As you close out the school year, no doubt you are preparing for next year and processing applications. Some families at schools are quite slow to return their contracts or re-enrollment documents. So, what to do? Especially, since schools depend on every classroom having filled seats. And there is always the school with the exemplary student whose parents are lax in re-enrolling and paying the fees. Do you give up her seat to a wait-listed child? Do you put the current student on a wait-list? How many hoops must you, as Admission Director, jump through to fill all seats?
In Los Angeles, two Catholic elementary schools closed because of falling enrollment, but will be reopened by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as ‘Dual Language Immersion’ schools in fall 2011.
Falling enrollment is a worry that is always in the thoughts of an Admission Officer. These schools are lucky to be reopened with a new focus, but what else can you do to keep your seats filled?
Some schools have suggested imposing a higher fee for late applications (anywhere from $150 to $1000), while others have suggested that students whose parents are late with the re-enrollment, cannot meet with their advisers or can’t pick classes for the following year. Others mandate that their students can’t join a club, run for student council, or be considered for leadership positions, such as big sisters or campus tour guides if they aren’t enrolled with all fees current.
Another school automatically re-enrolls students. (Once a child is enrolled, the assumption is that the child will graduate from the institution.) This school changed its one-year enrollment contracts to long-term enrollment contracts, and if the family did wish to leave, they had to ‘disenroll.'
Other methods include sending a letter home and/or following up with a personal phone call to discuss any issues the parents may have, especially if their employment circumstances have changed.
What does your school do when it comes down to the wire? How do you keep your seats filled with mission-appropriate children in a tough economic climate?
