Take time to tour schools with potential
Open houses, school tours, placement tests and student interviews are all a part of the enrollment process for many private schools, and parents and students are already thinking about next year and having to plan ahead to secure a spot in local private schools.
Upcoming school registration deadlines are filling up many calendars for new and current private school students.
Former public school teacher Leslie Jones chooses to send her son to private school for “smaller class sizes and parental input.”
Jones’ advice to other parents who are on the fence about private versus public school for their children is to “follow what you think is best for your child.”
Each school has different application criteria and enrollment/re-enrollment procedures listed and linked on the school websites and also in handbooks available at the school offices.
The first step in the process to enroll or re-enroll in private school is to attend an open house with your family. Open houses are designed to showcase what the school has to offer, and current students are often involved to demonstrate student involvement at the school. Most open houses are in late fall and early January.
Private school tours can often be scheduled before the application deadlines for a more one-on-one tour of the school with an admission guide.
“As a parent, that one-on-one meeting eases that anxiousness that we sometimes feel when our child starts a new school,” Amanda Cascio, a local parent, said. “The child is much less apprehensive, as well, if they attend.”
Cascio encourages parents to attend the open houses and schedule tours at the schools to see what the schools have to offer.
“Our experience showed us that private schools really enforce the importance that the parent has in a child’s education. Everyone works together to give the child the best education possible.”
Another parent, Andrew Johnson, chooses to send his children to private school “because of the smaller class sizes, more one-on-one instruction time with the teacher, no Common Core, and a Christian-based learning” atmosphere.
Most local private schools are affiliated with religious organizations, and parents need to take the time to make sure that the school fits their beliefs as well as their standards of academia when touring potential schools.
Angela Brewer teaches at a local private school and also chooses to send her son to the same school.
“Private schools are very specific to what’s important to them as far as academically and spiritually,” Brewer said. “I love that [my son] comes home talking about what he learned in bible class because it opens the door for us to talk about it at home.”
The second step of the application process is to complete an application complete with school report cards, birth certificate, latest standardized testing results, current immunization shot records and a proof of residence. Some school even request a teacher and principal recommendation form and a community service report.
A placement test/entrance exam at the school will usually be scheduled if the student is a new enrollee.
Application fees are sometimes discounted if paid earlier than the latest deadline, and parents are even offered different payment options if their child is accepted into the school. Some parents choose to pay monthly, semi-annually or annually.
Most of next year’s enrollment forms are signed before the magnet school acceptance letters are sent out in mid- April. If parents are going to let their students still test for local magnet schools, they understand that they are forfeiting their application fee and/or other contractual fees if they choose to pursue alternate school choices after private school contracts are signed.
As a parent that plans to re-enroll her son for next year, Brewer loves the idea that “the constant concern of where your child is going to go is resolved” by the private school option.
Parents and students should also look into scholarship deadlines and applications at each of the schools.
According to the Louisiana Department of Education website, “the Louisiana Scholarship Program, formally known as the Student Scholarships for Education Excellence Program, was expanded statewide in 2012. In the second year of the statewide program, nearly 12,000 students applied for a scholarship and 6,700 students accepted a scholarship and enrolled in a stateapproved private school for the 2013-14 school year.
“To be eligible for a scholarship, students must have a family income that does not exceed 250 percent of the federal poverty guidelines and must be entering kindergarten or enrolled in a public school with a C, D or F grade. Scholarship students must take the same assessments as students in public schools.”
–Brittney Trahan
