Erin Cabral lives just four blocks from Lawton Alternative School in the Sunset. Yet she’s miles away from securing a spot for her daughter.
On March 17, she checked the San Francisco Unified School District’s “lottery” results and found that her 4-year-old daughter was No. 200 on the waitlist for Lawton’s transitional kindergarten program, making it exceedingly unlikely she would secure a spot.
Like more than 10,000 San Francisco families, Cabral received the school assignment first-round results last week. With her daughter missing out on all top-five choices, she sits on five waitlists, hoping for movement in the coming months.
“We are incredibly disappointed but not shocked,” Cabral said. She knew Lawton would be popular but underestimated how difficult admission would be.
A team from The Standard, in collaboration with education consultant Vicky Keston, examined public data released by SFUSD to determine the popularity of district schools and programs, based on first-round waitlist numbers and total available seats.
West Portal Elementary’s TK program was the most competitive, with 277 students on the waitlist for just 18 available seats. Lawton’s TK program was No. 2.
The kindergarten program also showed intense competition. The most sought-after programs are from schools providing language immersion, including Alvarado Elementary School (Spanish), Alice Fong Yu Alternative School (Cantonese), and Jose Ortega Elementary School (Mandarin).
Keston, who advises families on SF public and private schools, noted that this is the first time the district has allowed a child to be on five waitlists, and the data analysis aims to help parents make decisions on applications.
The analysis excluded special-education and newcomer programs, which serve specific demographics and have smaller sample sizes.
The study also examined middle and high schools, but it’s more complicated to compare them. Certain K-8 schools include middle school, and some high schools, like Lowell, use merit-based admissions instead of the lottery system.
For Cabral, the path forward remains unclear. She plans to wait and see how the waitlist moves while exploring other options and preparing for next year’s kindergarten applications, likely another stressful experience.
“It’s nerve-wracking,” she said. “Worst case, we’ll keep her in her current preschool program.”