Twins assigned to different schools will stay in preschool another year

The fact that their twin girls were assigned to different Seattle schools for kindergarten surprised Stephanie Jewett and her husband. The fact that it wasn't a mistake shocked them.

They lobbied hard, received help from School Board members, and submitted a petition to the School Board with 599 signatures. But even though the district pledged to try to find a solution for next year, that didn't help the Jewetts now, and they ended up enrolling their daughters in another year of preschool.

"We just couldn't wait any longer," Stephanie Jewett said.

The girls' story, featured in The Seattle Times in July, highlighted a glitch in how the Seattle district assigns students to schools.

A younger sibling, in general, is nearly guaranteed a kindergarten spot at a Seattle school where the child has an older brother or sister. But twins — and any two siblings applying to the same school at the same time — don't get the same preference.

Annika Jewett was originally assigned to Bryant Elementary in northeast Seattle. Her sister Nicole was assigned to nearby Wedgwood. The family then asked that Annika be placed on the waiting list for Wedgwood because that list was shorter than Bryant's.

The school district offered the twins spots at Rogers Elementary a little farther away. But their mother, Stephanie Jewett, said she and her husband wanted their daughters to walk to school. She also questioned the fairness of treating twins differently from other siblings.

The Jewetts hoped that Annika would move off Wedgwood's waiting list sometime this summer, but days before school started this week, she still had not.

District staff say they don't discuss individual cases. In general, however, they said that they must follow the assignment rules that exist.

The twins have summer birthdays, so although they will be among the oldest kindergartners next year, they will be close in age to many students.

"It's just been a very stressful five months," Stephanie Jewett said. "As much as we tried to keep it from the girls, they were very stressed as well."

District staff members have said it's rare for twins to be assigned to different schools and that they can usually offer them both space at one school, just not always one of the schools where they were assigned in the first place. But Stephanie Jewett said she knows of five other families that have faced similar situations in the past two years.

School Board member Harium Martin-Morris, who tried to help the Jewetts, said the family might have ended up at Wedgwood if they had waited just a little longer.

"We would have hoped, quite honestly, that they would have waited to see what the waiting list looked like at the start of school," he said.

In the meantime, Tracy Libros, the district's manager of enrollment and planning services, told the Seattle School Board last month that staffers hope to figure out a way to avoid this sort of problem next year.

The discussion about the Jewetts' case also raised questions about what happens to foster children or exchange students.

Board member Peter Maier said those are among the issues that need to be discussed as the board crafts a new student-assignment plan.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com