photo credit: wwworks

If you are planning on registering your child/children for the 2008-09 school year in one of the CPS schools on the northwest side of Chicago (north of Belmont Ave., west of Kedzie St.), please be aware that these schools are all near, at, or even, over capacity. Due to their impressive academic credentials, most of these schools are very popular among parents with school-aged children, so the sooner you register, the better your school of choice can plan ahead, in terms of room/space requirements. When I write “your school of choice”, of course, I am assuming that you are not yet residing within the attendance boundaries of any of the schools on Chicago’s northwest side, so your school of choice is really limited to your choice of your residence’s location. I am going to tell you in a minute which documents are required to prove to the school that you reside within the school’s attendance boundary.

I am not going to cover Edison Gifted Center in Edison Park, because (a) Edison Park is not located in 60646 , (b) Edison Gifted Center will be moved to Albany Park in the next school year, and (c) admission to Edison Gifted occurs via testing/lottery anyway. I urge all parents who are contemplating sending their children to Edison Gifted Center to contact CPS or the school directly, in order to inquire about the testing date.

On their website, CPS suggest that the dates for preschool and kindergarten pre-registration shall be April 14 through April 18, 2008. I happen to know for a fact that the date for kindergarten registration at Wildwood Elementary begins right after the conclusion of spring break, on March 24, 2008. The enrollment deadline for new students is typically the date when the current school year ends, so for the next school year I’m assuming it’s June 13, 2008.

By the way, to find out which school attendance area your residence falls into, please navigate over to CPS’s “School Locator Page”, and type in your address.

Which documents must you show at registration to prove that you reside within a certain attendance area? Typically, parents are asked to produce the following:

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All children residing within a school’s attendance area who have attained the age of 5 on or before September 1 are eligible for kindergarten enrollment.
The map below shows information about CPS schools in 60646.

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Map courtesy: Google Maps

Addendum: I received an email from the PR agency of a new charter school in Chicago that is set to open its doors this fall. It’s called the “Renaissance 2010 School”, a math and sciences academy for 6th, 7th and 9th graders. The school is created as a partnership between Perspectives Charter Schools and the Illinois Institute of Technology, and the email goes on to say that this school will be the first Chicago charter school to offer a four-year Chinese language program. I am simply offering this information as a courtesy which does not mean that I am endorsing this school in any shape or form. Please research the information about this school independently. I’ll be happy to provide you with the information of the PR agency’s spokesperson that sent me the email, should you be interested in enrolling your child/children at Renaissance 2010 School.

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