Admissions Process & Timeline

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Each September Stretch welcomes a number of new families into our program. Their children range from young twos just starting their school experience to our oldest 5 year olds, entering our TK program.  We strive to admit like-minded families who join our program looking for the values and approach to early childhood education that we uphold.  Stretch is a school of inquiry, curiosity, and love. We nurture children’s innate ability to wonder, explore, and investigate all the magic that defines this unique time in their lives.  Our educators approach each day with thought and intention, facilitating discovery and learning alongside the child.
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Step One: Visit Us

We encourage all families who have a child of the appropriate age, (must be 2 by August 31st of the upcoming school year) to join us for a virtual tour. Due to COVID-19 we expect that all tours in 2020/2021 will be virtual. We are excited to share our program with you while following these regulations that ensure the utmost safety for our community as a whole. We will offer tours between the months of October-January. We are still developing our new process and will be sure to incorporate both our parent and educator community. During our tours we will do our best to introduce you to our community, our program, and answer any questions. Please know that you do not have to have a tour in order to fill out a written application. You can read a lot about our program on the website.

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Step Two: Apply

All applications are submitted through our admissions partner TADS and can be accessed at:

Click here to apply at http://www.tads.com

You also must pay a $50 application fee and submit a family photo through TADS. Our application contains a number of questions that help us to get to know your child and family. All applications are due by February 1st of each admissions year to be considered in the first round. If you come to us after February 1st you are still welcome to apply and we will add your child’s application to our wait-pool. Should an opening come available we will contact you.

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Step Three: Acceptance

We spend the month of February reading applications. Each year we join a number of other preschools in San Francisco and send out our acceptance letters on the same date. This practice speaks to our belief in supporting families to find the best fit for their child when choosing an early childhood program. For the 2021/2022 school year, we will email acceptance and waitlist letters on March 9th, 2021. Families have until 10am on March 15th to accept or decline. After this time we will move on to our waitlist. When a family is offered a spot from our wait-pool they are given 24 hours to respond to this offer. If you do not receive an acceptance letter we will retain your application in our wait-pool for the weeks, months and years to come. We welcome families to continue to reach out and inquiry about their child’s application if they are still interested in joining our program.
— Parent