Gatekeeper or Greeter? |
A Self-Assessment Tool for Improving School Enrollment
In our 2025 report From Gatekeepers to Greeters: How to Make School Enrollment Work Better for Families and Districts, we document the many challenges that families face while navigating unnecessarily complex and cumbersome school enrollment processes.
Every public school district’s approach to enrollment is shaped by several interconnected elements, from the policies that define the criteria for enrollment to the people and systems that facilitate the process.
Individually and collectively, these elements can be placed along a continuum from more closed, restrictive, and exclusionary to more open, accommodating, and welcoming. We categorize districts whose enrollment approaches embody the former characteristics as “Gatekeepers.” These districts treat the enrollment office like a guarded checkpoint; for them, complex processes, confusing information, and onerous requirements are common and sometimes intentional.
At the other end of the continuum are “Greeters.” Like the friendly faces at the front of a retail store, their approach to enrollment welcomes families, proactively extends support, and focuses on their experience and outcomes.
How do your school district's policies and systems stack up? Take this brief self-assessment to find out—and learn how to make the enrollment process better for everyone involved.
Individually and collectively, these elements can be placed along a continuum from more closed, restrictive, and exclusionary to more open, accommodating, and welcoming. We categorize districts whose enrollment approaches embody the former characteristics as “Gatekeepers.” These districts treat the enrollment office like a guarded checkpoint; for them, complex processes, confusing information, and onerous requirements are common and sometimes intentional.
At the other end of the continuum are “Greeters.” Like the friendly faces at the front of a retail store, their approach to enrollment welcomes families, proactively extends support, and focuses on their experience and outcomes.
How do your school district's policies and systems stack up? Take this brief self-assessment to find out—and learn how to make the enrollment process better for everyone involved.