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Selection and Enrollment

Enrollment Process for TWBI Classrooms 

The District shall establish enrollment capacities for each grade level within the TWBI program at each elementary school based on student-teacher ratios that are comparable to those in other programs in the District.  Kindergarten and First Grade classes may be slightly larger than average class sizes to preserve the continuity of the program.  In consideration of the high level of need for and/or interest in the program, it could be possible that there will be more requests for placement than space and staffing will allow.  In the event that this is the case, the selection of students for enrollment will be through a District defined lottery procedure.

All English Language Learners will be enrolled in accordance with the process outlined in Section I, Program Placement. 

Eligibility

  1. Students living within the boundaries of the school will be placed first.
  2. Students living within the boundaries of another school in Phoenix-Talent will be accepted on a space-available basis.
  3. Students living within the boundaries of another district will be accepted on a space-available basis.

Newcomers and siblings of current TWBI students will be given first priority preference if there is space available at their respective grade level at their neighborhood school.  If no space is available, newcomers and siblings will be placed at the top of the waiting list.

TWBI classrooms should be kept at full capacity to preserve the continuity of the program.

Efforts will be made to balance the number of Spanish and English speakers in a TWBI classroom whenever possible.*

The remaining openings in the program will be filled using a lottery process that will be conducted as follows:

  • Names of students not already enrolled will be sorted by grade level and residence status.  A drawing for kindergarten enrollment will occur, first filling any openings by selecting resident (within school boundaries) students followed by intra-district (within district boundaries) students, followed by non-resident (out-of-district) students.  

  • When all openings have been filled, the remaining names will continue to be selected through the lottery process.  Names will be placed in order of selection at the end of any existing waiting lists.

  • Once the lottery process is completed and an opening occurs, the first name on the waiting list for that grade level will be notified of eligibility.  If the parent/guardian declines to place the student in the program at that time, the student’s name will be moved to the bottom of the waiting list. 

The local school administrator will notify families of their child’s enrollment status in writing by mail.

*Recommended TWBI Class enrollment proportions:  one-third Spanish-speaking, one-third English-speaking, one-third Spanish/English