pool (Round 3):
• All families who apply for the May Placement Period receive a letter in mid-May. If you are assigned a new school and are pleased with it, then you only need to register by the deadline. Congratulations!
• If you do not register by the deadline, then your child loses the spot.
• If you would like to apply for another school, then you should register at your assigned school (if you received one) and submit a June Wait Pool application at the EPC by the late May deadline. The June Wait Pool marks the start of the Wait Pool rounds. You may only request one school for the Wait Pool.
• How to Apply to June Wait Pool
• Wait Pool continues:
• The August Wait Pool (Round 4) continues the Wait Pool process that began with the June Wait Pool. If you submitted a Wait Pool form for the June Wait Pool and did not receive an assignment to your Wait Pool school, your application stays active throughout the August Wait Pool unless you remove your name from the Wait Pool.
• Summer Steps

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Independent & Faith-Based Enrollment Process

Timeline

• You will have approximately one week to enroll in your future high school. Use this week well for your family, but please do let the schools know right away once you’ve made a decision.
• If you receive a financial assistance offer, contracts are due to SF schools on Thursday March 26 by noon
• All other contracts are due Friday March 27 by noon

Revisits

• If you are offered admissions to more than one school and are not sure how to choose, revisiting can be helpful. But it is not necessary for students / families who are clear about their game plan. If you decide to revisit, contact schools via email over the weekend to request an appointment, let them know which classes you would like to see (if their schedules allow) and include any other questions that are on your mind. Please craft these requests thoughtfully and suggest multiple dates and times - as it is an extremely busy time for admissions offices.
• To help make a final decision you may also want to talk with students or families who attend or who have attended a particular school, revisit notes from the shadow visit, and revisit the schools’ websites.

What if scenarios

• What if you are accepted but do NOT get the financial assistance amount you need or with a waitpool letter for financial assistance?
• Email or call the school and tell them you are interested, but would like to understand the likelihood of getting off the waitpool for financial assistance and/or if there is any possibility for an increase in the amount of financial assistance.
• For the latter, it is important to let the schools know what amount would make it possible for you to attend the school
• Wait for schools to get back to you. Don’t call other schools to accept or decline their offers yet.
• Keep in mind that if applicable, your deadline to accept the financial assistance offer for SF schools is Thursday March 26 at noon

• What to do if you receive more than 1 Acceptance Notification?  If you receive a “Yes Letter” from more than one school, you are responsible to do the following:
• Decide on the school your family is going to commit to.
• Contact that school to let admissions folks know that your child will attend in the fall.
• Contact the other schools that sent you a “Yes” letter, or “Waitlist” letter, and let them know you are not planning to attend. This is important to do as soon as you know that you definitely will not be attending a particular school, because it helps to move students who are on a waitlist to the “Accept” category.
• Drop-off your Enrollment Contract and deposit to your school by the published deadline.
• What to do if you receive a Waitlist Notification and 1 or more Acceptance Notifications?
• If you receive a waitlist notification from your top choice school, you may choose to hold off on committing to schools you received an “Accept” from until nearer the school’s enrollment deadline. As families make final commitments to schools, students are sometimes moved from “Waitlist” to “Accept”.
• Please note that all schools will require you to communicate to them that your family is interested in staying on the waitlist. Individual schools will inform you of the preferred way to communicate this news to them. Be sure to communicate your interest in staying in the waitpool ASAP
• What to do if you receive only Waitlist Notifications, or a Waitlist and Deny?
• If you receive only waitlist notifications, please communicate with the school that your family is interested in remaining on the waitlist to be considered for a waitlist spot. If space becomes available on the waitlist, the school will contact you to let you know that an enrollment spot has become available for your child.
• Important Note About Waitlist
• If your child is moved off of a waitlist and offered a spot, you will likely be given a very short turnaround time before you need to tell a school whether your family is accepting the spot. Families should be prepared to make a decision within a matter of hours, so it makes sense for you to have an agreed upon ranked list so one parent knows how to proceed if that parent cannot reach the other parent or child within the short time frame.
• What to do if you only receive Deny Notifications
• If your family receives a “Deny Letter” from each of the schools you have applied to, there are no additional steps to take with those schools. If you have sent in an application to SF public schools, you should receive notification of your child’s placement the week of March 23

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Some Final Thoughts

1. The impulse to share news on Friday during the school day, or at afternoon dismissal, will be strong. Please do not share high school news on campus on Friday.
2. Please do speak respectfully about every school and every student. Our students attend a wide range of schools and this positively reflects the individuality of our students – something we value as a school.
3. Out of courtesy to one another, think in terms of asking other families or students, “How are you doing?” versus, “What schools did you get in to?” Or start a conversation by asking “Would you like to talk about high school news?” This gives each child and family the opportunity to share as much or as little information as they would like.
4. Finally, a HS Counselor shared this letter with me, and I’m passing it on to all of you. While it is geared toward college admissions, perhaps you’ll find some words here that you can use with your own children to reassure them how wonderful and important they are, regardless of this week’s outcomes.

Dear ____,
     On the night before you receive your first college response, we wanted to let you know that we could not be any prouder of you than we are today. Whether or not you get accepted does not determine how proud we are of everything you have accomplished and the wonderful person you have become. That will not change based on what admissions officers decide about your future. Your worth as a person, a student and our son is not diminished or influenced in the least by what these colleges have decided.
     If it does not go your way, you’ll take a different route to get where you want. There is not a single college in this country that would not be lucky to have you, and you are capable of succeeding at any of them.
     We love you as deep as the ocean, as high as the sky, all the way around the world and back again — and to wherever you are headed.  Mom and Dad


Hang in there!   You're almost there!
(And remember, 100% of our 8th graders WILL go to High School!)

- Merilee