Board of Education Approves Lowell High School Admissions Change for Incoming Class of Fall 2021

San Francisco (October 21, 2020) - The San Francisco Board of Education approved a change to the admissions criteria of Lowell High School for one year (school year 2021-22). The one-year admissions change is a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of existing criteria used in previous years to admit students.

In recent years the SFUSD used grade point average and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) scores from a student’s 7th grade and the first semester of 8th grade to determine admission offers to Lowell High School (Board Policy 5120.1). Due to changes made in response to the pandemic last spring, neither of these data are available for this year’s applicants therefore the District is unable to implement the previous Lowell High School Admissions policy for the 2021-22 school year.

For the 2021-2022 school year students who live in San Francisco and wish to apply to Lowell High School will submit the same application form used for SFUSD’s comprehensive high schools. Students may list as many high schools as they like and will be assigned to their highest ranked request as long as there is space at the school. If there are more students applying than there are openings at a school, choice assignments will be made by looking at a series of tiebreakers. Unlike elementary schools, comprehensive high schools do not have an attendance area, meaning all high schools are city-wide schools.

Families of children starting high school next year (along with all families planning to enroll students in prekindergarten, kindergarten or middle school) are encouraged to attend the SFUSD PreK-12 Virtual Enrollment Fair from November 6-13, 2020. Families can talk to principals and school staff, learn how to apply, watch videos about each school, as well as attend workshops to learn about the enrollment process, special education services, and more.

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