Enrolling Students

Please see the communications section for resources to help target and attract families to your school. This section is about the administration of the admissions and enrollment process.

Tracking Prospects

You need an organized system for keeping track of prospects that you are in various stages of conversation with. At first, little sticky notes and lists seem manageable, but soon they become a tangled mess. So if you want to be able to follow up on a conversation from last month, last quarter, or last year, you’ll need a well organized approach. We recommend having them in a shared space so that teammates can pick up each other’s progress if necessary. Here are some options, from simple to sophisticated:

Admissions Process

It is important to have an admissions process that provides a clear path for people to follow, so that people who want to come to your school don’t feel lost or wonder what's next.

A sample process might look like:

• Prospect -- You receive someone’s information either because they contacted you or were referred to you. Invite them to engage.

• Orientation -- A visit, phone conversation, or attendance at an event or Parent Interest Night. Invite them to apply.

• Application -- They signify their interest by completing the Online Application (and payment of any application fee and completion of the Tuition Worksheet, if they are requesting financial assistance). Invite them to schedule a visiting period.

• Visiting Period -- The potential student attends for some days or a week to see whether they are a good fit for the school’s culture and capacities.

• Final Review -- Negotiation of terms of acceptance (or rejection), including any special coverage for needs of their student, tuition amount, payment timelines, etc. to be put into their Enrollment Agreement. Invite them to enroll.

You should at least track people’s status in major steps of the process and you may also want to keep track of other touch-points like communications by phone, voicemail or email throughout their admissions process.

Final Paperwork

• Enrollment Agreement: Yay! You have a family ready to commit! The first (and MOST IMPORTANT) step is to formalize the enrollment of their child(ren) with an Enrollment Agreement. This is the contract which makes them responsible for paying tuition and you responsible for providing a safe educational setting.

• Tuition Deposit: If possible, get your tuition deposit when they sign the Enrollment Agreement. If they can’t make the full payment at that time, make sure the timing of payments are clear, and ideally automate them using the the instructions above so that you don’t have to keep thinking about it.

• Other Important Paperwork: (to get before school starts)

  • Emergency Contact Info (sample)

  • Medical Contact Info, Instructions & Authorization (sample)

  • Immunization Records (sample)

  • School Exit Permissions (can kids leave the school alone, with teens, with staff) (sample)

  • General Permission Slip (for field trips/outings with staff and volunteers) (sample)

ALC Network members will get access to sample versions of all the above paperwork.