9th Grade Enrollment Process
2023-2024 School Year
Welcome to Berkeley High School! This page provides details on registration into Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) and Berkeley High School (BHS), the course selection process, and World Language and Math Placement.
Stay informed on the BHS E-tree. The E-tree is an essential source of information about orientation, registration, school events, sports, Student Daily Bulletin, College Advisors’ Bulletin, messages from the Principal, volunteer opportunities, and more. Please watch for postings with the subject line: Incoming Families. To subscribe to the BHS E-tree, send an email to bhs-request@lmi.net with the word subscribe in the subject line.
Continuing Enrollment for Current BUSD 8th Graders
and Admissions for NEW-to-BUSD students
Continuing BUSD Students: Current BUSD 8th-grade students must re-register.
NEW to BUSD Students: Students must first be admitted into Berkeley Unified School District to be assigned to Berkeley High School.
This process is only for Berkeley residents. Information regarding inter-district transfers can be obtained from the Admissions Office by calling 510-644-6504 or emailing admissions@berkeley.net.
Berkeley Unified School District uses a centralized student matriculation process, with two steps:
- Enrollment: Parents/guardians submit required documents in order to enroll students into Berkeley Public Schools. Students are then assigned to a school (in this case BHS) by the Admissions Office.
- Registration: The Admissions Office will then provide parents/guardians with instructions on how to register at the student’s assigned school.
Step 1: ALL ENTERING 9TH GRADERS must submit an enrollment packet to the BUSD Admissions Office
Enrollment Dates: November 14 – December 16, 2022
Enrollment will be accepted by email only:
- Enrollment Dates: November 14 – December 16, 2022
- Enroll with Admissions Office
- Submit all forms with all required documents as attachments to admissions@berkeley.net in one single email, documents through multiple emails will not be accepted.
- Once parents have submitted all of the required documents and are approved by the admissions office, you will receive an email confirmation within 5 business days assigning your student to Berkeley High School.
- Once you receive the confirmation email, you will need to follow the instructions in the email to complete Step #2
- Families who do not submit a completed enrollment packet by December 16th will not be assigned to a 9th-grade Hive or receive a class schedule until parents have completed the enrollment process.
- If you miss the December deadline, online enrollment will open again on March 27, 2023.
- If you have questions, please call the Admissions Office at 510-644-6504 or email admissions@berkeley.net.
Please note that incomplete or incorrect documents submitted on December 16th will not be granted extensions. We highly recommend you submit documents as early as possible.
Step 2: Berkeley High Registration
Now you must complete the registration process for Berkeley High School.
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Submit assignment provided by admissions and registration packet with attachments to newregistration.bhs@berkeley.net.
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Once the registration packet is submitted you will receive a confirmation email.
Your students enrollment is not finalized until you have completed the registration process by deadline noted in your email confirmation from the Admissions office.
Step 3: Complete Course Selection and Placement Assessments
Continuing BUSD Students:
BHS administrators and Hive Leads will visit BUSD middle schools only to do Zoom class presentations for 8th grade students. During the school days following in-class presentations, BHS counselors will have Zoom sessions at each middle school to gather course requests from students via an online form. BHS will email the student selections for final review and families/guardians will have one week to request changes using an online form.
NEW-to-BUSD Students only:
Course Selection: New-to-BUSD students who have completed the admission process by the December deadline can make course requests in March.
World Language Placement
The World Languages placement test for incoming students of all languages EXCEPT FRENCH (see instructions for the French test below) will take place VIA ZOOM on Saturday, April 15th. The test for students taking a Spanish or Mandarin placement test will start at 9:30 AM. The Latin placement tests will start at 11:00 AM.
The FRENCH EXAM will be done IN PERSON at Berkeley High School on Monday, April 17 and Wednesday, April 19 at 3:45 p.m. After you register, you will receive an email confirming the date and time that corresponds to you, as well as the exact location for the test at Berkeley High.
Who Should Take a Placement Test?
- Students with little or no previous language experience are automatically placed in level 1. They DO NOT need to take this test.
- Students who have completed two years of the same language in middle school will be placed in Level 2. This includes students from within BUSD, as well as from private and independent/private schools. They DO NOT need to take this test.
- Students from Longfellow Middle School dual immersion program will automatically be placed by Ms. Patterson and we will accept her recommendation. They DO NOT need to take this test.
- Students who were in a level at BHS last year, will move on to the next logical level, provided they earned a C or better in the previous class. They DO NOT need to take this test.
- Are you a Spanish native speaker or have native-like proficiency and want to test into the first or second level of Spanish-for-Native-Speakers classes? THIS TEST IS FOR YOU and you need to register below.
- Do you want to skip a level? Do you want to start at a level that is higher than one of the above automatic placements? THIS TEST IS FOR YOU and you need to complete the registration below.
In order for a student to participate in one of these tests, you must do the following:
- For all languages EXCEPT FRENCH, complete this registration form only once, please. Students who did not not pre-register will NOT be able to take the test.
- IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO TAKE A PLACEMENT EXAM FOR FRENCH, REGISTER HERE
- ALL REGISTRATIONS FORMS must be completed by MARCH 31rst.
- After you complete the registration, look for a confirmation email and the Zoom link by April 1 for FRENCH and April 12th for all other languages .
- On the day of the test, students (EXCEPT FOR FRENCH who will take their exam in person) will enter the Zoom waiting room and will be called on one by one by the moderator to verify registration. Depending on the number of people testing, students could be in the waiting room for a long time. Be patient. Wait in the room until you are invited into the main session.
- Your student should be prepared to do a one-on-one oral proficiency test with a language teacher as well as a short writing assignment. For Spanish, Mandarin and Latin, the students will be monitored by a teacher on Zoom while they complete the written part.
The placement results will be sent to parents and guardians approximately a week after the date of the test. Please have your student be ready to stay on Zoom for approximately two hours. It will be best if the student uses a computer to take the placement test and not a cell phone. As a reminder, we will use both the oral and written tests to determine the appropriate placement. Academic dishonesty of any kind including the use of electronic translators, such as Google Translate, is prohibited and will void results. The placement level determined by the World Language teachers is final.
PLEASE NOTE that students who are unable to attend the Spring placement tests will be assessed by their assigned language teacher when the 2023-24 school year starts. Once we receive the results of the placement test, we will make the recommendation to the counselor. No level changes can happen before then.