Welcome to DMPS Welcome Center and school registration, COVID-19 style!
Like everything else during the oil and water merger of pandemics and academics, it’s different.
“So far, so good,” since the annual student enrollment census launched on July 13, according to DMPS Enrollment Supervisor Eleanor Shirley.
That’s the spirit!
“This year families have the option to enroll in the district remotely,” Shirley said. “Families send us their docs by scanning and uploading or sending us pictures so we can complete the process with them. We still allow families to come in to do enrollment. When they do they must wear a face mask. Since we can get long lines and big crowds, we are asking families to check in, provide the necessary documentation, give us their cell number and then wait outside for the registration staff to call them in. The registration staff disinfects the parent area between each family.”
The most critical difference for all families this year, whether they’re new to the district or not and regardless of grade level, is the requirement to declare a preference between two instructional models:
- 100% Virtual, in which all classes are held online during the first semester; or
- Hybrid, which combines online learning with 1-2 days per week in school.
More information about the Return to Learn plan is available on the DMPS web site.
As of Thursday, just under 30% of those who have registered have selected the all-virtual option. Shirley noted: “As for those coming in through the Welcome Center, no one has selected 100% virtual yet. The overwhelming majority of our families enroll remotely. We have had only a handful of families come to the Welcome Center to enroll so far whereas hundreds have done the remote option.”
Complicated as everything is by the ongoing public health crisis that curtailed the end of the 2019-20 school year and is now disrupting 2020-21, at least there are online alternatives to what was strictly an in-person pen & paper process until 2015.
“Several years ago we switched to online registration so that annual information updates could be done on the computer rather than with pen/paper,” Shirley said. “Since then, returning families have been able to remotely do their annual update from any device that has internet access. Some still struggled with that process so buildings usually had registration nights where families could do the computer process with staff helping them through it. This year, those nights will not happen.”
For planning purposes, it’s critical that all families complete their registration this year no later than July 31. In order to prepare for the start of what could be an even more unusual school year than the last, the district needs to determine respective enrollment levels in the virtual and hybrid models ASAP.
“Usually the Welcome Center has long lines of families new to the district from mid-July through the end of August who need to enroll,” said Shirley. “This year those lines are a lengthy email list. Staff is calling and emailing to get all the information we need. Of those who are new to DMPS, we have had only six come to the facility. Hundreds have chosen to complete this all remotely.”
So, rather than waiting to receive and process families personally, Welcome Center staff are also meeting meeting them halfway, virtually. If more impersonal, it’s no less welcoming – or vital.
Click here for more information about 2020-21 registration.