Enrollment

 Official enrollment policies, as stated in the Grove School Charter, p.95:

 The Charter School shall require students who wish to attend the Charter School to complete an application. Applications will be accepted during a publicly advertised open enrollment period each year for enrollment in the following school year. Following the open enrollment period each year, applications shall be counted to determine whether any grade level has received more applications than availability. In the event that this happens, the Charter School will hold a public random drawing (or “lottery”) to determine admission for the impacted grade level, with the exception of existing students, who are guaranteed admission in the following school year.

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TGS has established an annual recruiting and admissions cycle, which shall include reasonable time for all of the following: 1) outreach, 2) voluntary orientation and informational briefings for parents and students, 3) admissions application period, 4) an admissions lottery if necessary, and 5) enrollment. The Charter School will fill vacancies or openings that become available after this process through the use of a wait list established from the admissions lottery, as described below. In the event that the number of students seeking admission exceeds the Charter School’s maximum enrollment, admission preferences in the lottery shall be given to the following students in the following order:

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1. Children of TGS faculty* who are residents of the District

2. Children of TGS faculty* who are not residents of the District

3. Siblings of students admitted to or attending TGS who are residents of the District

4. Siblings of students admitted to or attending TGS who are not residents of the District

   Students who are currently enrolled in or who reside in the elementary school attendance area of the public elementary school(s) in which The Grove School is located (for purposes of the Charter School Facility Grant Program

5. Students with at least one year of upper elementary (grades 4-6) transcripts from a Montessori school who are residents of the District. The Montessori school must be accredited and have a demonstrated affiliation with national Montessori bodies including, but not limited to, Association Montessori Internationale (“AMI”), the American Montessori Society(“AMS”), and Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (“MACTE”).

6. Students with at least one year of upper elementary (grades 4-6) transcripts from a Montessori school who are not residents of the District. The Montessori school must be accredited and have a demonstrated affiliation with national Montessori bodies including, but not limited to, AMI and AMS, or whose teachers have an AMI, AMS, or diploma from a MACTE accredited school.

7. Residents of the District

8. All other applicants

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The Charter School and the District agree to adhere to the requirements related to admission preferences as set forth in Education Code Section 47605(d)(2)(B)(i)-(iv). Full details of this provision are found below, including instructions on filing a complaint.

Typically, TGS receives applications in excess of the number of spaces available. In early Spring, TGS conducts its lottery for admission to the Charter School for the following academic year. To be part of the lottery, a family must complete an application. The application must be completed and turned into TGS prior to the deadline. Each completed application will be assigned a number.

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The Board of Directors will take all necessary efforts to ensure lottery procedures are fairly executed.

In order to protect student information, the Grove School lottery drawing will be done by student number. The number assigned to your student(s) will be emailed to you sandy.longman@thegroveschool.org.

Students who are selected for enrollment in the lottery are informed by letter within three days of the lottery. Students who are on the wait list are also informed within three days, as described below, and given their position on the list.

If a student is pulled from the waiting list, families are notified of their student’s available place at Grove twice via telephone and twice via email over the course of three days. If no response is received, we send a letter notifying the family. After one week, if no response if received from that family, we move to the next name on the list.

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Public random drawing rules, deadlines, dates and times will be communicated in the application form and on the Charter School’s website. Public notice for the date and time of the public random drawing will also be posted once the application deadline has passed. The Charter School will also inform all applicants and interested parties of the rules to be followed during the public random drawing process via mail or email at least two weeks prior to the lottery date.

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Upon admission to the Charter School, prospective students and their parents/guardians must agree to the following:

• To participate in an informational orientation meeting regarding the Charter School at which time its educational mission and student and parental duties and responsibilities will be discussed.

• All required application materials must be returned to the Charter School in a timely manner.

• The student must uphold the conditions detailed in the Student Handbook and as set forth in the voluntary informational orientation meeting.

• Both student and parent/guardian must complete a written contract with the Charter School and agree to follow its rules.

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If you have any questions, please email: info@thegroveschool.org