PLACEMENT FACTORS
A number of factors determine the school or educational program in the district where the student will be placed. These include:
School Attendance Area Enrolment
School attendance areas have been established for each school to enable the equitable distribution of students throughout the district and to have sufficient enrolment at each grade level. Student enrolment projections for each school are based on the number of students residing in the school attendance area.
School Operating Capacity
A maximum operating capacity has been established for each school in the district. Operational capacity is a determination of the number of students the school can accommodate based on available space and facilities, staff allocation and required resources. The operational capacity of the school determines the number of students that can be placed at the school.
Date of Admission Request
In order for schools to organize and operate effectively, timelines are established for student registration and placement requests. Priority will be given to application registrations received during the month of February. After that period, applicants will be placed on a waiting list.
Placement Priorities
- Siblings of continuing students in the school, including those in or accepted to district programs, whose residence falls outside the school’s attendance area
- Students who are registered in and attending before and/or after-school childcare at a licensed childcare facility within an elementary school’s attendance area
- Grade 7 students, who attended an elementary school in their attendance area, which straddles the attendance area of TWO secondary schools, will be given priority for grade 8 enrolment in one of those two secondary schools
- Students not included in 3 above whose residence falls within the attendance areas of other Burnaby schools (cross-district transfers)
- Students whose residence falls outside the Burnaby School District (out-of-district transfers)
In the event of more applicants than program spaces available, applications received within the district’s established registration timelines will be grouped by priority category. Within these categories a lottery method will then be used to determine the order of applicants. See policy 5.05 (section A 5.4) for full details.
Applications received after the district deadlines will be prioritized by application date. Sibling applications that do not meet the district deadlines will be placed after existing on-time sibling applications on the waitlist.