Students applying to the Montessori Program go through a formal application process, beginning with parents’ information nights in February each year. At that time parents have the opportunity to see presentations by the staff describing the program and the admission process, meet teachers and principals and tour classrooms. Attendance at one of these Montessori information nights is highly recommended for parents who wish to submit an application to enroll their child in the program. Criteria for admission include a contractual promise from parents to provide a minimum of four hours of volunteer service to the program each month (six hours if two children are in the program).

The following steps will be followed when placing students in the Montessori Program:

1. The total number of openings for the following year is determined.
2. Siblings of currently enrolled Montessori students are placed first.
3. Remaining applicants are separated into two groups, Montessori experienced applicants and non-Montessori experienced applicants. (Note: Experienced applicants are those with one complete or more school years of Montessori classroom experience either public or private).
4. To determine the make-up of experienced and non-experienced students filling the remaining open positions, the total number of openings, after siblings have been placed, is divided by the total number of applicants. As an example, after placing the siblings there remains 12 openings with 21 experienced applicants and 15 non-experienced applicants creating a ratio of 12/36 or 33%. Applying the 33% factor to the two separate application groups (experienced (21) and non-experienced (15)) results in 7 of the experienced applicants and 5 of the non-experienced applicants being selected for the 12 remaining openings.
5. A committee of district employees including but not limited to Montessori teaching staff, building administrator and central office staff will determine which students from the two applicant pools should fill the openings by utilizing a lottery. Dealing with each of the applicant pools separately, the previously determined number of students from both the experienced and non-experienced applicant pools will be selected.
6. Upon completion of the selection process the Montessori Program Teacher Referral form is sent to the teachers of the selected applicants for collection of data to assist in appropriate placement of the student in the program and/or for use as a conference tool with parents of the selected student.