Admission Process: Making Decisions
Schools seek to put together communities with their own particular mix of children and families depending on the school’s philosophy and criteria. ISSFBA schools make admission decisions in committees. The members of these committees vary, but usually include the Director of Admission, Division Head, Learning or Reading Specialists, teachers and sometimes the Head of School. The Division Head and teachers, as those who will be working with children accepted to a school, are focused on whether they see a child as having a profile that will succeed in their program. Committees form opinions about which children would be a good fit for their school, considering their school visits, assessments and reports from the present school. Each school weighs the different sources of information according to its beliefs about their relative importance. They then work to put together a well-balanced community. First and foremost, Directors of Admission seek to make decisions with the child’s interest in mind.Notification Dates
Notification dates, typically in March of the enrollment year, are set by the ISSFBA association and are agreed upon each year. These dates include when parents will be notified, as well as the deadline for accepted families to respond to schools.
Notification dates for K-8 applicants for the 2011-12 academic year are:
- Thursday, March 17, 2011: Notification letters are mailed
- Thursday, March 24, 2011: Enrollment contract due at school by 10 a.m.
- Thursday, March 3, 2011: Notification letters are mailed
- Thursday, March 10, 2011: Enrollment contract due at school by 10 a.m.
Once notification letters have been mailed, ISSFBA schools have all agreed that this is a decision-making time for your family, and that no member of our school communities will contact you prior to the enrollment contract deadline. If you have not heard from a school shortly after the notification date, contact the school. Once you have selected a school, you should immediately notify all of the other schools to which you have been accepted, declining those acceptances. Prompt notification of your decision is helpful to families who may be in a waiting pool.
Waiting Pools
Waiting pools are active during the notification period, particularly as the contract deadline approaches. Once parents have signed a contract with an ISSFBA school, other ISSFBA schools do not typically offer a contract.
If you have not enrolled your child in an ISSFBA school by the enrollment contract due date, speak directly to those schools where you were in a waiting pool to find out if they continue to keep an active wait list after the response date.