Our admissions process aims to help parents decide if the Farm School would be the best place for their child.  To get started, please:

1. Look around this website.  There's a lot of information that will help you decide if you would like to pursue admission.
2. Contact us at info@ocfarmschool.org.  We'll be happy to answer your questions and, when you're ready, to make an appointment for you to tour our school.
3. If, after your tour, you decide that you would like to apply for admission, your child will be invited to visit.

Application FAQs

Are there currently spots available at The Farm School?
We run a rolling admission program because we recognize that students may need to begin school or change schools at times other than the beginning of September. 

Can students join the Farm School in the middle of the year?
Often, the answer to this is yes.  Thanks to the Farm School’s individualized program and low teacher-to-student ratio, students arriving in the middle of the year usually do very well adapting to our program.  In fact, we sometimes recommend that children starting kindergarten with us in the fall start instead the prior spring.  This gives them a head start and avoids a summer-long build up of new-school anxiety.   

Is there a waiting list for entrance to The Farm School?
Yes.  We maintain a waiting list for children currently too young or not yet ready to enroll at the Farm School. You can email info@ocfarmschool.org to place your child’s name on the waiting list. Please include:

1. your name
2. your contact information
3. your child's name
4. your child's date of birth
5. the date you would like your child to start at Farm School
6. the grade at which your child would start, and
7. how you heard about the Farm School.

We then recommend that you contact the Farm School again the January before you are interested in enrolling your child to arrange for a parent tour and a child visit.

What is the application process to Farm School?
Begin by looking at the information on this website and then schedule a tour.  After you have seen our classrooms in action, you may then fill out a formal application, pay the application fee, and schedule a visit to the Farm School for your child.  The child's visit gives the teachers an opportunity to meet your child and evaluate how best we can meet your child's educational, social, and emotional needs.

What is your age cutoff for kindergarten?
Children are generally five-years-old in the year they start kindergarten but we base our admissions decisions on the individual child. Some five-and-one-half year olds may not be socially ready for kindergarten, while some almost-five-year-olds may be very ready.

What criteria do you use in choosing which students to admit to Farm School?
We assess an array of academic, social, and developmental skills.  We evaluate how well a potential student can fit in with the current class, how socially ready the student is to do independent work, and how well the student will excel at Farm School.  We do this during your child's two-day visit to the school so that we can get a sense of whether the Farm School will be the best learning environment for your child.