How do i register my child for school in florida

Enrolling Your Child in School – Student Services

All students must register at their home-zoned school. The school district Attendance Zone Locator will identify the correct school.

Requirements for Children to Begin School

1. Grade Placement (Florida State Statute 1003.21)

2. Proof of Residency

Certain documents will be required to prove residency. A complete detail of these requirements can all be found in our Residency Process.
Current students must update residency documentation before transitioning to kindergarten, middle (6th grade) and high school (9th grade).
Students with expired residency (e.g. expired lease) will be required to provide updated residency documents.

3. Proof of Immunization

Florida Certification of Immunization, DOH 680 Form (Florida State Statute 1003. 22)
Students enrolling for the first time from a state other than Florida must have out of state immunization records transferred to the DOH 680 Form.
School Entry Requirements
School Entry Requirements (Spanish)
School Entry Requirements (Haitian Creole)
FL Immunization Requirements FAQs

4. Other

Copy of Birth Certificate (If a birth certificate is not available, please refer to 1003.21, FS for other acceptable documentation.)
Proof of Guardianship (if applicable)
Physical/Health Examination (dated within 12 months of the student’s enrollment date – can be from out of state) that meets the Florida Department of Health Requirements.
Sports physicals will not be accepted for first time enrollment physical/health examination.
- Although a specific form is not required, you may choose to use the recommended School Entry Health Exam Form (Dh4040)
Social Security Number (optional)
Academic Records (for students previous enrolled in another school)

For additional Information regarding immunizations, please contact:
Florida Department of Health – St. Johns County
904-506-5081
200 San Sebastian View
St. Augustine, FL 32084

Your local St. Johns County Health Department provides free pediatric immunizations.
View the St. Johns County Health Department website.

For additional information regarding any health issue for school enrollment, please visit our School Health Services Department website.

Although we will request the records from the previous school, placement may be expedited if you have:

Most recent report card
Unofficial transcripts or grades
Most recent test scores (mandatory prior to registration for Honors or Dual Enrollment classes)

Grade level placement at time of enrollment should be based on the last grade completed by the student. Schools may adjust a student’s grade level and schedule once official school records have been received.

2022-2023 School Registration Forms

Please select one of the following options to register your child for school.

When completing the registration forms, it is recommended that you use Google Chrome or Firefox as your browser. Please be sure to double check the school year at the top of the form to ensure you are completing the correct form. You will receive an email confirmation once the form is successfully submitted.

Registrar una estudiante de prekínder para 2022-23

Only open to students who will be under the age of 5 on September 1, 2022

Please click the enrollment button above. (Acceptance is not guaranteed and is based on program availability.)

Instructions for First-Time Users

Registrar a una estudiante de kindergarten a 12 grado para 2022-23

Kindergarten students must be 5 years old on or before September 1, 2022

Instructions for First-Time Users

Formulario de Reinscripción / Transferencia / Cambio de Dirección

Please use this form if:

Your child is NOT currently enrolled in a St. Johns County School District School AND was previously enrolled at ANY time in a SJCSD public school and is Re-Enrolling.

You are updating your St. Johns County home address to a new St. Johns County address for a currently enrolled student.

Your child is returning to their zoned school from home education or full time St. Johns Virtual School OR transferring schools within St. Johns County, including a transfer from an alternative SJCSD school back to their zoned school.

All students must register at their home-zoned school. The school district’s Attendance Zone Locator will identify the correct school. For more information, please view the Requirements for Children to Begin School.

If you have questions regarding enrollment, please email us or call 904-547-7622.

Registration Requirements | Polk County Public Schools

Registration Requirements for First Time Entry

Students entering Kindergarten
Students entering a Florida public school for the first time

Required Documentation

Proof of Residence (MUST have TWO.

) *

Current apartment rent receipt or home lease agreement, mortgage document, or property tax record
Current utility bill (electric, gas, water), cable, or home phone bill
Current Florida driver’s license, automobile registration, automobile insurance
Current voter registration document, State of Florida Identification card
Proof of current government benefits (disability, Medicare, food stamps, Department of Children and Families (DCF) correspondence)

*Each proof must include the name and current address. Post office boxes, private mail box addresses or commercial establishment addresses are not
sufficient.

Social Security Number (Voluntary)

Social Security number, if available. The district shall request each student enrolling in school provide his or her social security number as
required by FL Statute 1008.386. Parent disclosure of their child’s social security number is voluntary.

Registration Requirements for Students Previously Enrolled in Any Public or Private School Within the State of Florida

Required Documentation

Proof of Residence (MUST have TWO.) *

Current apartment rent receipt or home lease agreement, mortgage document, or property tax record
Current utility bill (electric, gas, water), cable, or home phone bill
Current Florida driver’s license, automobile registration, automobile insurance
Current voter registration document, State of Florida Identification card
Proof of current government benefits (disability, Medicare, food stamps, Department of Children and Families (DCF) correspondence)

*Each proof must include the name and current address. Post office boxes, private mail box addresses or commercial establishment addresses are not
sufficient.

Social Security Number (Voluntary)

Social Security number, if available. The district shall request each student enrolling in school provide his or her social security number as
required by FL Statute 1008.386. Parent disclosure of their child’s social security number is voluntary.

Physical

If a student has ever been in a Florida Public or Private school (K-12) at any time throughout his/her school career, a new physical
examination is NOT required for entry.

How to enroll a child in school in the USA - Immigrant today

Hello everyone! This is Shushanik, author of the blog “USAdvice.ru. All about the USA. And today, as I promised in yesterday's video, I will talk about registering a child for school. I was once asked this question, but at that time I was not at all familiar with the system for registering children in school. And just recently, my friends came here, and they registered the child in elementary school. And I helped with the design, and I learned the process of how it all happens. So today I will talk about it. I’ll make a reservation right away that, perhaps, this only applies to California. I suspect that the rules are approximately the same everywhere, but each state may have its own laws, that is, somewhere, maybe some additional piece of paper is needed. What I'm going to talk about is specifically about California, the San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley.

The first thing to know is that it is best to enroll your children in school before the start of the school year, because then you can get into the school you belong to. If you watched my video on finding apartments in the USA, then you probably already know that here, unlike the CIS countries, a child can only be sent to the school that your home is assigned to. That is, if you are in a microdistrict or, as they say here, a district, of a particular school, only your child can go there.

Therefore, it often happens here that identical houses, literally located on opposite streets, can cost very different amounts, because if the house belongs to a good district, and there is a good school, then the house will cost much more. Therefore, the children of the owner of this house will go to a good school. And if the house on the opposite side of the street belongs to a bad school, then, accordingly, it will cost much less, because the children will have to go to a bad school.

If you register a child before the school year begins, in my opinion, there until August, if I'm not mistaken, they have a deadline for receiving documents, then you will definitely enroll him in a school that belongs to your home. If it happens in the middle of the school year, as happened in this case, then there may be difficulties. It so happened that the school, to which the house in which this child lives, the parents of the child, was registered, was completely packed. They enrolled him in the fifth grade, and the fifth grade was full, so they had to choose from the three remaining schools in this district that had free places.

In this situation, it was not so important, except that it took longer to transport the child, it takes more time, but all the schools there were approximately the same. In another district, it may turn out that even if you live where there is a good school, it may already be full, and the child will have to go to a bad one. This situation may also arise. Therefore, be prepared for the fact that you may not be in the school you belong to if you enroll your child in the middle of the year.

So let's talk about what it takes to enroll a child in elementary school. The junior school here is from kindergarten, that is, from the age of five, it's like a preparatory class, and up to the fifth, including the fifth grade. In order to enroll a child in a school, you must go to this school, take an admission packet from their office, they will give it to you, and fill it out.

I'll tell you right away what documents are needed so that people know what to bring with them. Naturally, the birth certificate of the child. It needs to be translated into English, but you can do it yourself, they do not require any translator's translations, notarized, at least they did not require anything. You can translate everything yourself. You also need a certificate of vaccinations, exactly the same certificate with which you enroll a child in a school in Ukraine, at least. That is, with the seal of a clinic or a doctor. You can bring exactly the same certificate here, but, again, it must be translated. You can also translate it.

I'll tell you now what vaccinations are needed here. In principle, the same as in Ukraine. There was only one difference. So, 4 vaccinations against polio, in Ukraine it was the same. Diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough - 5 vaccinations, the same. Measles, mumps, rubella - 2 vaccinations. Hepatitis B - 3 vaccinations. And also either a chickenpox vaccine, which is not done in the CIS countries, or proof that the child was sick. That is, if the child had chickenpox, the doctor must write the date when he was ill and sign. They also want a manta to be made within the last six months. But, the fact is that even if you make it in your own country, when you come here, they still want to make it anew. So be prepared for that too.

And the only difference that was in this case is that they here also want a whooping cough shot to give the child at 7 years old when he starts school. In Ukraine, in my opinion, this is not done. They do it there only when the children are small. That is, that was the only difference, although I don’t know, maybe it’s just that in this case the child did not have this vaccine. But he had to be vaccinated, and mantoux.

As an alternative to moving to America, we recommend that you consider immigrating to Canada. It is a calmer country that welcomes new people.

How to arrange a child in an American school? 4 main steps and what needs to be done before them

Immigration with children is a difficult and costly business. But we have good news: America’s unspoken motto “Children are our everything” is perfectly visible in US laws and makes it much easier for parents to move. Almost any necessary resources for raising a child are provided here to everyone, regardless of the status of residence.

One of the most important questions for parents moving to another country is: “How can I get my kids into school?” In this article, we will look at what documents are required for admission, how to look for an educational institution and what facts you should pay attention to when choosing a school.

Content of the article:

What schools are there in the USA?
What language will the child learn?
Getting your child ready for school: 4 easy steps
We entered: what does the child need to take with him to school?
Immigrants' Frequently Asked Questions About American School
And finally - do not be afraid to change your mind

What kind of schools are there in the USA?

The American education system divides the 12-year education into separate schools, which can be either in the same building or be completely independent educational institutions. For example, schools can teach children from 3-4 to 10 years old, and then the child moves to another school, which is already intended for children from 11 years old.

Before choosing an educational institution, you need to find out which one your child is suitable for by age. Below is a table of school types and the corresponding age of the child, as well as payment information.

Types of schools	Age	Payment
Pre-school education Only private kindergartens (Baby Care).	up to 3-4 years old	State fee not covered
Elementary school (elementary school) from kindergarten to grade 5. This includes *PreK* (ages 3-4 to 5-6) and *Kindergarden* (ages 5-6 to 6-7), where the former is optional and the latter is already part of the American educational system and required to visit.	from 3-4 to 10 years old	Free education
Middle school	6th to 8th grade (11-13 years old)	Free education
High school	9th to 12th grade (14-18 years old)	Free education

Once you've figured out which type of school is right for your child, you can start looking for suitable schools. However, there is another important nuance - the language of instruction.

What language will the child study?

Almost every school in the US promises to communicate with you in the language that is convenient for you. Feel free to go to the school administration, they will find a native speaker of your language for you, and you can find out all your questions.

The school administration will definitely ask you how well your child knows English. Remember that adults are not the only ones experiencing immigration stress. A child, entering a new educational institution, meeting new people, is already in a stressful situation. Therefore, parents should consider the existing options for language learning, and based on the nature of the child, choose where he will be more comfortable.

There are two programs in US schools for non-English speakers, ENL and BNL.

ENL - class, where speakers of the same language are assigned, with smooth retraining into English.

BNL - class for children who speak different languages, with a smooth transition to English.

The second one is more common in American schools, for the first one there must be a sufficient number of students who speak the same language. Parents in this case sign a petition for the opening of such a special class. Before filling out the documents, make sure that the required version of the special class is available at the educational institution of your choice.

Getting your child into school: 4 simple steps

How to find the right school? What documents to prepare? What does a child need to study? Let's consider each step in order.

Step #1 - Find a school in your area

How do you know which school to apply to? To do this, there are online services that determine which school you belong to where you live. In America there is a system school zoning. This is not the same as the area of residence. The territory of the state is divided into zones so that schools have an equal girth of children living nearby.

For example, a statewide school search site:

➩ New York: https://schoolzones.us

➩ Florida: https://edudata.fldoe.org

➩ Texas: https://tea. texas.gov

You can use Google search to find your state's online resource. Let me show you an example of how I myself was looking for a school.

1. Enter “ (state) school zoning map ” in the search engine (I was looking for a school in the state of New York, so I wrote NYC).

2. Next, enter your address in the opened service. After that, the map will display the state zones and highlight yours.

There can be one or more schools in the designated area (let me remind you that Elementary, Middle or High are usually separated, but they can all be in one building).

Only one school came out in my zone and it includes education only in PreK and Elementary School. If you have the same situation, and your children are older, you can contact the school in your zone, the administration will give a list of educational institutions in the upper grades of which your children can be enrolled.

Step #2 — We collect documents for admission to school

So, having chosen a school, we prepare documents. You will need:

a copy of the child's birth certificate with a notarized translation,
medical forms completed by a local doctor,
proof of residence.

Birth certificate

A notarized copy can be made in your home country or in the United States.

Personal recommendation : Check translations carefully. In mine, a mistake was made in one letter in the name, which caused unnecessary trouble with the design of a new translation.

Medical form

When you visit the school administration, you will be given a medical form to complete with your pediatrician. The doctors themselves have this form, it is the same for all schools, so you can go to a medical institution even before visiting an educational institution.

Which pediatrician should I go to? In the US, a family doctor is not tied to a place of residence. You can choose any doctor or clinic that suits you. But how to do it if you don't know local doctors?

I listened to the opinion of my friends and relatives, who praised a certain doctor. If there are no acquaintances, you can seek advice from groups on social networks.

Having chosen a doctor based on reviews and recommendations, we do the following:

➩ find out what types of insurance the clinic of the selected doctor works with (we will consider insurance registration below),

➩ call your insurance company and attach the child to this particular doctor. Do not worry about the language - during the call, you will be provided with an interpreter, he will be the third person in touch.

By assigning a doctor by phone, you can immediately go to an appointment, as this is already displayed in the system. And in about a week, a new card will come to the post office (the first one comes when you apply for insurance), which will indicate the name of the selected doctor.

We carry with us all the documentation about children’s vaccinations to the doctor’s appointment:

➩ questionnaires from the polyclinic, where the vaccinations received at home are indicated (in my case, in our polyclinic we were given a separate statement for all vaccinations),

➩ vaccination certificates from private vaccination centers, if available.

However, the above will only be sufficient for clinics where they speak and understand the language in which these extracts and certificates are issued. But a state type medical institution will ask you to provide an international vaccination certificate in English - Immunization record . It is better to do it in advance at home in any private vaccination center, where you will bring all the same extracts and vaccination certificates.

Here, for example, is an international certificate of vaccination, which I made in my homeland at the private vaccination center “Soriz”:

If you have not received such a certificate, but are already in the United States, you have two options:

already from America apply for a certificate to your home country (how it depends on the country you came from),
to identify the child not in a state medical institution, but to find a private clinic where they speak and understand your native language.

Health insurance

In the US, medical services are provided only in two ways - for a fee with a direct visit to the doctor or through insurance. Paying for medicine in America is very expensive, so the vast majority of the country's residents take out insurance.

What is health insurance and what are the ways to get it for adults read here. In this article, we will only consider obtaining insurance for children.

So, for children, insurance is absolutely free, you do not pay monthly premiums. It covers the entire list of medical services necessary for a child, including various specialized specialists (dentist, ophthalmologist, etc.).

Where can I get insurance?

There are two types of coverage for children:

⇒ Medicade: State coverage

If you are self-pursuing public health coverage for children, you must contact your local health department in your state. In New York, for example, this is the New York State Department of Health.

Your child gets Medicaid there, the card comes in the mail. It's statewide child insurance. With it, you can go to see doctors at any public medical institution. But be prepared to schedule an appointment in advance and still sit in line for several hours. And an important fact - many private clinics do not work with this type of insurance .

⇒ Insurance from a private company

The second option is to take out insurance through a private insurance company. The company itself will first of all issue you state insurance, and the Medicaid card will come to you by mail first, and after it the card from the company itself. Save both! Because from the second you will go to the doctors, and on the first there may be accruals from the state. For example, they are issued with low family income, in the event of a pandemic, with financial support from families from the state, etc.

Usually this information comes from the school administration, but you can also search the web for the current benefits and payments to which you are entitled.

Note: Personally, I recommend going to private insurance companies (Fidelis Care, Health First, etc. ), since most pediatricians in private clinics work with this type of insurance.

So, let's summarize the sequence of actions:

preparing vaccination certificates,
arrange insurance for a child,
choosing a doctor,
call the insurance company and approve the chosen doctor,
going to an appointment to receive a medical form.

Step #3 - Confirming the place of residence

After passing the medical examination, to the acquired completed questionnaires and birth certificate, you still need to add only one document - proof of the address of residence . For what? The school must make sure that your child belongs to them in the zone. But visitors, as a rule, have different situations with their place of residence and legality. Let's take a look at the three most popular ones.

If I rent an apartment and am in the US legally?
A so-called bill is required, that is, a bill for any utility bill, which will indicate your name.

If I rent an apartment, but I'm in the US illegally?
So you can't legally rent the space yourself. But the American education system makes it possible to study for free even for those children whose parents are illegally in the United States. If the person you live with can come and confirm that the children live with him, and bring with him any utility bill in his name, then you can count on your child to be accepted for training.

What if I want to send my child to a school outside of our area of residence?
In this case, the school zone should include the address of the person your children live with. Sometimes the newcomers themselves live in a rented room, while the children are left in a large house with relatives or friends. It is in such a situation that the school will consider not the address of the parents' residence, but the nominal place of residence of the children. We need a person who will guarantee that the children live with him. This also applies to people with the situation in the second paragraph.

Step #4 - Getting confirmation from the school

Once you have submitted all the required paperwork, the school is ready to accept your child. I brought my documents on Friday, and I was immediately offered to send the children to classes. Of course, due to the fact that the offer was unexpected, we asked to start studying on Monday.

The exceptions are the ENL special class (where it is necessary to wait for enrollment, we talked about this above) and Kindergarden (as a rule, students are enrolled several months before enrollment, so it is more difficult to place a child in this class).

For information: If your older child is studying (enrolled) in a school, and the younger one needs to go to Kindergarden, where all the places are filled, it is very likely that the younger one will be accepted to the same school. The US education system provides not only for the education of brothers and sisters in the same school, but also in a number of situations, payment discounts.

We entered: what does the child need to bring with him to school?

Is that a knapsack. And a couple of office supplies. As a rule, the necessary books and notebooks are issued by the school itself.

Breakfast and lunch are free of charge. When a child enters school, you indicate your income, and it is usually small for newcomers, as a result, the state helps in this matter.

However, I still collect lunch boxes for my children as they are still getting used to new foods and tastes. They are more comfortable eating what they have with them and what they like.

FAQ: Frequently asked questions by immigrants about the American school.

- How much money should parents in the US spend to get their child into school?
– If all documents are executed in sequence, no payment will be required. However, from our own experience: not being able to get a normal job, we did not wait for the cards from the insurance company to arrive, and gave money for the first appointment with the doctor in order to get medical forms faster and send the children to study. For two children, we paid $160 at the clinic. The insurance cards came a month after the children had already started school.

– Is there a dress code in schools? What form to prepare?
– The vast majority of public schools do not have a dress code. It is present in private schools. And if you enroll your child in a private school, the administration will tell you how and where to get the form, or give it to the child (depending on the educational institution).

- What is the situation with children's meals in schools?
– Children have breakfast and lunch at school. In PreK and Kindergarden they are given to all children without exception. Starting with Elementary School, meals are only given to children whose parents have a low income (you indicate your income when your child enrolls in school on the family income card).

- Is it possible to leave children at school for a full day?
– Schools have the option to leave children after school, the so-called “After school” until 6 pm. She is paid. In our school it costs $600 per month.

- What should I indicate when filling out the questionnaire on family income if none of the parents is currently working?
– The most important thing is to write everything honestly, without embellishing or hiding income. In the United States, there are severe penalties for concealing or deceiving, ranging from fines to imprisonment or deportation. If none of you are currently working, write “0” in the income column.

– What if the parents have to work and the children have holidays at school?
- Public schools have a summer school program called "Summer School" that you need to sign up for in advance through your state's official resources. In New York, this is, for example, https://www.schools.nyc.gov.

If your state does not have access to such a program, there are many private schools that organize summer camps (Summer Camp), where the child can be for several hours or all day.