For New and Prospective Students and Families

Enrolling at McDonald International

 If your child is interested in attending McDonald, you'll need to submit a “choice application” form to SPS. Option school assignment is by application only - you must submit a choice application form regardless of your GeoZone or whether your new student has siblings at McDonald Int'l.

How enrollment works:  
20% of seats in Kindergarten and 1st Grade are set aside for native/heritage speakers. Remaining seats are assigned to students who have submitted a choice application form according to the following tie breakers: (1) siblings, (2) GeoZone, and (3) lottery. GeoZones are NOT a guarantee of assignment, but do get priority over the open lottery for students who live in the GeoZone.

Option School GeoZones

Open spots in 2-5th Grade can only be filled by students who have sufficient language proficiency in Japanese or Spanish. Enrollment Services will waitlist these students, and the school will schedule and administer a language proficiency test. Families of students who pass the test will be notified of the assignment to McDonald Int’l by Enrollment Services. There are often openings in these higher grades, so if your student is proficient in Japanese or Spanish, please apply!

For more info or to fill out a choice enrollment form, visit the enrollment webpage here.

Wait List for McDonald

Wait List Summary found here.

Seat availability is constantly changing as some families notify SPS that their student will not attend, students are offered a seat from another waiting list, or families move away. Check the SPS website to see how long waiting lists stay active before the start of school.

Our Immersion Model

At McDonald International School, we offer both Spanish and Japanese Immersion at each grade level. Once assigned to a language, students spend half the day studying math and science in their immersion language. The other half of the day is spent studying Reading, Writing, Social Studies & more in English.

Each Immersion classroom has an Immersion Lead Teacher and an Immersion Assistant or Guest Teacher.  Our Immersion Lead Teachers are funded directly by Seattle Public Schools (your tax dollars).  Our Immersion Assistants and Guest Teachers reduce teacher student ratio from approximately 1:25 to 1:14 and are funded by the McDonald Elementary PTA (your donations).

Donations from parents help fund the hiring of Instructional Assistants and Guest Teachers.   All students are welcome at McDonald regardless financial contribution.  Our goal is 100% participation.  Any donation made to support the Instructional Support Fund is tax-deductible. New McDonald families are asked to make their tax-deductible donations in the fall to help pay for the Instructional Assistants and Guest Teachers already hired for their child(ren)’s classroom. We'll begin fundraising for next year's Instructional Support later in the year.

Typical Kindergarten Schedule

Students will have either an AM or PM language schedule, switching classes after lunchtime. Half-way through the year the schedule is flipped, so classes that had language immersion (math & science) in the morning and English (literacy & social studies) in the afternoon, will now have English in the morning and language immersion in the afternoon for the rest of the school year.

In addition to time in the classroom, students have the following activities:

Library – once per week
PE – twice per week
Art – twice per week

Additional offerings at McDonald International include:

  • Instrumental Music for grade 5 – once per week

  • After School Enrichment classes and activities. Offerings vary by trimester, but have included electrical engineering, basketball, unicycle, chess club, fine art, science, instrumental music, go club, math, writing, running club, dance, stop-motion animation, musical theater, basic computer programming, cooking, and more.

Get Involved Now with the School or PTA!

McDonald relies on parents to be active participants in their child's education. Check out some of the ways you can get involved and contribute to the enrichment of your child's McDonald community on our Volunteer page.

Share a skill, provide a connection, contribute a few hours, volunteer in the classroom, or support one of the many other volunteer opportunities listed there. Have an idea you want to pursue? Let us know about it!

Getting to Know You

Summer playdates will be organized and posted to the Events page to give incoming families a chance to get to know other McDonald Int'l families before school starts.

There will also be a "Meet the Teachers" event just before school starts in Sept, and a First Monday of the Month Caregiver Coffee. More social and informational events are and will be scheduled as the school year progresses. Prospective families and other community members are also welcome to attend the 2-3 Parent Educations events held at the school.

Another great way to get involved and get to know other McDonald Int'l parents is through our many Volunteer opportunities!