8/2006
Student Application and Admissions
Student Application
A Student Enrollment
Application completely filled out and signed by the parent must be
submitted prior to a student being considered for enrollment in an
IEM Charter
School. It is important
that all information requested on the application is completed including the
signature of the parent, guardian, or caregiver, and date the application is
signed. Submission of the application
does not constitute enrollment in the school, but only requests an enrollment visit with one of our Education
Specialists, when we have an open student space in our geographic area.
Immunization records, dental health records (K & 1st grade),
Health forms (K & 1st grade), verification of birth certificate,
and other requested enrollment paperwork are required before enrollment can
begin. The student records office will automatically request a cume file from the student's previous school, but an
unofficial transcript will be helpful for high school students, as cume files may take several months to arrive.
Enrollment
Requirements
Students age five
(by December 2) and older as verified by a birth certificate may be enrolled in
this Charter School. Any child turning 5 after
December 2 will have to wait until the following school year to enroll in the
charter school. Due to a state law that became effective July 1, 2004, we will
only be able to serve continuing or new adult students if they have been
continuously enrolled in any high school from a date prior to their 19th
birthday, making regular progress. For more information, see the Adult Policy.
To be considered for enrollment, students
must reside in the county of the charter schools granting school district or in
counties that are contiguous to the granting district. According to charter
law, students may not be enrolled in a private school while enrolled in a
public school. A student may be enrolled in only one public school at a time.
An inter/intra-district transfer is not necessary. Before the student can be
enrolled in this Charter
School specific
documentation needs to be signed at an enrollment meeting with your assigned
Education specialist. These documents include the Student Agreement, the
school's charter summary, and a 1st meeting info sheet. It is the
responsibility of the Education Specialist to fully explain the contents of the
documents being signed.
Special Education
students
need to send a copy of their past and current IEPs
with their enrollment application. These
IEPs will be reviewed by our Special Ed department
for legal compliance prior to being approved for enrollment. No student
should disenroll from their current school until they have cleared the Special
Ed department, been assigned to an ES, and have met face to face with that teacher
to complete enrollment paperwork.
Student Enrollment
may be delayed if the school is "full". By state charter school regulations,
a credentialed teacher may serve no more than 25 students maximum on any
one school day. If we do not have an ES with an available space in your
geographic area, the student will be put on our waiting list. No guarantees
of enrollment can be made at any time. We do hire and train teachers continually
to prepare for growth when we are full in a geographic area.
Enrollment Exclusions
Students who have
been expelled from other public schools are not eligible for enrollment in this
charter school. Students who have been
previously enrolled in this charter school and were dropped for truancy are not
eligible for re-enrollment in this charter school.
Closed Enrollment
Each school
year enrollment is closed in late winter (date determined each year). To
be enrolled for that school year, the student must start on or before the
last date announced for that school year. At that point, students can choose
to remain on our school prospective waiting list to be enrolled for the
following school year. We begin placing those students with ESs in early
April. Students who enroll for the Fall semester may choose to begin with
our school for Summer School, if they qualify for summer school enrollment.
Funding
This Charter School
receives educational funds dependent upon average daily attendance (ADA) just as do other California schools. If a student resides in
another district but chooses to participate in this program, the state
determined funds will follow him/her to this district and, therefore, this
program. Because instructional funds used for the education of Charter School
Students are public dollars, any educational items and supplies purchased with
public funds are the property of the school and must be promptly returned to the
school when the student graduates or dis-enrolls from
the school. This Charter
School's budget is
required by law to conform to the state guidelines established by SB740.
Educational
Benefits
This Charter School is a school that strives to
uphold parental rights and choice in education. Therefore, the school provides
parents the opportunity to design a course of study in cooperation with
your assigned Education Specialist. Because of the school's unique structure, a
"one-size-fits-all" curriculum is not mandated, and parents remain
the authority of any material affecting their children's attitudes, values, and
beliefs.
Parent Responsibilities
The parent is not required to teach their child to be enrolled in our
school, but he parent is responsible to ensure the student learns. The parent "facilitates"
learning along with their Education specialist. The parents may choose from a
wide variety of educational options, from one extreme of an “AESS program”
totally facilitated by the assigned ES to the other extreme of a student being
taught exclusively by his/her parent.
Student
Expectations
The student must
make progress toward the student and state standards. The student is not
allowed to not learn, but must
participate daily in educational pursuits of some kind. The ES is responsible
for tracking attendance and regularly assessing the progress the student has
made towards the student and state standards as the school collects ADA based on this
assessment.
This Charter School allows for wide differences in
student learning styles, abilities, and interests that are difficult to
accommodate in a traditional school setting. Parents in cooperation with their
ES have the opportunity to tailor the learning environment to individual needs
of their children.
Methods of
measuring student’s progress
While all students
will achieve the required school and state standards by graduation, not all
will progress at the same rate. Evaluation of that progress is based on
individual abilities, interests, and talents. Student progress will be assessed through
the current state mandated assessment tools (STAR, CAHSEE, CELDT, and PFT), the
school assessment tool (Scantron) and a variety of
the following:
· Monthly review of work
· Annual portfolios
· Parent, student, and Education Specialist
observation
· Norm and criterion referenced tests
· Student demonstrations
· Student grades