Lake Washington School District offers two options to parents who are looking for alternatives to the assigned neighborhood school. One option is to investigate choice schools, which are open to residents from all over the district. Each choice school has its own application process. The choice school section has more information on applying to choice schools as well as information on each school. Parents must provide transportation to their student who attends a choice school.

Students who are new to the district must be registered with their home school before they can take advantage of any options.

Transfer within Lake Washington School District
The other option is to transfer to another Lake Washington School District school. You can apply for a transfer to any school within the district. Whether the transfer is accepted depends primarily on whether there is room at the other school to accommodate your child. See the "Closed Schools" charts below to determine whether a school you may be interested in does not have room.

Open Enrollment
You can apply at any time but transfer applications during the open enrollment period will ensure you learn earlier whether the transfer is granted. The open enrollment period for the 2009-10 school year is February 2-23, 2009. Parents must provide transportation for their student who goes to a school within the district that is different from their assigned neighborhood school.

How to apply:

• Go to any school office to get an in-district transfer application. It is a four-part form: that is why you cannot get it on the Internet or by fax.
• Fill out the application completely and turn it in to the neighborhood school to which the student is assigned.
• The principal or his/her designee will sign the form and forward it to the requested school.
• The requested school will notify you whether or not the transfer has been granted.

When to apply:

• Open enrollment takes place February 2-23, 2009. Notifications will begin at the end of May.
• Applications made after the open enrollment period may be approved if space is still available. Due to space and staffing availability constraints, parents may not find out if the transfer has been approved until just before the new school year begins.

Schools with no space available are closed
Before the open enrollment period, the district determines which school will have room to accommodate transfers and which will be closed to transfers. A school may be open only for specific grades. Check this Web site or ask any school for a copy of the list.

When to re-apply:

• Once a student has been granted an in-district transfer, they do not need to reapply. They can continue to go to that school.
• Students going into 7th grade or 10th grade must file for new transfers since they will be going to a new school, in a junior high or high school. That new in-district transfer may be granted if space is available.