Ripon Unified School District’s Kindergarten Orientation takes place Tuesday, April 23, beginning at 6 p.m. in the Multi-Purpose room at Park View Elementary School.

Topics to be covered at the orientation include district placement and attendance policies, transportation, immunization requirements, and documents required for Kindergarten Registration.

Kindergarten Registration will be held on Tuesday, May 7, from 4 to 7 p.m. in the Multi-Purpose room at Park View Elementary School. Children are eligible to begin kindergarten if they will be five years old by Oct. 1, 2013. Also, students who turn five between Oct. 2 and Dec. 2 are placed in the Transitional Kindergarten (TK) class in 2013/2014.  TK registration happens concurrently with kindergarten registration. Please join us at the orientation as well. Prior to registration, forms will be on-line and available for parents to complete and bring with them to registration (www.riponusd.net under Enrollment). Forms will also be available for completion at the registration on May 7. All registration forms must be completed and turned in by Friday, May 10, at 4 p.m. Completed registration packets may be turned in at any elementary school office. 

Parents enrolling their child in kindergarten will be given the opportunity to request a school of attendance. Children with siblings already enrolled in the requested school will be enrolled first.  The remainder of the requests will be prioritized by a random drawing. Children will be enrolled in the requested school in the order determined by the drawing until the school’s capacity is reached.  Remaining children will be placed on the transfer list for the requested school by random selection and then assigned to schools below capacity.  Parents who enroll their child after the May 10 deadline, will be given the opportunity to request a school of attendance, and if the requested school has capacity and there is not prioritized list for the requested school, the request will be granted. If there is a prioritized list for the requested school, the child will be placed at the bottom of the priority list and assigned to a school with capacity.

Ideally, the child who comes to kindergarten should be happy, creative, assured and verbal – eager to be at school. The child should be able to separate from his/her parent without anxiety (Parents also need to be ready to separate from their child). Children should be independent dressers and be able to attend to bathroom functions and personal necessities. They should know and respond to their name, listen to and enjoy stories, use basic manners, speak to and listen to others, and play cooperatively with their peers.

A question frequently asked is, “What about academic skills?” It is helpful if the child knows colors, shapes, positional terms (over, under, beside) and can count and associate objects with numbers. The child should be able to write their name with one capital letter and the rest in lower case. Social and emotional readiness to be at school and engage in the learning process, are perhaps the most critical factors.

Research has shown that children whose parents are interested and involved in their child’s education are, in general, more likely to enjoy a positive school experience. Therefore, we encourage parents to be as involved as possible. Depending on your family structure and commitments, this could include working in the classroom on a regular basis, working on projects at home, accompanying the class on a field trip, visiting the classroom once or twice a year, and/or attending regularly scheduled parent conferences.