Enroll

Admissions Criteria

Boreal Sun Charter School (BSCS) is a free charter school of choice, and will not discriminate against students for any reason in its education programs or activities, including its admissions policies, or procedures as defined in FNSBSD Policy 1011.

Boreal Sun welcomes students whose families are willing to make a commitment to follow the expectations outlined on our Family Commitments Form, which is part of the Orientation Verification.

Kindergarten applicants must be 5 years old on or before September 1st of the school year.

Admissions Procedures:

Step 1 - Attend an Orientation Day (final opportunity is April 7, 2025) and fill out an Orientation Verification. Lottery applications will be denied if we do not have an Orientation Verification on file.

*In the event that attending an Orientation Day is not possible, for example, in the case of a military or other family preparing to move into the area, a proxy may attend in place of a parent or guardian.  Please call or email the school in advance to establish this proxy.

Step 2 - Fill out an Application for Admission by April 10th on the school district’s Central Application Portal (CAP), https://lottery.k12northstar.org/.

Selection Process

All students living within the Fairbanks North Star Borough are eligible and encouraged to apply to BSCS. In the event that the number of applicants received exceeds the number of class spaces available, a lottery will be held to determine placement.

Lottery

If the number of applicants exceeds the school’s capacity, enrollment shall be determined by a lottery through the school district’s Centralized Application Portal (CAP).  Students not placed through the lottery will be put on a waitlist for openings that become available in their grade.  The lottery application window is February 10, 2025 through April 10, 2025 at 3pm. 

If a family participates in the lottery and is not offered placement during one school year, but remains interested in enrollment for the next school year, a new application must be completed the following Spring. Waitlists do not carry over from year to year. Families must attend an Orientation each year, regardless if they have previously attended one. 

Enrollment Preferences

The following shall be given preference for admission to the school in the event a lottery becomes necessary:

-Children of staff of the school

-Siblings of students currently enrolled in the school - Siblings are defined as any two or more students who share a legal parent/guardian.  If a class is already full, siblings will move to the top of the waitlist for that class.

-Children whose family lives within the defined neighborhood of Boreal Sun Charter School

Neighborhood Preference

Enrollment preference allows neighborhood families to be offered placement before the general lottery applicants are drawn. If there are no openings in the neighborhood child’s grade level, the child will be placed on the waitlist before general lottery children.

The neighborhood defined for neighborhood preference is the residences within Lathrop St. to the West; 21st Ave. to the North; S. Cushman to East, and the Mitchell Expressway/Richardson Highway to the South.

Enrollment Policy - Withdrawals

If a family chooses to withdraw a child from BSCS, that child will no longer have sibling school priority for enrollment should the family want to re-enroll the student in the future.  Removing the priority enrollment status for a child who has been withdrawn does not disallow their inclusion in the lottery and potential reenrollment, it simply removes the priority status. The child could still be re-admitted through the regular lottery process. 

 Kindergarten Retention and Enrollment Policy

In the fall of each year the Kindergarten teacher will meet with the Kindergarten parents to go over 1st grade readiness. This will include 1st grade readiness skills that the teachers will be looking for in students over the course of the Kindergarten year.  The Waldorf-inspired approach looks at students as individuals who are on their own developmental schedule.  As such, both academic skills and student readiness are considered when recommending promotion from Kindergarten to 1^st grade.

If a recommendation for retention is made by the Kindergarten teacher for a child  at the spring parent/teacher conference, the school will hold a spot for that child in both Kindergarten and First grade for the following school year, allowing for re-evaluation of the child in late July if needed. In most situations the school will honor the parents’ decision for placement. Final decision for grade placement, however, will be the Principal’s.