FAQs
What are some of the factors that affect my child’s possible enrollment?
As a school that is open year-round, 5 days a week, preferred schedules will impact your enrollment. We give priority to families needing fulltime care (5 full days). After that, we look at ways to match families’ schedules. For example, if one family needs 3 full days (MWF) and another family needs 2 full days (TuTh) then we can consider those families for enrollment.
Your place on our waitlist is also affected by the date of your application. On average, 60% of our families are fulltime families, and 40% are part-time families.
My child already goes to your school, and I have a younger child too. Am I automatically given a space for my younger child?
We do give conditional priority to families with siblings enrolled here, but it is not a guarantee.
Are parents required to participate in some way?
We don’t require parent hours, but we do strongly recommend parents to attend all of the school functions, such as project presentations. We also encourage you to keep up with the children’s activities in the classrooms. Families are a big part of our community, and we want to build a partnership with families in order to better serve the children.
When do I know about availability for my child?
In mid- to late- March, once we know about continuing enrollment for families, we have a better picture of spaces in our classrooms. We will be offering observations to families that we have space for starting in late-March.
Do you have a waitlist?
In the Lafayette and Walnut Creek schools, we begin enrollment for the following school year (September 2011-August 2012, for example) in January of that year and we don’t hold applications from before then. The waitlist begins in January 2011, and we go through it as spaces open up. The Mill Valley school will take applications on a rolling basis and does build up a waitlist.
I just want to have my child in preschool for 3 days a week, but next year I think I want her there 5 days a week. Is that easy to change?
Space depends on the classroom your child will be moving into, as well as the enrollment of other families.
Classroom/Age: Ratio of teacher to child
Toddler (1+ year): 1 to 4
2s: 1 to 6
3s, 4s, and Developmental Kindergarten: 1 to 9
If you are currently enrolled and looking to add days, you are at the top of the waitlist.
However, since ratios don’t change between our 3s and 4s classrooms, spaces only open up if students leave or decrease their enrollment.
