Admissions

Harvest Ridge is not able to accept any new enrollments for the 2020-21 school year.  The state of California has voted to EXCLUDE non-classroom based programs from receiving funding this year for new students.  As a result, we are not able to serve new students until the 2021-22 school year.
Thank you for understanding.
​Harvest Ridge Cooperative Charter School is public, tuition-free charter school open to all.  We have a diverse population, and students are accepted without entrance criteria.  Harvest Ridge provides an engaging and hands on academic curriculum, focusing on experiential learning.  

Volunteer Commitment
Parent cooperative expectations are that families will choose to fulfill 30 or more hours of annual volunteer service to the school.
The lottery for Kindergarten for the 2020-21 school year took place on Friday, February 7th, 2020.  ​
Click HERE to Apply Online!
Prefer to have a paper copy?  Click the link below to download the enrollment packet and mail in.
​2020-2021 Enrollment Application
For More Information or to Turn in Applications...Please contact Michelle Highsmith
mhighsmith@harvestridgeschool.org 
or call (916) 259-1425 ext. 200

Transitional Kindergarten

Harvest Ridge offers Transitional Kindergarten (TK) through our Home Study program.  Students who enroll in Transitional Kindergarten will be provided a home study teacher and an instructional funding account to provide a home based program to meet their needs.  Students are eligible for TK if their fifth birthday falls between September 2 and December 2 of the year that they enroll.   Students who turn five after December 2 will not be admitted until the following school year.

Kindergarten Age for Enrolling

In keeping with the California Education Code, a child must be five (5) years old on or before September 1 in order to enroll in kindergarten at the Charter School.

Kindergarten Enrollment Policy

This policy is modeled after the purposes and provisions of the Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010 (“KRA”), which amended California Education Code section 48000 among other statutes. Harvest Ridge Cooperative Charter School (the “Charter School”) recognizes that success in kindergarten is not only affected by what children know or do not know academically, but by their physical, social, and emotional readiness.  Therefore, it is the intent of this policy, in keeping with the provisions of the KRA, to delay the entry date of four (4) year olds into kindergarten in order to give such children time to prepare and mature intellectually, academically, physically, socially, and emotionally prior to enrollment in kindergarten. ​

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I apply?

Submit a Harvest Ridge Cooperative Charter School Request for Admission.  This can be completed online or printed and emailed to mhighsmith@harvestridgeschool.org, or dropped by the school office.

Continuing students who are currently enrolled in the charter school do not need to reapply.  Applicants will be placed on the waiting list for full classes in the date and time order that they are received.
 
What is the timeline for the Kindergarten application process?

To be eligible for the Kindergarten random public drawing, you must submit a Request for Admission as follows:
  • By the last school day of January for the following school year.  Harvest Ridge will conduct its drawing one week after the deadline, and will contact families with enrollment offers the following week.  
  • Offers  will continue to be extended until all spaces are filled. 
  • Applications received after 4 p.m. on the last school day noted to be eligible for the lottery will be placed on the waiting list based on the date and time your application is received by the registrar. In order to complete the application process, all students receiving an offer for enrollment must submit all required paperwork and may be asked to participate in an interview with the Executive Director.

If I miss the application deadline, can I still apply?

After the noted application deadline, Harvest Ridge continues to accept applications.
Are applications kept from year to year?

Harvest Ridge will contact current waiting list families to turn in a reapply application by the end of December each year in order to hold their child's spot on the waiting list for the following school year.  Students who do not send in a new application for the following school year by the deadline will be removed from the waiting list.  

Are there preferences given to any students in the lottery process?

Yes.  The public random drawing will be conducted with the following admission preferences and exemptions being given: 
  • Siblings of students already admitted to or attending the same charter school
  • Children of employees of the charter school (so long as the total number of students allowed under this exemption constitutes only a small percentage (less than 10%) of the school's total enrollment). 
The following categories of applicants will be given weighted priorities: 
  • Students who reside in the school district in which the charter school is affiliated
  • Students seeking to change schools under the public school choice provisions of ESEA Title I, for the limited purpose of providing greater choice to students covered by those provisions  
In this effort, HRCCS will provide each student who meets either of the above criteria with two chances to win the lottery while all other students not meeting the above criteria will have only one chance to win, so the weighting factor for students in the above priorities is 2:1.