Early registration now underway for Putnam County Schools.
Attendance and Enrollment Management Supervisor Chris Pierce said early registration continues until April 17. Pierce said he encourages everyone to register early as it provides benefits for the family and the school system.
“It’s the convenience of having this completed knowing for a fact where your student will be going to school come the Fall,” Pierce said. “For the school, it’s a planning issue. We know have many students to plan for and how many teachers we need to shuffle around, move, and assign.”
Pierce said each elementary school will be hosting an in-house early registration event this Tuesday, starting from 1pm-5pm. Pierce said he suggested people bring two proofs of residence, a student’s up-to-date shot record on a Tennessee form, a copy of a current physical, and a birth certificate.
Pierce said current students can be enrolled through the PowerSchool parent portal while parents of new students can register online through the school system’s website or in person at the central office. Pierce said early registration plays a big factor in how many students can transfer to out-of-zone schools.
“It differs every year,” Pierce said. “It just depends upon how many students pre-register, how many students are on the kindergarten list, and how many seats are available at those kindergarten sights at each school. It varies every year. This is the only time to be able to try to request that process. The kindergarten lottery process does not happen in August it happens in April.”
Pierce said enrollment numbers also impact the transfer lottery. Pierce said in recent years enrollment has flatlined but next year he expects to see an increase in enrollment numbers.
“We are expecting it to grow just looking around town and things there seems to be more people in town so we do expect at some point of enrollment to grow,” Pierce said. “We are looking somewhere to enroll in the neighborhood by the time we get to August between 850 and 900 new kindergarteners.”
