Entering the programKindergarten students from throughout the Palo Alto Unified School District (including the Voluntary Transfer Program) are eligible for enrollment in the Spanish Immersion Program. Similar to the Hoover and Ohlone choice programs, there are many more applicants to the program than there are spaces available making a lottery system necessary.
Separate lotteries are held for native-Spanish and for native-English speakers in order to assure the appropriate Spanish-to-English language balance needed for immersion education. As with Hoover and Ohlone, siblings of current Spanish Immersion students have preference and are not in the lottery. To be included in the lottery, every child, including siblings, must turn in a Lottery Application by Kindergarten registration.
For information on beginning the program after kindergarten, please contact Gary Prehn, Principal, Escondido Elementary School (856-1337).
Each year in January, an Information Meeting on Spanish Immersion is held to address what is immersion and how to place your child in the lottery.
