Lee County Public Schools has begun its annual Batch 1 Student Assignment process. This is when the families of students who will be entering kindergarten, moving from fifth to sixth grade; eighth to ninth grade or who are new to the District must choose their school choices for the next school year.
Batch 1 started on Monday, Jan. 26, and in the first week, the numbers are encouraging, school officials said. A total of 6,130 applications were processed during the first seven days of Batch 1. Of those applications, 2,905 were done via the online option for families who currently have students enrolled in Lee County Public Schools and will be changing schools next year.
“The online option continues to be very popular with families – they have really embraced the fact they can submit their applications whenever they have the time,” said Leila Muvdi, the director of student assignment, in a prepared statement. “We continue to tell people to ‘save time, apply online’ and more and more families are heading that advice.”
The breakdown for the first week’s applications is: 1,773 (including 637 online) for the East Attendance Zone; 2,038 (including 976 online) for the South Attendance Zone; and 2,319 (including 1,292 online) for the West Attendance Zone.
Batch 1 continues through Friday, March 13. Families need to know that the Student Assignment process is not first-come, first-served. Rather, it is a lottery system so the family who submitted an application on the first day has the same chance of getting their first choice of school as the family who submits an application on the last day, officials said.

Here are some facts surrounding Student Assignment for 2008/09:

– Nearly 92% of families received their first choice of school;
– Of those that did not (around 300 families) they were offered to move to their first choice after the 20th day of school, and only 10 percent agreed – the others chose to remain at the school they to which were assigned;
– Approximately 72 percent of families did not choose the school that is closest to their home.

Source: School District of Lee County