The school system is such a major part of families’ lives. Once our kids start formal schooling, the school calendar dictates when family vacations happen, the bell schedule dictates when we get up and when we have dinner, not to mention the impact of school on a child’s wellbeing and education. So I have been baffled at how opaque many aspects of the school system is. I felt like when my child turned 3 or 4, someone should have sat me down and walked me through what schooling looks like in my area. But instead, I learned through internet research and word-of-mouth from other parents. But it feels like I could have so easily missed a critical piece of information, an important deadline had I not done the research myself or been plugged into a network of parents. So I wrote a jump start guide to the school system here in Seattle for any parent out there who is starting to think about this important topic!
Private schools versus Public schools in Seattle
I should note that this article mainly covers the Seattle Public School system but that private schools also play a significant role in the educational life of students in the city. According to the Seattle Times, around 20% of K-12 students in Seattle attend a private school, a number that has trended upward with the COVID pandemic. This is significantly higher than the 9-10% of private school attendance rate in Washington state and the US overall. We will cover private schools in Seattle in a separate future post.
When do kids start kindergarten in Seattle?
First, the basics. Students in Seattle generally start kindergarten when they are 5 years old. The cutoff date is August 31st – so if you were hoping to send your child to kindergarten in the fall of 2023, your child should be turning 5 prior to August 31, 2023. There is a process for getting considered for kindergarten if your child is turning 5 after the cutoff date (for birthdays between September 1 and October 31) but you need to apply and your child needs to go through an assessment of kindergarten readiness before being allowed to start.
How do students get assigned to schools in Seattle? What are neighborhood schools and option schools?
All students who live within Seattle are automatically assigned to their neighborhood school. In other words, any student living in Seattle has a spot at least at their neighborhood school. You can find what neighborhood school (SPS calls them “attendance areas schools”) corresponds to a given location in the city through these maps.
In addition to neighborhood schools, Seattle Public Schools also has something called option schools. Option schools give families a chance of being in a school other than their neighborhood school. They are entirely made up of students who have elected to apply for a spot at the school – no students are just automatically assigned there. The application process is simple and just administrative – there is no testing or special qualifications required. For options schools where more students express interest than there are seats available, seats are offered on a lottery basis. In the lottery, everyone has an equal chance of being offered a spot but students with a sibling already at that school and/or living within a defined “geozone” around the option school get preference in the lottery.
In addition to option schools, Seattle Public Schools also allows families to apply to a neighborhood school outside of their attendance zone. These slots are typically very limited as most of the seats at neighborhood schools are given to students who live in that neighborhood zone.
Once a student starts to attend a given school, they are allowed to attend that school until the highest grade served as long as the school can provide the services that the student requires.
Do students get busing in Seattle?
In short, for the 2023-2024 school year, most students aged kindergarten to 5th grade can get busing to their school if they do not live within walking distance. Students in 6th-8th grade may be bused or they may be given an bus pass for public transit. High school students may get a bus pass for public transit. Students of any grade level with special needs may be eligible for busing.
Is there a Gifted/Talented program in Seattle? Does the Highly Capable Cohort and Advanced Learners program still exist in Seattle Public Schools?
Many school districts in the United States have “gifted and talented programs” for students who are working at an academic level higher than their current grade. Some of these programs are based on standardized test results, IQ tests, teacher recommendations and/or grades. In Seattle Public Schools, the programs for academically advanced students are called Highly Capable Services and Advanced Learner Services. According to Seattle Public Schools, students who are performing in the 95th percentile or higher range for Math and English are eligible for Highly Capable Services (HC) while students who are performing at the 88th percentile or higher are eligible for Advanced Learner Services (AL).
Historically, differentiated instruction for HC students were delivered either within the neighborhood school or in a dedicated cohort. This meant that HC students could receive differentiated instruction within a general education classroom or they could be in a class with only other HC students at one of the schools designated “HC Pathways” schools. However, reportedly driven by equity concerns, HC Pathways schools are being phased out, starting with the class that is entering kindergarten in 2023. This means that all students that might be designated as HC will only have the option of being served within a general education classroom.
How is Special Education handled in Seattle Public Schools?
A student attending Seattle Public Schools may be identified as having some type of special need and/or learning disability. They may be referred for evaluation, after which an Individualized Education Program (IEP) document will be written that describes the special education services that will be provided to the student. Many students with IEPs will be served within their neighborhood school but some may be assigned to a school other than their neighborhood school to ensure that their needs are met.
What kind of afterschool programs are available to Seattle Public School students?
Afterschool programs available to Seattle Public School students fall into three major types:
- Programs run at the school site – Many SPS schools (particularly elementary schools) have a nonprofit that runs an afterschool program on the school grounds. They mostly provide supervised play, snacks and some homework support.
- Programs run not at the school site but transportation is available as part of the afterschool program- These programs may be of the supervised-play-variety or they may be more focused on a specific topic such as martial arts. They also are run by a range of different types of providers, including nonprofits, Seattle’s city community centers, and private program providers. They typically run buses or vans that pick up students from specific schools to the program site, where parents pick them up after the programming is done.
- Programs that are not run at the school site and that require transportation arrangements – The majority of afterschool programming that focuses on a specific topic (music, academic enrichment, sports, martial arts, etc) require parents or other adults to pick up the student from school and bring them to the activity. They may or may not start at a convenient time relative to when school ends but offer more specialized instruction on a particular topic.
Looking for afterschool programs and coordinating schedules and locations can be too hard, which is why HomeHQ has created a directory for afterschool programs for kids in Seattle which makes it easy to find programs that fit your interest, schedule and location.
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