Need to register child for high school before a resident

[onmywaytodenver 0]

We hope to have our K1 approved this summer and I am a Canadian bringing my daughter to the U.S. She will be starting grade 11.

I need to know if I can get her registered before we are approved and before I have residency, otherwise she will not be able to choose her courses for the coming school year.

Anyone with experience on this matter?

Thanks.

[Ontarkie 15,064]

~~Moved to Moving Here and Your New Life In America, from Introducing our Members~~

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I don't know if it will be different for every State/district but we were not allowed to register the kids before we made the move. They would not even discuss things with us till we made the move, that is most likely just how screwed up things are here though.

[aaron2020 11,652]

Check with the school.

It's highly unlikely that the school will let a foreign non-resident student enroll in a public high school.

[N-o-l-a 7,169]

We were not able to register before moving despite having lived in the town before and my daughter being a US citizen. Mileage may vary for your district. Have you called the high school and spoken to someone about making an exception with regards to classes? I know of the two years I went to public school, they were able to raise caps on classes, do independent study if you had a conflict, or start new sections to accommodate students.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

You won't likely be able to register her before you have the VISA in hand but we had the same situation with my daughter who was almost 16 at the time.

Until you have your interview and VISA in hand you don't really know when she'll be starting school. My now husband approached the local school (which his 2 sons already attended) and we established a relationship with the VP and a counsellor there and then also with my daughter's current Canadian highschool. We established what the new school required in terms of paper work and former grades and report cards ahead of time. They tried to map what she had already taken to what was required to graduate in VA; but we could not actually register her until we had moved and had the I94 stapled in her passport as proof of legal entry.

I wouldn't worry, they make allowances for new students entering at whatever time they enter the school year so she should be fine getting into the classes she needs and wants. I will say there were a couple Canadian classes which they simply couldn't/ didn;t count so she had to retake US history. I would fight them on that as much as possible to get her full credit for everything she's already taken. It sucks having to take something over.

PS: 1 thing we didn;t do was get comments from her Cdn basketball coach back in Canada. IT would have been a helpful intro for her to the VA highschool basketball coach. I would encourage you to get written comments from any activity she is involve din if she wants to continue at the US highschool. Afterschool activities can be really key to getting to know people at the new highschool.

PPS: expect a transition period, its unavoidable

We hope to have our K1 approved this summer and I am a Canadian bringing my daughter to the U.S. She will be starting grade 11.

I need to know if I can get her registered before we are approved and before I have residency, otherwise she will not be able to choose her courses for the coming school year.

Anyone with experience on this matter?

Thanks.

Edited February 22, 2014 by Udella&Wiz