DoDEA

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA — March 22, 2011 — Parents of students attending Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools can now pre-register their children for school with the click of a button.

DoDEA is launching an Online Student Pre-Registration System for School Year 2011-2012, with the aim of reducing the time parents will have to wait at the school registration site. In addition to helping parents and students, the new program will also allow school officials to better predict school enrollment for the upcoming year, make more informed decisions regarding teacher and staff requirements, and prepare in advance for special services, supplies, and other classroom needs.

Marilee Fitzgerald, Acting DoDEA Director, said the Online Student Pre-Registration System will help military families with the many aspects of moving to a new duty assignment.

"Our students and their families make so many transitions throughout the course of military life," she said. "Having an Online Pre-Registration System available in our schools helps families to better plan their moves, keeps them informed about their schools at their new assignment. The program also helps our school staffs to prepare and plan for each student's arrival, ensure their educational needs are met and make seamless transitions between schools."

Parents can pre-register their children by visiting the website: https://registration.dodea.edu/. The web-based application allows parents to enter basic student information and contains a feature that allows parents to attach copies of their permanent change of station (PCS) orders and verify birth dates for students entering kindergarten or first grade and immunization records.

Families who are not sure of which on-base housing community they will live in can pre-register by selecting the country and base or community if they know them, however, that information is not required for pre-registration. For those families who do know where they will be living, specifying the country and base/community will reduce the amount to time they will have to wait at the registration site.

While DoDEA's Online Pre-Registration Feature will help families transition to a new school, officials caution that the program does not complete the registration process nor can it be used to re-register a student.

"Completing the Online Pre-Registration process does not mean the student's enrollment in the school is confirmed," said Mike Lynch, DoDEA's Chief of Policy and Legislation and manager of the program. "Parents will still have to visit their child's school to update documents with new addresses and phone numbers as well as complete forms for bus routes, English as a Second Language courses, and media and internet releases. If parents did not attach a copy of their orders or other source documents for enrollment, they will also need to provide them at the school to complete the registration process."

DoDEA is currently developing a program similar to the Online Pre-Registration to allow parents to re-register their children in DoDEA schools.

DoDEA plans, directs, coordinates, and manages pre-kindergarten through 12th grade education programs for Department of Defense (DoD) dependents who would otherwise not have access to a high-quality, public education. DoDEA schools are located in Europe, the Pacific, the United States, Cuba, Guam and Puerto Rico. DoDEA also provides support and resources to Local Education Activities throughout the U.S. that serve children of military families.