Public elementary school enrollment calendar?

Taiwan Parenting
1

I’m a bit confused by the registration calendar and process, and getting different information from different sources and hoping someone can offer clarity, especially for foreigners sending their kids to public schools.

A little background: My daughter will be entering 1st grade in Fall, 2024. Mingde in Tianmu is the assigned elementary school for the address we’d like to move to this year. However, we are very close to Shidong, which I know is almost always over-subscribed, but ideally I’d like her to go there.

  1. Is there a “waiting list” we can get on now to increase her odds of getting into Shidong by 2024? If she (by some huge miracle) gets into via the kindergarten lottery, does that mean she automatically attend 1st grade?

  2. If there isn’t a waiting list, do we just apply in 2024?

  3. Formosa.com “teach” shared great info about their experience with the process.

Another teacher said the process was: You need to show that your ARC address is in the district that is assigned to that school. You may also need to send in a copy of your lease to confirm. Then in March, the schools send all the applications to the county / district / whatever that regional breakdown is, and it’s there that the placements are made. The schools themselves don’t select the kids. Then you get the decision by mail, maybe in June, and it says whether your kid goes to that school, and if not, three other options.

And someone else said they just went to their district office around May and was assigned to the school nearby which was magically not full anymore.

  1. So what are the enrollment deadlines? Is it generally January or March or some other time? Can you apply to multiple schools or just one? Do you have to apply multiple times if there are rounds of openings?

Thank you for any clarification here!

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Best bet is to ask at the school itself, any I’ve dealt with are responsive to emails if you don’t/can’t go in person. In general you need to have an address within the school catchment area that you wish to attend, which means that address needs to be on your ARC. There is a slight advantage to using an ARC over local household registration in that you can easily “borrow” an address in the area you wish to “live” in without any impact to the occupants of that address. Some very popular schools will also have a minimum occupancy period before accepting applicants, e.g. must have been at that address for 3 years before applying, all depends on the school.

There may be some exceptions for foreign students, again you can check with your local school or district office. There are a number of Facebook pages dedicated to schooling in Taiwan, may get more up to date information from members recent experiences on those.

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