Names and identifying details of every student here are changed, as they are everywhere on the blog.
Okay so Vera has my two o’clock and she is already talking, two kids, school on Monday, no list, no sleep in a week. And I am the one who looks it up, because who else, California and LAUSD version, she landed in July.
Before the first day
So the address just decides it, you do not choose anything, the street goes into this thing on the district site, the Resident School Identifier, And out comes the school. Unless you live in a Zone of Choice, Then you rank a few schools and wait. And the part she did not believe. You can enroll at any time of the year, not just in August.
Now the papers, four of them, something that proves the address, something with the child’s birth date, her own government ID, and the immunization record. And if one of the first three is missing, the school hands you an affidavit and you sign it and that is handled, but not for the shot record. My mother had ours in a single plastic folder on the fridge in Rosario, and could find that piece of paper from ten years ago in four seconds. And I got the folder, not the talent. The shots are what eat up your week. California reviews five vaccine groups for new students in TK to twelfth grade, hepatitis B excepted at seventh, and everyone beginning seventh needs a whooping cough booster from the seventh birthday on. Vera made me repeat that twice, because her older one is beginning seventh, and wrote it on her hand.
All their records are in Russian, so first a translator, then a pediatrician here, then the school office, you should have seen her face at the word translator, dale, I know.
In the same packet is the Home Language Survey, and a language other than English on it sends the child to the Initial ELPAC, with the results due within 30 calendar days of the child’s first day of school. She wanted to check English only just to be sure, and I understood her; that’s how I filled out every document back then, only I told her to check Russian. And the food, nobody believes this part the first time. No forms, none, nobody checks what you earn, you just eat. Any public school kid in California from kindergarten through twelfth grade who asks gets one free breakfast and one free lunch a day, LAUSD feeds everyone through the Community Eligibility Provision, and the district still takes a meal application for reporting purposes. And she believed me only when Katya, two chairs down, looked up and said the same thing in Russian.
Someone at the school will ask who can pick up the kid and what numbers to call, and a family signs itself up for the Parent Portal, For attendance and grades. My first call to an American office took eleven minutes and went to pot, and at the end the lady said you are all set. No one had told me that this meant goodbye, so I stood there with the phone, waiting for the rest of the sentence.
And the supplies, do not buy anything yet, wait for the teacher’s list, which is never what you expected.
- Look up the school by address.
- Four documents, affidavit for the first three.
- Shot record translated, then a pediatrician.
- Oral health assessment for a first year at TK, kindergarten, or first grade.
- Home Language Survey with the real language.
- Meals are free without an application, although the district may still send one home.
- Pickup list and Parent Portal.
- Supplies after the teacher’s list.
The paperwork may pile up on you after the first day. However, the shot record does not have an affidavit, and this is the one I would start tomorrow.
Then she asked me the true question, softly, as I was working under her nails, whether the office would think less of her for half a folder. And no. Nothing in that folder was going to surprise anyone.
Then another photo comes after two days, the list on the fridge, held down by a strange pizza magnet, competing with the scribbles, and then Monday, the one line from her, both in, one crying, one not.
Courses at Palme School
Russian for bilingual children
When a kid understands Russian and answers in English
School of reading
Reading and writing for kids who already speak Russian
Free materials
Things to print and do at the kitchen table
And the one thing on no school list is what happens to Russian at home when English takes over. Palme School teaches kids from four years old online, in small groups, 40 minutes a lesson, and every family starts with two free sessions, a conversation with a methodologist and then a trial lesson inside a group. If a kid understands Russian and answers in English, that is Russian for bilingual children, and if the speech is there but the reading is not, that is the reading school.
Frequently asked questions
In California, a child who has started every required series and is not overdue for the next dose can be admitted conditionally. LAUSD 2024 enrollment bulletin also lists recently immigrated students among those enrolled right away, even without shot records, so ask the school how the rules apply to your child.
Not in California. Any TK through twelfth grade public school student who requests a meal gets a free breakfast and a free lunch each school day, and LAUSD serves every student under the Community Eligibility Provision. The district still collects a meal application for its own reporting purposes, so ask the office if one comes home.
In LAUSD, families who lack any enrollment document other than the immunization record complete an affidavit with the school. Other districts set their own alternatives, so call the school office.
If the Home Language Survey lists a primary language other than English, the student takes the Initial ELPAC, and the school sends parents the results within 30 calendar days of the child’s first day of school.
For a child’s first year in a California public school at TK, kindergarten, or first grade, an oral health assessment by a licensed dentist or another licensed or registered dental professional is required, completed in the 12 months before enrollment or by May 31 of that school year, and a waiver can be requested.
Palme School: Russian for bilingual children · School of reading · Free materials for families
Monica Perez moved to Los Angeles from Rosario, Argentina. She interacts a lot with Russian-speaking women at her nail salon, so she has a wealth of knowledge about Russian culture and the secrets that women from Russia keep to themselves.
