Parenting & Family

School enrolment when u are out of school's boundary

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  • Jun 7th, 2019 6:32 am
Deal Addict
Jan 26, 2017
1859 posts
2808 upvotes

School enrolment when u are out of school's boundary

My son will be registering in Kindergarten (TDSB) for the 2020/2021 session.
There is a brand new school opening starting Fall 2019.
We live literally on the school boundary but a decision was made on our condo that we have to go to a different school. It should be noted that condos further away from the new school are in the boundary! :(
Anyways what are the chances I can apply to this new school via the “Optional Attendance” registration?
Anyone know how the process works and how many spots they usually allocate?
10 replies
Deal Fanatic
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Jan 16, 2011
7205 posts
9238 upvotes
The NORTH
Not Toronto.

We put our kids in a different school then we we're districted for because it was the best school in the city we live in. It's an open concept school with no walls and our kids have thrived there. We had no problem registering them there and the only issue is that we have to drive them too and from school as there is no school bus service to and from our house for obvious reasons.

Best advice I can give is to try, the worst you'll hear is no. And as a bit of an aside, don't mention that there are other people farther away attending. That's meaningless to the situation and sounds entitled.
Deal Addict
May 12, 2014
3487 posts
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Montreal
Just curious: if it's a new school, you don't know anything about their track record or teachers. So why do you prefer it over your assigned school?
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2011
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Center of Universe
Ottawa resident here and the process was to register in the home school, fill out the transfer form and bring it to the other school.
It's basically at the discretion of the school principal.
Deal Addict
Jan 26, 2017
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FrancisBacon wrote: Just curious: if it's a new school, you don't know anything about their track record or teachers. So why do you prefer it over your assigned school?
You”re right, Obviously if it’s a new school I have no track record or any review of the school or the teachers.
What I DO know is this:
1) assigned school has bad reviews online and from feedback talking to parents whose kids went to that school.
Also spoke to a teen in my condo who went to that school but who transferred to another school after a few years because he said school wasn’t good
2) assigned school is quite old and looks like needs a good fix
3) new school says it’s “state of art”, bigger, modern, with bigger outdoor facilities

So No i don’t know if the new school overall is better than existing school, but if I had to make a decision now it would be a no-brainer based on the above.
Deal Addict
Jan 26, 2017
1859 posts
2808 upvotes
vkizzle wrote: Ottawa resident here and the process was to register in the home school, fill out the transfer form and bring it to the other school.
It's basically at the discretion of the school principal.
Thanks. Weird process though.
It’s sort of a waste of time for the Home school to do all the paperwork to register the kid when the parent is just going to immediately take the kid out to go to a different school lol.
Deal Addict
May 12, 2014
3487 posts
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Montreal
How "permanent" is the optional attendance program in Ontario? I've heard that something similar exists in Quebec, but that if your chosen school fills up with "local" children you'll be bumped back to your own local school.

Your child is entering kindergarten, and with possible siblings one day you have 12+ years to plan for.

Have you considered the costs of moving one street over to guarantee placement in your school of choice?
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2011
41788 posts
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Center of Universe
Bebo123 wrote: Thanks. Weird process though.
It’s sort of a waste of time for the Home school to do all the paperwork to register the kid when the parent is just going to immediately take the kid out to go to a different school lol.
Due to our current archaic registration process, the out of boundary school wouldn't be able to assign a student ID number?
Deal Guru
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Mar 31, 2008
13010 posts
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Toronto
Bebo123 wrote: Thanks. Weird process though.
It’s sort of a waste of time for the Home school to do all the paperwork to register the kid when the parent is just going to immediately take the kid out to go to a different school lol.
it's not guaranteed you go into the new school so the default is the home school. Often, even if students switch, it's under the same school board so the main information is still stored.

Where are you located? You bring up distance, but in Toronto, it's often the vintage. You could be right beside a school but not within the boundary due to it being a newer condo building. My guess is developers circumvent all these rules to get their condos built. This includes existing addresses and units. i.e. School systems have established addresses, and specific property identifiers within their boundary list.

The rules surrounding development is separate and distinct thus any development on an address basically needs to get admitted into that school's boundary list. This phenomena has been now known for 20 years when in North York, many condos started going up and local highly rated schools being overcrowded. Of course people buying it, even being warned don't seem to take that into account or overlook it.

In terms of optional attendance, it is up to the principal but I'm sure there's a queue system of sorts. Sometimes it's so overwhelming, the schools decide they won't take anybody. Or it's already at or near or above capacity from its existing boundaries.
Member
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Nov 24, 2014
384 posts
298 upvotes
Toronto, ON
Also you might have to consider French Immersion which can begin in Sr Kindergarten.
If you plan on doing that, your child might be made to move schools if both don't have that program.
We were in a similar situation, closer school was sketchy but it had the french immersion.
We ended up keeping our child in the out of boundary school but still wonder if we made the right choice.

Sketchy school also ended up having other 'perks' since it was part of the "model school" initiative.
free lunches, play programs, etc.

Kindergarten registration started in Feb (or -was- in Feb) so you might not be able to transfer to the school of your choice.

good luck

register for kindergarten TDSB
info on applying to out of boundary school "optional attendance"
Deal Addict
Nov 13, 2013
4520 posts
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Ottawa
dieseldub wrote: Also you might have to consider French Immersion which can begin in Sr Kindergarten.
If you plan on doing that, your child might be made to move schools if both don't have that program.
We were in a similar situation, closer school was sketchy but it had the french immersion.
We ended up keeping our child in the out of boundary school but still wonder if we made the right choice.

Sketchy school also ended up having other 'perks' since it was part of the "model school" initiative.
free lunches, play programs, etc.

Kindergarten registration started in Feb (or -was- in Feb) so you might not be able to transfer to the school of your choice.

good luck

register for kindergarten TDSB
info on applying to out of boundary school "optional attendance"
French Immersion begins in SK but my experience was if you say you are planning on sending them to French Immersion you can use that schools boundary for JK as well. (granted this was not in Toronto so YMMV.)

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