Kindergarten Roundup: 5 Ways Online Enrollment Improves the Experience

Spring kindergarten roundup should be a time to engage with parents and their children as they prepare to enter their first school experience. It’s an opportunity for parents and students to learn about the classroom and start building a positive relationship with classmates, teachers, and administrators typically three to six months before school begins.    

Paperwork shouldn’t dampen that experience for parents, students, or staff.  

Unfortunately, for many districts, much of kindergarten roundup time is focused on parents filling out a stack of enrollment paperwork. They’re required to bring certified copies of the child’s birth certificate, current immunization records, and proof of residency. Some districts try to bypass this requirement by offering enrollment packets on their websites for parents to download, print, and fill out on their own. But many parents either don’t have home printers to handle that capacity or don’t want to use up their expensive ink printing 20 or more pages of documents.    

Solution: Streamline the Process with a Fully Online Enrollment System 

Most districts use traditional, paper-based student enrollment. It’s a multi-step process in which parents must fill out a multitude of forms that request demographic data, emergency contact and medical information, signatures for school policies, agreements and permissions, surveys, health history, sports information, and more. The result is a large packet of forms for families to complete for each child enrolled in the district.  

Once those forms are returned to the school, administrators are tasked with inputting the data into the district’s student information system (SIS). It’s a time and paper-intensive process, ultimately wasting valuable resources (including staff time) that could be funneled back into education.  

There’s a better way.  

Today’s forward-thinking and efficiency focused districts are embracing a modern, online enrollment management solution that bypasses manual, outdated steps to improve accuracy, save time, and cut printing, ink, and postage costs. Here are the top five ways that an online solution can help streamline your kindergarten roundup process.    

1. Cultivate Better Communication with Families 

With an online system, schools have more accurate tracking of which existing students in the district have young siblings who would be kindergarten age. This visibility enables schools to reach out easier to those families to inform them of relevant dates and information related to kindergarten roundup and enrollment. An online solution leads to a higher percentage of students registering during the allocated kindergarten roundup window.  

Districts can also use the enrollment process as an opportunity to communicate school standards with families by placing documents online, such as the student handbook, code of conduct policies, and cyber-bullying student and parent agreements. They can collect signatures for each policy and agreement to increase accountability and student safety standards. Students will know what’s expected of them and families can aid in enforcing your school’s policies and procedures.   

And communication at the actual kindergarten roundup improves. Once Ilinois’ Reed-Custer Community Unit School District switched to online PowerSchool Enrollment, part of the Student Information Cloud, staff noticed how much more productive the kindergarten roundup event was.   

“Kindergarten enrollment and the roundup process are now smooth, paper-free, and convenient for parents and staff. Kindergarten roundup is now a time for parents and their students to get to know the classroom, nurses, and teachers,” says Luciana Kelaiditis, Technology Personnel and PowerSchool Administrator at Reed-Custer. “Kindergarten roundup is still an opportunity to come in person and see the classroom and meet teachers. But parents don’t have to spend it stressfully filling out paperwork.” 

2. Reduce Costs, Paper Waste, and Staff Time 

The average number of forms distributed to families every year is 20 pages per student, with many district packets reaching 40 pages. Online student enrollment reduces the need to print that wastes paper, ink or toner, and postage.  

Other costs associated with paper-based systems include hiring extra temporary staff or allotting overtime to process paperwork, and storage and supplies required to file packets.    

“Just mailing out forms alone was an entire day-long project for secretaries,” says Kelaiditis. “There’s a lot of essential information we need. It created a sizeable envelope that cost more than a regular stamp to mail. With 1,400 kids, running all of that mail through a postage machine was a time-consuming task.” 

But now, with online PowerSchool Enrollment, Kelaiditis says, “all that wasted time for secretaries is gone.” 

3. Ensure Data Security of Critical PII Documents 

Document management is another time-consuming task associated with a paper-based student enrollment process during kindergarten roundup. A secure online solution should facilitate an efficient way to collect and store vital documents. Copies of birth certificates, proof of residence, and immunization records are just a few items that schools require from families.   

4. Capture Accurate Student Counts Early to Inform Staffing    

An efficient kindergarten roundup through online enrollment gives staff accurate information for allocating resources to accommodate student learning, medical, and transportation needs. A district’s special services department is alerted if a kindergartener with specific needs registers. The school nurse is promptly notified when a student registers with a medical condition or allergy, and the transportation director is notified when a student needs to be added to a bus route.   

“Our administrators can make better decisions to meet student needs, staffing needs, and forecasting for budgeting,” says Kim Byrne, PowerSchool Administrator at Wyoming’s Teton County School District 1, which also uses PowerSchool Enrollment. “When planning for professional development for different grade levels, we can see the anticipated enrollment of our kindergarteners. We can plan for things like bus routes, health files, screenings, and things we need to do for students.”  

Families can take confidence in the schools their children attend knowing the district is well prepared to educate and care for them. This eases families’ levels of anxiety and increases their trust in the district.    

5. Improve Data Integrity and Reporting Compliance  

An online student enrollment solution increases efficiency by automatically standardizing data so that entries are consistent when entered into the district’s SIS. Paper-based student enrollment does not scrub and polish data to meet state requirements so administrators must spend countless hours formatting student data correctly at the time of input.   

A quality online system likely features built-in workflows and barriers that ensure students are registered with correct documentation. It should also identify students outside of compliance, such as those missing immunizations.    

“Online enrollment improves accuracy and speeds up the process,” says Kelaiditis, who’s responsible for all of her district’s state compliance reporting. “The state of Illinois wants a lot of records up front, and a lot of that information I can collect right out of registration. I literally line up my Illinois compliance page in PowerSchool SIS with my registration page in PowerSchool Enrollment, and I go down the list to see which ones I have answered or not.” 

Online Enrollment: Eliminate Stress from Kindergarten Roundup  

By implementing an online enrollment solution, schools can eliminate stress from kindergarten roundups and allow new students, families, and teachers to focus on making important first connections for a positive school experience.   

Kindergarten roundup shouldn’t be a time wasted on filling out manual forms, getting frustrated with missing identification and medical information. That kind of information should be filled out in a stress-free, comfortable environment: at home. 

“We have parents who work full time and can’t get to the school during the day, so having them fill out paperwork during the kindergarten roundup is nearly impossible. With online enrollment, parents can take as much or as little time as they need to,” says Kelaiditis.