School Registration

Before you enroll your child, explore the available options that may suit your child’s needs. Vancouver School Board (VSB) offers a wide variety of education choices for students. There are schools and programs such as Montessori, French Immersion, Mandarin Bilingual, mini-schools, fine and performing arts programs, sports academies, career programs, gifted education, and an outdoor program, to name just a few options.

Determine your child’s educational needs and objectives

How do you decide which school is right for your child? It’s up to you. Only you know what is most important to your family. For your child, a school close to home may be the best option; for another child, a school with a specific academic focus in another area of the city may be a better fit. To discover this, you and your family should:

• Consider your child’s special talents, strengths and requirements. VSB offers a variety of programs that appeal to students' interests and talents.
• Ask, “What does he or she need to succeed?” It is the responsibility of all of us – parents, teachers, community members, and students –  to work together to help every child succeed.

Become familiar with your neighborhood school

Every child residing in Vancouver has a VSB neighborhood school. Each neighborhood school has an attendance boundary. Generally, all students who live within the catchment area may attend the school. To identify your neighborhood school, visit the school locator website.

• Visit the school to meet with the school principal and staff. Families who explore their education options at VSB may find that their neighborhood school is the best choice – or that another neighborhood school has an interesting program open to students citywide.
• Get feedback from other parents, family, and friends.

Identify your top choices

You may also want to consider other schools based on your child’s needs and objectives.  Use this search to find a school by postal code, school name, grade level, or programs offered

• Learn about the options beyond your neighborhood school by visiting the Schools section.
• Attend open house events. Many Vancouver public schools hold open houses for prospective parents and students in the fall and winter.
• Evaluate and narrow your list of choices.      

As a Vancouver resident, you have many choices about which school your child attends. VSB offers a variety of programs that appeal to students' interests and talents.

Every student who resides in Vancouver has a VSB neighbourhood school corresponding to catchment boundary. Students living within the catchment must still apply to attend their neighbourhood school.

However, students also have the option of applying cross boundary to a school outside their catchment area. The VSB enrolment policy allows a school to accept to a school outside the neighborhood when space, resources and an appropriate program is available.

The table below will guide you through the process based on your choices.

Understand and complete the application process

All children, including those with disabilities, are eligible to apply to all VSB schools and programs. Acceptance to some schools and programs of choice depends on a number of factors including academic achievement, and/or selection by lottery.

The criteria with which students are accepted into choice schools and programs vary. The most commonly used are:

Random Lottery

When a school or program receives more applications than space available, a draw will be held to randomly select the students who are accepted, regardless of academic achievement or other factors. This way, all students have an equal chance to be accepted. A student who has a sibling that will continue to attend the school or program the following school year will be given priority consideration as long as they submit their application prior to the last business day in January.

Academic Achievement, Test Scores and Other Factors

Programs such as mini schools may require testing and/or use test scores, attendance records, performance auditions, recommendations, and other factors to determine who is accepted.

Now that you have chosen a school for your child(ren), you will need to present specific information and documents to register.

When to register

There is no deadline to register for your neighbourhood school for the current school year, however, you are encouraged to register early. Students who cannot be accommodated at their neighbourhood school will be placed on the school's waitlist. Waitlisted students, in the interim, will be place at a neighbouring school that has the space, resources and staff to accommodate them.

The Vancouver School Board is implementing new registration procedures for the 2010-11 school year. Applications for all Kindergarten programs (including regular English, French Immersion, Montessori and Fine Arts) for the 2010-11 school year will be received between Nov. 1, 2009 and Jan. 31, 2010.

If, at January 31, there were more applicants received than space available in any program or school, a lottery will be held to select the students who are accepted.  Students not selected from the draw will be added to a waitlist maintained by the school.

All families who submit a Kindergarten application prior to January 31, 2010 will be given notification of the school their child will be attending by March 31, 2010.  This includes waitlisted students who were unable to secure a spot during the lottery process.

Applications received after January 31 will not be considered until all in-catchment students who submitted an application prior to January 31 have been placed.  Late applicants, including siblings of in-catchment students already enrolled in the school, will be added to the end of the school’s waitlist.  Late in-catchment sibling applicants will have priority consideration over other late in-catchment applicants.

This new process will replace the previous first-come, first-served procedure and eliminates the need for families to arrive early on the first day of registration.  

A family can register their child(ren) for Kindergarten if the student will reach the age of five years on or before December 31 of the calendar year.  For the 2010-11 school year the child must be born in 2005.

Cross-boundary applications for a school other than their neighbourhood school will be accepted from February 1, 2010 through March 1, 2010.

Where to register

During the school year, most students will be able to submit their application to their neighbourhood school or school of choice, however, some students will be required to register first at the District Reception and Placement Centre (DRPC). Review the following scenarios to identify where to go to register your child.

• Kindergarten students who were born in Vancouver, regardless of language spoken at home, must register with a parent or legal guardian at their chosen school;
• Kindergarten-Grade 12 students who were born in Canada, and who speak English as their first language, must register with a parent or legal guardian at their chosen school;
• Kindergarten-Grade 12 students who were born in Canada, and who DO NOT speak English as their first language, must register with a parent or legal guardian at DRPC;
• Kindergarten-Grade 12 students born outside Canada, regardless of language spoken at home, must register with a parent or legal guardian at DRPC.

During July and August, when schools are closed, all students must register at District Reception and Placement Centre.

VSB's DRPC is located at 2530 East 43rd Street, Vancouver.

Review your registration checklist

Prior to visiting the school to register your child, please collect and review all the necessary information you will be required to present.  The records are needed to ensure the child’s application is complete and, most importantly, to ensure the school has the basic information it needs to maximize the health and security of the child. 

Please bring the following original documents, with an English translation if the original document is not in English:

• Completed BCeSIS registration form (available at each school)
• Proof of residence in Vancouver:
  • Home owners - recent property tax statement or purchase agreement; or
  • Tenants - a formal rental or lease agreement; or
  • Parent Declaration of Residence form (available at the District Reception and Placement Centre.
• Child’s birth certificate (ideally showing parents’ name/s)
• Immigration documents, Canadian Citizenship documents or Aboriginal status identification for parents and child(ren)
• Immunization records (if available) and other important health information (e.g. medical alerts)
• Child’s previous report cards (two years, if applicable)
• Any other relevant documentation involving guardianship, court orders, etc.

For more information, please see Frequently Asked Questions