Kent School District (KSD) participates in a Native American/Alaska Native Education Program funded by Federal Title VI Grant monies based on Native American student counts and administered through Student Services.

The program is designed to assist Native American students to meet district and state academic standards. Our goal is for each native student to graduate high school and continue their education in post-secondary opportunities.

The Native American Education Program is mandated by Title VI (Part A) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

The intent of this law is to provide financial assistance to school districts for the development and implementation of programs specifically designed to meet the culturally related academic needs of Native American and Alaska Native students.

KSD offers resources for native students and families to create a strong sense of community. By building a stronger circle, we strengthen our society. In traditional communities, young people have always come to know, to experience, and to lay claim to their tribal heritage, allowing individuals to define themselves in terms of their collective cultural identity.

• Advocacy for Native students and their families at the school and district levels.

• Information on college and career workshops and events to support the district mission of preparing all students for their futures.

• Scholarship and financial aid information for secondary students.

• Cultural enrichment opportunities.

• Family culture nights.

• Parent Advisory Committee Meetings.

• Speakers and presenters from the Native community

• Cultural field trips and events with an emphasis on secondary learners and college readiness.

Students may be eligible to participate in the Native American/Alaska Native Education Program if they are registered on a Title VI ED 506 Indian Student Eligibility Certification Form (PDF). It is not required that a student be enrolled in a federally recognized tribe if the parents or grandparents of the students are enrolled. There is no blood quantum required to enroll and participate in the program. This form only needs to be completed once for a student’s entire time in Kent School District.

From the rivers and lakes to the bays and sea we acknowledge that this land, and its waters are the traditional territory of the Coast Salish people and recognize that we are guests on the land we make our lives and our homes. We raise our hands to give thanks to the ancestors and current Indigenous people of the Seattle area, King County and Washington State. We specifically acknowledge the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, who have historically lived from the Cascade Mountains to the Salish Sea – “Puget Sound”.

Land acknowledgements are to pay respect to the Indigenous people who have inhabited the Americas since at least the time of the last Ice Age, some 20-30,000 years ago. If you ask many Native elders past and present, they will say Indigenous people have always been here, “Since Time Immemorial”. Natives have often considered ourselves stewards of the land; the caretakers of the Earth, rather than the colonial concept of being land "owners".  We belong to the Earth, not the reverse. The relationship between Indigenous people and the Americas is millenniums old, and that is what we recognize with our land acknowledgement.