By Kelly Youngblood
Parents with students starting kindergarten this fall are waiting for information from Champaign Unit 4 officials about when registration will open — an announcement that will bring relief to many families trying to make plans for the upcoming school year.
Ben LeRoy, who teaches in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and the College of Law at the University of Illinois, has a daughter who will start kindergarten in the fall of 2024. He and his wife are also expecting a second child in March.
LeRoy said he reached out to the district’s administrative office a few weeks ago and was not given a time frame regarding the announcement of kindergarten registration.
While LeRoy said he doesn’t have an expectation that Unit 4 would have published everything about the registration process yet, he is a little disappointed the district doesn’t know when it will announce a date.
“I wish we had more certainty at this point. It would be nice for our peace of mind and just one fewer thing we have to be worrying about to know when we need to be looking for information,” LeRoy said. “It might come two weeks after the baby gets here, it might come in the middle of the summer, so we would appreciate a little more clarity in when we should be ready to go through the registration process.”
Unit 4’s chief communications officer responded to an email from Chambanamoms on Friday, Feb. 16, stating a date for kindergarten registration would be announced this week. (UPDATE: On Feb. 20 Unit 4 said on their social media: “Kindergarten and New Student Registration will begin on Tuesday, Feb. 27. More details will be posted to our website soon.”)
For the uninitiated, Unit 4’s kindergarten registration involves a “student assignment process” that determines where a child will go to school. (Learn more about the process here.)
In 2023 Unit 4’s kindergarten registration opened in late April. In the prior year registration details were announced in March. Prior to 2022, the process began shortly after Winter Break and families received their school assignment notices in late April. Last year those notices were sent in mid-July.
The move from a registration period that previously began in winter to one that essentially encompasses spring and summer has created frustration among parents who are eager to know which school their child will attend.
“There’s definitely a delay time between registration and school assignment,” LeRoy said.
While LeRoy understands the fundamental rationale behind the process and realizes how complex it is to manage, he said “it doesn’t obviate the fact that we would appreciate any information and clarity to be increased.”
Jessica Wolff said she has “immense anxiety” about what school will look like for her child, who will need special education services in kindergarten this fall. She also has concerns about the student assignment process being in flux recently.
“Any sort of information is appreciated at this point because we can’t just fly by the seat of our pants with our kindergartener, any kindergartner, heading into the district for the first time,” Wolff said. “It’s a huge formative experience, let alone, for a child with a disability. So, we are very nervously awaiting any sort of information that the district can provide about anything that will happen next year.”
Wolff said her hope is that the announcement for kindergarten registration would include guidance on whether any processes would change, including the student assignment system, and urges the district to “keep families in mind” when making these decisions.
As soon as they find out which school she’ll attend, Wolff plans to take her daughter to the playground to familiarize her with the layout and show her what the building looks like, as well as meet her special education and general education teams.
“There is a lot of preparation that we feel would set her up for success that we just can’t do until all of this information is done,” she said. “This is going to be an entire upheaval of our life — getting a child to school, full-time, five days a week, and it could be potentially across town. We have no idea what that looks like so the more time that we have to prepare for these changes would be better.”