Students identified for English Learner services are provided priority entrance into Dual Language programs via the lottery process.

Washington State allows incoming kindergarten students with home languages other than English to be screened for eligibility after May 1 prior to their kindergarten year. 

First priority for kindergarten enrollment in the Dual Language program is given to students who live in the Kent School District boundary and who have siblings currently enrolled in the Dual Language program, up to 50 percent of the total enrollment per home language group.

• If the total number of siblings exceeds 50 percent of the enrollment of the class, priority will be given to siblings of students in the K-6 program, and 7-12 students after the K-6 siblings have been placed.
• If the number of applicants with siblings in K-6 at the time of the lottery exceeds fifty percent of the available Kindergarten spaces, an initial sibling lottery of the K-6 group will be conducted.
• If necessary, children with siblings in grades 7-12 will participate in an initial sibling lottery for any available spaces to bring the sibling total to 50 percent of the kindergarten enrollment.
• Those children with siblings in the program who are not guaranteed admission as a sibling will then be included in the lottery.

Next priority for Kindergarten enrollment in the Dual Language Program will be given to students living within the boundaries of Kent (KE), Neely-O’Brien (NO), and Scenic Hill (SH) elementary schools.

Moving Outside the DL School Boundaries

A student who moves outside of the KE, NO, or SH boundaries but is still within the KSD boundary while on the waitlist will then be moved to the bottom of the in-district waitlist.

Moving Outside the KSD Boundary

A student who moves outside of the KSD boundary while on the waitlist will then be moved to the bottom of the out-of-district waitlist.

Priority is next given to students who live in the Kent School District boundary and who do not have siblings in the Dual Language program.

Out-of-district children of District employees will be allowed to participate in the lottery on the same basis as students living within the KSD boundary.

All KSD students who do not live in a Dual Language program attendance area will be placed in one lottery.

• The first student drawn will be given the first choice of the spaces open at the various locations of the Dual Language programs.
• The second student drawn will be the second choice and so on until all spaces are filled or the entire list of in-district students for the Dual Language program has been exhausted.

To be eligible to register as an in-district student for the Kindergarten lottery, a child must be residing within the Kent School District boundaries at the time of the lottery application and throughout the lottery application process. If selected through the lottery, a child must continue to live within the Kent School District boundaries through the end of kindergarten.

Moving Outside the KSD Boundary

A student who moves outside of the KSD boundary while on the waitlist will then be moved to the bottom of the out-of-district waitlist. 

Students who do not live within the Kent School District (KSD) boundary will be placed on the out of district waitlist by home language. They will be selected by a lottery system after all students from the in-district waitlist have been placed in the program.

Out-of-district students with siblings in the program will be placed at the top of the out of district wait list.

Moving into the DL School Boundaries

A student who moves into the school boundaries of a Dual Language elementary school (Kent, Neely-Obrien, and Scenic Hill) will then be moved to the bottom of the waitlist for the school.

Moving into the KSD Boundary

A student who moves into the KSD boundary while on the waitlist will then be moved to the bottom of the in-district waitlist.