Seattle Public Schools proposes enrollment policy changes; district aims to ease waitlist issues and expand access to specialized programs for deaf students' families

May 19, 2025 (Seattle Times) –

May 19—Seattle children of deaf parents will be able to enroll automatically at a school that offers a program for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. The Seattle district will also examine schools with long waitlists to determine whether to allow more students into those schools for the fall.

These are two of the short-term measures Seattle Public Schools is proposing amid pressure from parents to whittle the number of students waiting to get into schools other than the ones to which they are assigned.

SPS officials acknowledged during a presentation to the School Board last week that the current system was not working for all families nor was it aligned with the district's goals focused on boosting second-grade literacy, sixth-grade math and college-and-career readiness. Its student-assignment plan, which determines which school a student attends, is about 15 years old. They refrained from proposing permanent solutions, though they offered possibilities to consider this summer or early fall.

The district got about 4,100 applications this year from parents who want to send their children to an option school or another neighborhood school. Generally, about 10 percent of families participate in the choice program.

SPS is wrestling with how much to boost the percentage of students who get into their first-choice schools and, if it lifts the lid, how the change will reverberate across the system.

Fred Podesta , the district's chief operations officer, said at Wednesday's presentation that before making long-term changes, he wants to hear from the 90 percent of parents who choose the schools they're assigned. They'll also be affected by whatever changes the district makes to the waitlist, he said. Families who use the school-choice system have made it "loud and clear" that it's not working for them, he said.

Responses could include pushing the open enrollment period to earlier in the school year, examining how and when the district assigns staff to schools and rethinking how SPS staffs smaller schools. All of these possibilities would affect the budget. Right now, the district estimates fall enrollment each February, and the staff is allocated based on the projections. Both happen before the choice process ends.

SPS also must determine whether it will still be able to follow its current policy, which guarantees every child a seat at their neighborhood school.

Transportation will also be a big consideration. If the district offers choice but parents can't get from one part of the city to another, is that really choice? asked Marni Campbell , the district's Well-Resourced Schools officer.

"We have to have infrastructure in order for choice to be truly equitable," Campbell said.

Board Director Sarah Clark said Thursday that she appreciated that the district's staff met with parents. Even with the district up against the clock — with only a few weeks left in the school year and already past a May 15 deadline to inform employees whether their contracts will be renewed — she was hoping for more immediate options.

Clark added she was encouraged by the district's willingness to explore the root cause of the issue.

"Obviously there is a bigger systemic issue that's causing staff to have to make decisions about trying to balance enrollment at neighborhood schools and option schools and doing whatever they can to try to keep small schools staffed in ways that meet students' needs," Clark said.

Parents in the deaf and hard-of-hearing community had asked the district to permit students from families with a member who is deaf or hard of hearing to attend TOPS K-8 without going through the choice process.

The district will now do so for the children of deaf adults, but it's still exploring whether that will also apply to the siblings of deaf children, said Dr. Ricardo Torres-Morales , the associate superintendent of student supports.

The move is part of a larger effort to respond to complaints from the community about lapses in services and accommodations at SPS.

The district formally apologized last week for the lack of American Sign Language interpreters at recent School Board meetings and apologized again at Wednesday's meeting, when an interpreter was available. Some deaf and hard-of-hearing parents and advocates who spoke at Wednesday's meeting said they wanted more than an apology. They want the district to address broader concerns about accommodation and safety.

Tobias Cullins , an SPS parent and a certified American Sign Language interpreter, said the district was failing the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. In his time at SPS, he's seen the leadership make "mistake after mistake" in providing accessibility and disability accommodations for those communities, he said. He said many of those errors are easy to fix, and suggested that SPS hire a disability and accessibility accommodations specialist to coordinate services districtwide.

Torres-Morales has started meeting with parents. A group of employees from several departments — including civil rights, special education, and enrollment — is looking at the broader concerns.

He said he understood the community's skepticism at the district's apology and promises to do better.

"In order for us to rebuild that trust, we are going to have to start doing those things with the community," Torres-Morales said. "It's not going to happen overnight."

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