Enrollment

We are honored that you are interested in attending our school! 

Please review all of our admissions and enrollment information on this page, and let us know if you have any questions! 

All eligible applications for admission will be accepted, but that does not guarantee enrollment or registration. These terms are often confused, so please see the following definitions for clarification:

• Application for Admission: Parents complete a form with limited information to apply for admission during open enrollment for NEW students. This does not mean applicants are “Enrolled” or “Registered”.
• Enrollment: We determine how many seats are available in each grade level and offer enrollment to applicants accordingly. 
• Registration: Once the “Enrollment” process is completed, parents officially “Register” to accept their child’s placement into classes at the school. We are required to meet Colorado mandates and use the Cortez school district online system for this final step.
• Eligibility: CKMS serves Kindergarten through 8th grade. To enroll, students must meet the appropriate age requirements set forth by state law and school policy. To be eligible for Kindergarten enrollment, students must be at least 5 years old on or before October 1 of the enrollment year. To be eligible for 1st Grade enrollment, students must be at least 6 years old on or before October 1 of the enrollment year. The School may approve enrollment of students eligible for Early Access in accordance with state law.

​

Anti-discrimination Statement: Title IX, Anti-Discrimination and Discriminatory Harassment Policy 8-1-2024

Children’s Kiva Montessori Charter School (CKMS) welcomes all students, and student enrollment decisions shall be made in a nondiscriminatory manner as outlined in 22-30.5-507(3), C.R.S. In all cases, enrollment decisions shall be made without regard to disability, race, creed, color, sex, national origin, language, religion, ancestry, need for special education services, or any other protected class.
​
La escuela Children’s Kiva Montessori Charter School, autorizado por El Distrito Escolar RE-1 de Montezuma-Cortez, no discrimina por motivos de raza, color, origen nacional, sexo, discapacidad o edad. Se ha designado a las siguientes personas para que se ocupen de las consultas relativas a las políticas de no discriminación.

Enrollment Process and Timeline

Process: 

1. Re-Enrollment of current students: current students are automatically re-enrolled and do not enter the lottery provided they submit an Intent to Return document by the January 31st deadline.
2. Applications for NEW student admissions for the next school year will be available annually online and in person on February 1st.
3. Enrollment offers will be based on seats available for each grade level and must be accepted within 48 hours.
4. Enrollment and Registration documentation must be completed in 7 days to retain a seat, or we move to the next application.

Each year, CKMS will establish and make publicly available an Enrollment Timeline. CKMS will use a variety of means to promote its enrollment process. The Enrollment Timeline and instructions will be posted on the CKMS website by the head of school each year. CKMS will also use social media, community partnerships, parent newsletters, local newspapers, and/or other sources to promote the enrollment process. All communication and enrollment material will be available in the front office and on our website at www.kivacharter.org.

The school Registrar will contact applicants to start the Enrollment process if/when seats become available for their child’s grade level. Families must confirm that they will accept the seat(s) within 48 hours. Then the School will collect additional information and schedule tours and any necessary meetings, etc. During the enrollment, we ask for detailed student information, schedule tours, team meetings, and allow parents to see our unique approach to learning. If those applicants do not accept the seat within 48 hours of notification via phone and/or email; then, we offer that seat to the next person on the waitlist and move the applicant to the bottom of the list to rotate back up. If we have more applicants than seats available in a particular grade level, priority for available K through 8th grade spots will be allocated to the following groups, in the order stated below and a public lottery will be held for all other applicants:

1. Children of Founding Members of Children’s Kiva Montessori School; established in 2014.
2. Children of current, full-time teachers and staff.
3. Siblings* of returning, and admitted Kiva students.

Should there be more siblings of returning and admitted Kiva students than enrollment openings for a given grade, enrollment shall be offered at the Head of School’s discretion.

*NOTE:  Siblings include any child(ren) living in the same household or with a common parent/legal guardian in separate households. This includes children who become siblings by marriage and/or adoption. Any sibling born while a student is enrolled may retain that status even if the original student graduates from Children’s Kiva Montessori School before he/she reaches Kindergarten.  Any sibling offered a position in the first semester must enroll or forfeit their position.

Limitation: The combination of children of Children’s Kiva Montessori School founding families, board members, and children of current, full-time Kiva teachers and staff will not exceed twenty percent (20%) of the total enrollment population in any given year. Should these two groups of children exceed the twenty percent (20%) limit of the total enrollment population in any given year, priority within this group shall be given to:

1. Children of Founding Members of Children’s Kiva Montessori School; established in 2014.
2. Children of current, full-time Kiva teachers and staff; and
3. Children with Intent to Enroll forms received prior to January 31 annually.

If we need a public lottery for all other applicants, we will hold them at our school every Thursday morning at 10:00 am starting in February of each year to select the next applicant for an offer of enrollment until all seats are filled. On the days of the lottery selection, students are assigned random numbers and a random number generator is used to select students to ensure equality.  

Registration: Once the seat for enrollment is accepted, families of students will have 7 days to complete the paperwork and online registration information that must be submitted to the district in order to keep the seat for their child. 

IMPORTANT: Enrollment, for any student, will not be finalized until the parent/legal guardian has completed and submitted all applicable registration documents. Enrollments are, in all cases, subject to limitations imposed by law and requirements of the contract in place with the School’s authorizer. If there are no current school records to confirm the grade level of a New student, then the school will place that student into a grade based on the results of a grade level placement assessment.

Enrollment Timeline

1. January of each year, parents/legal guardians of students currently attending Kiva will be invited to Re-Enroll. It will be the parent’s/legal guardian’s responsibility of each student to Re-Enroll by the January 31st deadline.
2. February 1st, applications will be accepted for admission online and in the school’s office. The enrollment committee will determine the number of spaces available for new students in each grade level for the upcoming school year, and if there are more new student applicants than available spots, the enrollment committee will first place students from the Priority Enrollment Categories and then place students whose applications are next on the waitlist and use a public lottery system to select students. See details for priority placement via this link: Kiva Recruitment, Retention, and Enrollment Policy.
3. October 1st is the annual deadline for New Student enrolment opportunities, unless otherwise announced each year at the beginning of the application time period, and our enrollment process will begin again in January for the following academic year. A new waitlist (and/or lottery if more applicants per seat) will be opened each school year with no roll-overs from prior year applications. Families not admitted during the year they apply will need to reapply the subsequent year.

Thank you and please send questions about any of this to our head of school at [email protected]. We are so very grateful for your interest in our school and hope to meet you in person soon!

Updated 02/24/25