New for SY 2025-26: Waitlists for School Enrollment Link to this section
For the 2025-26 school year, SFUSD is using waitlists to manage school enrollment after the Main Round of student assignment. The process will be ongoing rather than staged into multiple "rounds" like in the past.
- Applicants only need to apply once, by January 31, 2025. Once school assignments for on-time applicants are shared in March 2025, applicants who did not receive their top choice school will get automatically placed onto waitlists for their top choice schools, up to 5 schools, without having to re-apply.
- Late applicants, who missed the deadline, can submit waitlist applications to join the same process. While they are waiting, they will be assigned to a school that has space and will learn about that assignment in April.
- Rolling waitlist notifications will begin in April, so that applicants can enroll as soon as seats become available.
Learn more about Waitlist applications
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How do Main Round applicants get onto waitlists?
All students who apply by the Main Round application deadline receive their Main Round school assignment in the middle of March. Main Round applicants cannot edit their choices, or submit a new Waitlist application, until the Main Round school assignments have been received. See the enrollment key dates for specific deadlines.
Applicants who do not get assigned to their top choice school during the Main Round will be automatically placed onto waitlists for their top choice schools, up to 5 schools, without having to re-apply. For example, if a student is assigned their #3 choice school in the Main Round, they will be placed on the waitlist for their #1 and #2 choice schools. If a student is assigned their #8 choice school in the Main Round, they will be placed on the waitlist for their top 5 school choices.
Main Round applicants do not need to take any action to join waitlists, but they will be able to remove themselves from waitlists if they wish to do so. Each student's assignment letter will contain any relevant information about their waitlist status at that time.
(Note that each school and program has a separate waitlist, and each one counts as 1 of the 5 waitlist choices allowed for each student. E.g. being on the waitlist for (i) School A - General Education and for (ii) School A - Spanish Immersion counts as being on 2 waitlists.)
How do late applicants get onto waitlists?
After the Main Round application deadline, new applicants can submit the Waitlist application to join up to 5 schools' waitlists. The Waitlist application will be open immediately following the Main Round deadline, and will remain open until the Waitlist application deadline in early August. See the enrollment key dates for specific deadlines.
To submit the Waitlist application online or in-person, review the options and follow the instructions available at sfusd.edu/apply.
How to join additional waitlists, or change the order of existing choices
To add a student to additional waitlists, submit a new application online or in-person with the full updated list of choices. New applications will overwrite previous choice lists. For more instructions about submitting an application, go to sfusd.edu/apply.
When an applicant changes their preference order of existing waitlist choices, the student's position on each waitlist is preserved. E.g. if a student is #1 on the waitlist for their 3rd-choice school, and the family re-orders their choice list to move that school to their top-choice, the student will remain #1 on that school's waitlist.
When an applicant joins additional waitlists, they join the bottom of that list, behind other applicants who applied earlier. Find more information about this in the Waitlist Order section.
Changes to waitlist requests are processed overnight. Check back the following morning after making a change to confirm it updated as you expected.
How to remove a student from waitlists
To remove a student from waitlists (i.e. to cancel waitlist requests), there are two options:
- Resubmit a waitlist application online or in-person. To remove a student from one or some of their waitlist schools, but not all, resubmit the waitlist application with select schools removed. The newest application will overwrite the previous choice list.
- Edit the Waitlist Status information within the "Student Info" section of ParentVUE. Find the "Accept / Decline Waitlists" button at the top of the screen. Then select "Cancel" for any schools you wish to remove, and click "Save Changes" at the top of the screen.
Changes to waitlist requests are processed overnight. Check back the following morning after making a change to confirm it updated as you expected.
How many different waitlists can each student be on?
Each student can be on a maximum of 5 waitlists.
Each waitlist is specific to a school, grade, and program. If a student is applying to multiple programs at the same school, they will be on a different waitlist for each of their program choices. E.g. being on the waitlist for (i) School A - General Education and for (ii) School A - Spanish Immersion counts as being on 2 separate waitlists.
How can Interdistrict applicants (who don't live in SF) participate in Waitlists?
Interdistrict applicants should submit the Main Round application by the Main Round application deadline, and submit their Interdistrict permit to their home district in time to comply with SFUSD's annual IDT permit deadline (see key dates). Interdistrict students can only be assigned if an approved permit is received from their district of residence.
Interdistrict applicants who apply and submit their interdistrict permit on time may receive a school assignment in March, along with SF residents.
Interdistrict applicants can also participate in the waitlist process, regardless of when they submit their application and permit. As more SF residents join waitlists, they will go ahead of interdistrict applicants on the same waitlists. Each time this happens, interdistrict applicants may see their position number increase, meaning there are more students between them and the front of the line.
Learn more about how students are ordered on waitlists
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How is a student's waitlist order determined?
For all those who applied by January 31, the waitlist order will be determined based on lottery results from the Main Round, including tiebreakers and random numbers. After the waitlist order is determined, new tiebreaker information (for example, if a family were to move into a neighborhood that receives preference for a given school) will not change waitlist standing with one exception: siblings. If one sibling is admitted to a school, that will change the other sibling’s waitlist spot.
Families who join the waitlist after the Main Round application deadline will be added to the bottom of the waitlist for their choices, after all on-time applicants. For these applicants, the Sibling tiebreaker will still be taken into account, to move them ahead of non-sibling applicants who joined the waitlist after the Main Round application deadline. It will not move these late Sibling applicants ahead of anyone who applied before the Main Round deadline.
Is there an Appeals process to request a special tiebreaker for waitlists?
Families who cannot attend their assigned school due to unique hardships such as medical or family situations will be able to request an Appeal for one school. Appeals are considered only for cases where the student’s needs cannot be met at the assigned school, and can be met at a different specific school placement. An independent appeals committee reviews appeal requests and determines whether to approve or deny each request. Decisions made by the appeals committee are final, and cannot be further appealed. Details and dates for the appeals submission will be shared at the time of Main Round school assignments.
Is it possible for a student's position on a waitlist to go up or down?
Yes, in some cases, applicants get moved to the top of the waitlist based on a correction, an approved Appeal, or a new sibling placement. In these cases, the other students on the same waitlist will see their position number increase, meaning there are more applicants between them and the front of the line.
Learn more about how students track their position and get into schools from waitlists
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How can families see their Waitlist choices and students' position on lists?
Beginning in late March, Waitlist status information will be updated nightly and viewable in ParentVUE, in the "Student Info" section. After submitting a new Waitlist application or revising Waitlist choices, families should be able to see their updated choices in the "Student Info" section by the following morning.
The Waitlist Status section includes a list of each student's requested Schools and Programs.
Column titled "Status or Position on Waitlist":
- Number: "1" means the student is at the top of the waitlist. "10" means they are 10th on the waitlist. Etc.
- "Pending Update": the Enrollment Center is still processing your student's application and preparing to add them to the Waitlist. Thank you for your patience.
- "Current Offer": your student has a current offer to transfer into that school and program which requires your response. When this happens, click the "Accept / Decline Waitlist" button at the top of the page.
How will families be notified when their student can get into a requested school?
The Enrollment Center will contact families when their student has a current Waitlist offer, by email, text, and automated phone call. The Enrollment Center expects to send out a new batch of Waitlist offers every few weeks between late April and the end of August.
Once the Enrollment Center has sent out communication, the family needs to respond, to Accept or Decline, within the stated deadline in the Enrollment Center's communication.
Contact information should be kept up-to-date in SFUSD's system. Please notify the Enrollment Center if you change phone numbers or email addresses, to ensure you are able to receive communications from us.
Do families have a chance to decide whether to Accept or Decline their Waitlist offers?
Yes, families will have the option to accept or decline the offer to transfer to their waitlist school. They will be able to Accept or Decline in ParentVUE, or by emailing or calling the Enrollment Center. If a family declines their waitlist offer, any previous school assignment will be preserved. If a family accepts their waitlist offer, it will replace their previous assignment.
What is the deadline to respond to a new Waitlist offer?
Families will typically have one work week to respond to a new Waitlist offer. When a new offer is communicated to a family, it will include detailed instructions about how to respond, and about the response deadline.
If a family does not reply by the deadline, their offer will expire. They will no longer have a guaranteed option to transfer into that school. Their other choices will not be impacted, i.e. they will be preserved.
ParentVUE is not accessible outside the United States, so in order to accept or decline a waitlist assignment while outside of the country, families should email or call the Enrollment Center.
When a student receives one Waitlist offer, how are other choices impacted?
Once a family receives an offer for one of their requested schools (for example #2), they will continue to remain on the waitlist for all of their other choices initially. However, SFUSD will remove the student from some waitlists, depending on the situation and depending on how the family responds during the Accept/Decline process.
After the family Accepts or Declines their Waitlist offer, by default:
Higher-ranked choices will be kept (the student will remain on those waitlists)
Lower-ranked choices will be canceled (the student will be removed from those waitlists)
E.g. if a student receives an offer for their #3 choice school,
The student will remain on the waitlists for their #1 choice school and #2 choice school
The student will be removed from the waitlists for their #4 choice school and #5 choice school
As part of the Accept / Decline form, the family can indicate if they wish to change those default setting. E.g. they can choose to cancel all other waitlist choices, including #1 and #2; or they can choose to keep all other waitlist choices, including #4 and #5.
If a family does not respond to their Waitlist offer before the response deadline, all of their other Waitlist choices will be preserved.
This page was last updated on January 31, 2025