The Capistrano Unified School District offers families the opportunity to apply to attend other schools within the district. The application window was opened this year on Feb. 3 and just recently closed on March 2.
School of Choice is offered to both current students enrolled in the district and students who are new to the district. Students who are already enrolled in a current CUSD school can apply for their school of choice during the application window, whereas students new to the district can apply during enrollment, which is much closer to the beginning of the school year.
Dianna Zoccoli, a registrar at ANHS says, “School of Choice is when someone within the Capistrano Unified School District has a residency in Aliso Viejo, but has the option to go to one of our other CUSD high schools. So that would be Tesoro, San Clemente, San Juan Hills, Dana Point or Capo.”
In order to apply, the student must live within CUSD boundaries. If they do not, they can look into inter-district transfer opportunities. Students also must provide their own transportation to their school of choice.
During the application window, students are allowed to withdraw their application. Once the window closes, families can no longer cancel their application, and they are linked to the school they are approved for. These expectations are made clear through the contract that families are required to sign before sending in their application.
School of Choice applications apply to only one child and siblings aren’t guaranteed to be approved for the same school. Each child must individually apply for their school of choice if they wish to transfer.
If a student wishes to transfer outside of the School of Choice window, they enter a process called Administrative Placement. These requests are for urgent situations only, and the applications are sent to Student Services.
One reason a student might transfer outside of the window is if they moved to another city during the school year, but they still live in the CUSD boundaries and they want to remain at their original school.
Foreign exchange students are also able to apply to the school district, as long as they are approved by their foreign exchange program. Exchange students must know enough English to benefit from school in this country.
Families can find out more about School of Choice by visiting the Capistrano Unified School District website. Once there, there are numerous sites to find out more information about the process, and which schools are available to apply to.
Different links are available on the right hand side of the website. The first link is the link to fill out an application. Next is a map of all Capistrano Unified Schools, and which areas are within this Capistrano Unified School District. Other resources include “School of Choice Revocations”, “Appeals Process” and “Foreign Exchange Student Admission”.
Zoccoli mentioned, “Students will typically find out if they have been accepted into their school of choice one week after the application deadline”.
