DCPS rejects Wilson online enrollment idea for next school year

Zach Kaplan and Max Karp

DCPS rejected Wilson’s plan to pilot a new online enrollment system for next school year. The program sought to provide returning Wilson families with the option to enroll their children through the DCPS website rather than in person.

Wilson Registrar Tasha Bishop proposed the idea in an effort to create an accelerated application program for the families of returning students. “We were trying to see if this would increase our benchmarks, which meant the number of enrollment forms that we would have in the system prior to what the system says we’re supposed to have,” she said.

The idea was rejected by DCPS in the planning stages because the only way to establish proof of residency would be through a motor vehicle license, something not all parents have access to.

The pilot program would have allowed returning families to enroll via email. Returning families that sought to enroll would need to scan their driver’s license and a motor vehicle registration, and then send Wilson the documentation. Both documents would need to show the name of the parent or guardian whose signature would be on the enrollment form.

“We were just trying to see if families would be up for this, but it ended up being turned down,” said Bishop.

While DCPS may allow online enrollment in future years, traditional in-person enrollment program will continue to be present for the 2019-20 school year.