FISD schools and administration buildings are closed to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, resulting in the transition of new student enrollment to being entirely online, FISD Chief Technology Officer Melissa Fouche said.
To begin the enrollment process, an electronic form must be completed, Fouche said. All required documents are then scanned and uploaded online.
Once the student is enrolled, teachers will receive notice about their new students, Fouche said, and the teacher then reaches out to the student and their family.
“The teacher welcomes them and then has some documents that we created to share with them to get them jump started with eLearning,” Fouche said.
The district’s digital learning model, eLearning, began March 17 and will continue as long as schools are closed.
Usually, many incoming FISD kindergarten students register through the district’s in-person kindergarten roundup event. However, elementary schools will not host the registration event this spring, according to a March 27 release.
Kindergarten registration for the 2020-21 school year will take place online April 6, per the release.
Parents should have all required enrollment documents ready to upload for the online process. This includes the student’s birth certificate, current immunization records, a copy of the guardian’s driver’s license and a current copy of a utility bill, per the release.
A majority of submissions will be processed April 8-20, and parents will receive a welcome email from FISD once their online registration form is processed and enrollment is complete, per the release.
During its two weeks of school closures and digital instruction, FISD still enrolled new students daily. Between March 16-27, the district enrolled 185 new students, according to FISD enrollment and withdrawal data.
Taking student withdrawals into consideration, FISD had a net gain of 85 students in this time period, per the data.
“We’re still enrolling kids,” Fouche said. “The community might be kind of surprised by that.”
