We welcome students from all over the district who are interested in a bilingual education.
The 2025-2026 Kindergarten Lottery window will open January 2, 2025 to March 14, 2025.
Who should apply? Incoming kindergarten students who will be 5 years old on/before September 1, 2025.
Click this video link to learn more about the application process for the Kindergarten Lottery.
See the requirements and dates of the orientation on the flier below:
Seats are distributed across all RPS elementary attendance zones through a lottery. The lottery is conducted in April for students who applied and passed the oral assessment and whose parent/guardian attended an orientation. Notification of lottery results is sent by US postal mail after the lottery has taken place.
The lottery list is maintained for one year or until all open seats are filled with lottery students according to language ratios, at which time students on the interest list will be assessed for placement.
Students not selected in Kindergarten will be placed on a waitlist. First through 8th grade open seats will be filled from the waitlist. A lottery waitlist is created and each student is assigned a number.
Preference is given to siblings of current Barbour students or students entering the district with documented prior Dual Language School experience. Sibling preference does not apply to applicants for the upcoming year whose only sibling is currently enrolled in 8th grade.
Kindergarten testing will take place at the student's early childhood site for those currently enrolled in one of the RPS early childhood school. For students are who not enrolled, they will be contact by Barbour to schedule the assessment. Students will be given an oral assessment to demonstrate proficiency in English or Spanish. Classes are composed of half English and half Spanish speakers.
*If a seat becomes available for your student in first grade and above, district testing results will be reviewed and a Spanish/English proficiency test will be administered before the seat can be offered.
Students on the list are assigned numbers to enable families to confidentially view their child's placement on the list. This number stays with the student as long as they remain on the interest list. Students are assigned to their zone school while on the interest list. As seats are available, students on the interest list are contacted to make an appointment for a language evaluation. Based on the language assessment, students are offered seats or kept on the interest list according to language ratios for the program.
If a seat become available, based on seats available within the language allocation guidelines, families are contacted to schedule an assessment appointment. Students off the interest list are tested as follows:
1st semester Kindergarten only test in native language
2nd semester Kindergarten through 1st grade will be tested in Spanish only.
2nd grade through 8th grade test in both languages if students transfer into the district from another bilingual program or parents indicate the student is bilingual.
Students interested in Barbour who are in 3rd grade or higher, whose parent/guardian indicate they are monolingual English or Spanish speakers, will not be screened or eligible to enter Barbour.
Once school has begun, the principal will schedule parent orientation meetings for new parents/guardians, and for families of students who are offered seats from the waitlist which must be attended before the student is eligible to register. The interest list will be consulted the last week of every month, with orientation appointments to be scheduled the first week of every month for students interested in open seats
Families of students on the interest list or waitlist remain there until the family contacts the Welcome Center to remove the student, or until a seat become available at which time the Welcome Center will contact the family to accept or decline the seat. If the seat is declined, the student is then removed from the list.
