Six Tips to Increase Registration

Registration season is upon us, and over the last few years we’ve seen little progress in how most schools approach registration. Even more challenged are those schools serving high risk or low income students because of families’ inability to be present and because of multiple languages. We wanted to share how some of our schools are improving the experience for their families, reducing time for their staff, and increasing enrollment results.

Registration Tips

#1 - Promote events online through the web, emails, school mobile app, social media, and local news to attract families to visit your school and see if it’s a good fit for them. The more communication channels, the more likely you’ll reach your target. Everyone has a preferred method of receiving notifications and news, and it may not be the traditional ones like the postal mail. Many families don’t have Internet access at home, and rely on their smartphones to stay in touch.

#2 - Keep families in the loop with upcoming deadlines and open houses. With those messages, introduce staff and teachers that families will meet during open houses.

#3 - Provide videos online for those who can’t attend the open house.

#4 - Streamline the registration process, allowing families to register from home. This method is especially helpful with high risk students. If there’s a fee with registration, simplify school payments using the web site or school app.

#5 - Send notifications to families about what to expect on the first day, where to go, what to bring, and to which teacher(s) their student has been assigned. The more families know, the more comfortable they’ll feel.

#6 - Follow up with partial registrations or students who enrolled last year but haven’t registered yet and move them along to the next step.

These steps help ensure that all families receive the information needed to successfully register their student.