Here are steps you can take to modernize your enrollment process and meet the modern challenges facing schools.
The shifts to the school enrollment landscape in the United States have been seismic. The pandemic has caused families nationwide to reevaluate their choice of where their students attend school. Some districts have grown by more than 500,000 students, while others shrank by more than 600,000 students. More than 1.2 million students have left the traditional public school system since 2020. These changes are happening quickly, constantly and unpredictably.
These are the uncharted waters of enrollment you may be in right now. Having a modernized enrollment system will help you fill your school, eliminate stress on your team, support families and make enrollment a joyful process.
1 Set Clear Goals
How many students would you like overall and grade by grade?
For every enrolled student, plan to generate between 2-4 qualified parent leads.
2 Record every qualified parent lead you get.
Whether they come from an event, door-knocking, a website form, or newer methods like Facebook advertising and texting, be sure all of your leads are funneling into a centralized location.
3 Determine the stages of your enrollment process.
Customize the stages of your enrollment process to fit your preferences and the requirements of your district.
4 Follow up quickly and often.
Strike while the iron is hot. The sooner you reach out to parents who have expressed interest, the more likely they are to trust you, and enroll their child.
Parents are busy and often require multiple points of contact (phone, text, email, in person) before they enroll their child. So follow up, and record your activity.
5 Focus on conversion rate.
The most important metric in school recruitment is how many students you are enrolling per qualified parent lead you are generating. Double your conversion rate, and you double your enrollment.
We’ve created an application that does all of this for you.
Schurz, Jessica. “Enrollment Tracker: 2020-2022.” Return to Learn Tracker, Davidson College, 3 June 2022, https://www.returntolearntracker.net/.
Gabriella Visani | Director of School Success
Gabriella Visani is the Director of School Success at ScholarLead.com. Visani was a member of the 2018 Teach for America Corps and a teacher in Denver Public Schools for four years. Originally brought on as part of the Effct.org team in 2021 through the Urban Leaders Fellowship, she designed the digital launch course and now serves as the support for schools using the ScholarLead services.
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