Step One School admissions process
twos and nursery school programs
Application
We accept applications year round and recommend applying early if you know you are interested in Step One. (Please wait until after your child is born though.) You may either call to reserve a space on one of our adult observation tours and pick up materials at that time, call or email us with your address and we will mail them to you, or you may download them from our website. You may send in your application with a $40 application fee before your tour if you wish or wait until you have toured the school.
The vast majority of our students start in September. We do occasionally have mid-year or summer openings depending on the needs of our currently enrolled families. All of our families sign a 12-month contract September-August unless they are starting at a different time of year.
Enrollment Process
The enrollment process for the coming September actually begins in December of the preceding year. During this time we poll our current families to see how many will be returning for the coming September and ask what schedules they are requesting. Sibling applications are also due at this time. We also poll all of the people who were on waitlists but not offered a space for the current year to see if they want to “rollover” for the next school year. Then we input all of the applications we have received for the coming September.
Our lists of applicants are divided by boys and girls and by age and placed on one of ten separate waitlists. We strive to balance each of our Nursery School classrooms for sex and age ranges. Each mixed-age nursery school classroom consists of 3 smaller groups of children grouped by age so that we have a group of children 2.9 -3.4 years olds, a group of older 3-year olds and a group of 4-year -olds. We also try to balance the Two’s program so that there is an equal number of boys and girls and a balance of children representing ages 2.0-2.9. When we refer to the list, we refer to the list of children who are the same sex and are in the same age range as your child.
Each waitlist is then organized by the family’s original application date. We do give preference to teacher/staff’s children, siblings, families bringing diversity to our school and families living within 1 block of the school in any direction. In striving to enroll both our full-day and part-day programs fully, families requesting full-time schedules may be enrolled prior to those requesting part-time schedules.
By mid-January we have a pretty good idea of how many spaces we will have in September at each age level for boys and girls and how many applications we have received or “rolled” over. By late January we send out letters to everyone who is on one of our waitlists letting them know our “best guess” at their chances for enrollment in September. At this time we begin offering spaces to the families we know we have spaces for.
Because of our flexibility in scheduling options, our enrollment process spans over several months as we offer spaces, wait for responses, enter requested schedules, and reassess remaining slots. Some of the factors which affect chances of enrollment here are variable and unpredictable, such as the number of applicants ahead of you who will decline openings, and the number of already committed families who, at any point between now and the start of the school year, will drop out of our programs for various reasons.
Making a Decision and Scheduling
If you are offered a space you will have one week to accept/decline the space. There is a $300 deposit due at this time if you decide to accept the space. You will also be asked to give us your top 3 schedule choices. Almost all of the families coming 4-days request M-Th or T-F. These 2 schedules are rarely assigned to new families as so many of our current families request them and we need to balance enrollment M-F. Similarly, all 3-day schedules in the Two’s program must include a Monday or Friday and include at least 2 consecutive days. We have found the MWF to be too difficult for 2-year-olds because of the lack of continuity.
If you decide to decline a placement offer during our primary enrollment period (between January and June) and wish to remain on our list, your date of application will be changed to the date of your refusal. If you are not offered a space for September, your name will remain on the list for any openings that may occur during the year. If this should not occur, you will then receive the “rollover” letter in November asking whether you want to stay on the list for the following year.
