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Shade Canyon School is Now Enrolling TK-4 for the 2025/26 School Year

A tuition-free education based on the principles of Public Waldorf is now possible for the children of Lake County. 

Shade Canyon School provides a holistic, arts and outdoor play-based learning program that engages every student’s head, heart and hands. Our small, inclusive school setting nurtures strong relationships and community as we grow the whole child. 

 

Enrollment is currently open for TK-4th grade students for the 2025-26 school year.  

Come grow with us 🌿

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The following are the grade assignment categories for the 2025/2026 school year.

 2-year Kindergarten (including TK) 4 by September 1 (starting with the 2025-26 School Year)

Kindergarten (1-year) 5 by September 1

First Grade 6 by September 1

Second Grade 7 by September 1

Third Grade 8 by September 1

Fourth Grade 9 by September 1

How to Apply for the 2025-2026 School Year

 

Step 1: You will need to register on the LotterEase platform to enter your child into the lottery system. On this registration, be sure to use your information and not your child’s. You will be asked in a later step to enter your child’s information. You should include a cell phone number, as notifications from the Lottery, use both email and texts. Sometimes emails can go to your spam, so being able to receive a text assures you don’t miss an important notification or deadline.​​

Step 2:

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You now need to enter your child’s information to add them to your account. Once you have created your account, navigate to the “Add Child” link on the left menu.

Now that you have added your child to your LotterEase account, you will enroll them in a lottery. Select your child’s name from the left menu and you will be prompted to select a school. Select Shade Canyon School and Click submit.

You will now be prompted to select the lottery name/grade from the Drop-Down menu. 

 

Note: The grade level that you are applying to for the 2025/26 school year has been automatically determined by your child’s birthdate. If you cannot find the grade option you want, this is the reason. For the 2025-26 School Year, we are accepting children who turn 4 by September 1, 2025 into our TK program. We cannot accept children younger than this. 

*Children in our 2025-26 TK (2 yr. KG) must turn 4 by September 1, 2025. Children in our 2025-26 KG (1 yr. KG) must turn 5 by September 1, 2025.

If you believe your child should be assigned to a higher or lower 1st-4th grade, you will need to submit an email request to the Office Manager, Birdie Segal at birdie@shadecanyon.org, and it must be approved by the Executive Director in order for us to make a change. We require 5 business days for this process.

 

If you have more than one child that you wish to enroll in to Shade Canyon School, select “Add Sibling” and repeat Step 3. Once this step is complete, a page displaying what lotteries your child has entered will pop up. You can view each individual child by selecting their name from the menu on the left.

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You will be shown 6 Preference Groups. Please read them ALL carefully and choose all that apply. Then click on SUBMIT.

 


Step 3: Please be on the lookout for an email from LotterEase regarding your application (Be sure to enter Shade_Canyon_School@lotterease.com to your mail program contacts to ensure that emails from LotterEase are not marked as spam. This is essential if you have Gmail).

 

Congratulations! You have entered your child into the lottery at Shade Canyon School. Now you can login to your account and check the status of your application. An applicant stays on the appropriate waiting list for the year you applied, after which time you need to submit another application. We do not carry our waiting lists forward to the next year.

If you are offered a spot through the Lottery please pay careful attention to all deadlines. Once you confirm acceptance, you will receive an Online New Student Registration packet from our school via email within seven days. Enrollment is not finalized until you return your signed and completed enrollment papers and we approve them. PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION TO ALL THE DEADLINES LISTED in the email for the New Student Enrollment, failure to meet the deadlines can result in the offer being withdrawn and the spot offered to the next person on the waitlist.
If we go through our lottery waitlist for a grade, we will then run another lottery for that grade. You would be notified at that time by email and text after a late lottery takes place for any one of our grades. Please remember to update your email address in LotterEase if it changes.

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Step 4: All families are asked to attend a tour of the school prior to enrollment (parents only) so you can learn more about our curriculum and the guiding principles of the school. You can sign up for a tour here.

What are the Kindergarten age requirements?

Shade Canyon offers two kindergarten programs; applicants will be entered into the lottery for the kindergarten program that corresponds with his or her date of birth. Please ask Miss Birdie for clarification as needed: birdie@shadecanyon.org 

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Kindergarten (2-year, including TK) 4 by September 1 (starting with the 2025-26 School Year)

Kindergarten (1-year) 5 by September 1

First Grade 6 by September 1

Second Grade 7 by September 1

Third Grade 8 by September 1

Fourth Grade 9 by September 1

What can I submit for Proof of Residency?

After your application is received, you will be asked to provide one of the following documents with a parent/guardian name on it in order for the application to be considered complete. Only complete applications are entered into the public random drawing (lottery).

 

● Original and complete PG&E or other utility statement within past 30 days;

● Current rental agreement with landlord contact information (rental amounts may be obscured);

● Current year property tax statement (tax amount may be obscured).

Lottery FAQ’s

 

How does the Lottery process work?

If the number of students who wish to attend the School exceeds the School’s capacity, enrollment shall be determined by a public random drawing (enrollment lottery). Education Code Section 47605(d) (2)(A) and (B). In other words, the School does not permit selection of students based upon the order in which applications are received. "First come, first served" is not allowed. Students not admitted through the public random drawing will be placed on a waitlist. 

The lottery date has passed. Am I still able to apply?

Yes! We are currently accepting applications on a rolling basis.We encourage you to apply even if the grade level you seek is filled. Your child’s application will be placed on a waitlist in the date order the application was received.It is not uncommon for the waitlist to move. We will contact you if a spot becomes available.

When will the Lottery take place for the 2025-26 school year?

Open application window: February 7th – April 18th, 2025. 

Application deadline: April 18, 2025, 3 pm.

Lottery date: April 18th, 2025

Are there any priority categories for the enrollment lottery process?

A student may qualify for enrollment priority, a condition that gives the student a higher preference for admission. The student’s enrollment priority status must be indicated on the Enrollment Lottery Application.

 Enrollment priorities include:

  1. Students who are children of Shade Canyon Founding Parents identified in the initial charter, teachers and staff (up to a cap of 10% of enrollment)

  2. Siblings of students admitted to or attending Shade Canyon School 

  3. Children in foster care or in homeless shelters

  4. Students who are currently enrolled in or who reside in the Kelseyville Elementary School boundaries (for purposes of the SB 740 Charter School Facility Grant Program)

  5. Students who reside in the Kelseyville Unified School District 

  6. All other applicants 

 

Note: If there is a change in your student’s enrollment priority status before the time of the lottery, or post-lottery while on the waitlist, it is the applicant’s responsibility to notify the school of that change.

What are the waitlist rules?

  1. Waitlists are generated only from students entered into public random drawings. 

  2. Waitlists are established only following public random drawings. 

  3. Waitlists are established only after a class has reached capacity. 

  4. A student may be ranked on only one grade level waitlist at a time. 

  5. Waitlisted applicants rise or fall when a higher-ranking applicant is withdrawn or added to the list. 

  6. Waitlisted applicants forfeit sibling preference points when the sibling withdraws from Shade Canyon School. 

  7. Waitlisted applicants gain sibling preference points when a sibling is admitted to Shade Canyon School.

  8. When an offer of admission from the waitlist is declined, the applicant is removed from the waitlist.

  9. Waitlisted applicants may be contacted to confirm their continued interest in staying on the waitlist.

  10. Waitlists do not carry over from year to year. Waitlists are dissolved immediately prior to the first open enrollment window for the subsequent academic year. A new enrollment lottery application may be submitted for the subsequent academic year and will be processed with all others received for the public random drawing. If there is a change in the applicant’s enrollment priority status, it is the applicant’s responsibility to notify the school of that change with a written request and proof of changed status. The status on the waitlist will be adjusted accordingly. 

  11. If there is a change in the applicant’s contact information (telephone, email, address) it is the applicant’s responsibility to notify the school of that change

  12. Shade Canyon School shall be nonsectarian in its programs, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations, shall not charge tuition, and shall not discriminate against any person on the basis of ethnicity, national origin, race, gender, disability, or any other characteristic designated in SB777 and as set forth in Section 47605(d) of the Education Code.

I have additional questions about enrollment. Who can I contact?

We would be happy to answer your questions! Please email Mrs. Segal at birdie@shadecanyon.org.

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