St. Johns County schools take transfer applications through Nov. 13, with open seats at five elementary schools only

What happened

The St. Johns County School District opened the first Controlled Open Enrollment window of the 2026-2027 school year on Monday, Nov. 2. Applications close Friday, Nov. 13. Controlled Open Enrollment is the statewide school choice option in Section 1002.31, Florida Statutes. It lets a family apply for a public school other than the one assigned to its home address, as long as that school has room and the parent handles transportation. Any Florida resident can apply.

The School Board approved the list of schools with available seats on Oct. 13, and the district posted updated seat counts on Oct. 14. The district's enrollment page says all St. Johns County middle schools, K-8 schools and high schools are operating at full capacity and are excluded from this window. Its FAQ says all high schools are operating at or over capacity.

Schools and seats in Window 1

The district's Window 1 table lists five elementary schools. The figures below are available seats by grade, from kindergarten through fifth grade.

• W. D. Hartley Elementary, 260 Cacique Drive: 4 in kindergarten, 12 in first grade, 0 in second, 16 in third, 28 in fourth and 6 in fifth.
• Ketterlinus Elementary, 67 Orange Street: 2 in kindergarten, 4 in first, 15 in second, 0 in third, 4 in fourth and 3 in fifth.
• Osceola Elementary, 1605 Osceola Elementary Road: 2 in kindergarten, 0 in first, second and third, 5 in fourth and 8 in fifth.
• Wards Creek Elementary, 6555 State Road 16: 10 in kindergarten, 8 in first, 0 in second and third, 9 in fourth and 6 in fifth.
• James A. Webster Elementary, 420 North Orange Street: 1 in kindergarten, 4 in first, 8 in second, 0 in third, 22 in fourth and 0 in fifth.

The grade figures add up to 177 seats. Hartley is the only school listing third-grade seats. The district says every seat is subject to the class size limits in Section 1003.03, Florida Statutes.

How a school gets on the list

The district's FAQ says it reviews capacity every 12 weeks by comparing each school's enrollment with its permanent building capacity, as counted in the state's Florida Inventory of School Houses report. A school with enrollment under 90% of that capacity goes on the Controlled Open Enrollment list.

How the lottery works

• One application covers a student for all requested schools. The main enrollment page says there is no limit on the number of schools a family may request. The FAQ says families may select up to three. The choice office (904-547-7754) can confirm.
• After the deadline, the district runs a numbered random lottery. In-county and out-of-county applicants are drawn in separate lotteries. In-county applicants are placed first, and out-of-county applicants are considered only if seats remain.
• State law gives preference to children of active-duty military families who moved under orders, children placed in foster care in a different zone, and children who moved because of a court-ordered custody change. The district also gives sibling preference within the in-county and out-of-county groups.
• Lottery results and notifications run Nov. 16 through Dec. 4, 2026. Families must accept an awarded seat within 10 working days of the email or lose it. Students placed in Window 1 start Jan. 5, 2027.
• The district does not provide busing for these students. The district points eligible families to a state transportation scholarship through Step Up For Students, one per household.
• Students with a current expulsion or suspension are not considered. A student with an IEP is placed only if the requested school can carry out the IEP as written.
• A placed student can stay through the school's highest grade. There is no appeal, and waitlists do not carry over between windows.

The later windows

Window 2 runs Feb. 1 to Feb. 12, 2027, with lottery and notification Feb. 15 to Feb. 26 and a start date of March 22, 2027. Window 3 runs March 29 to April 9, 2027, with lottery and notification April 12 to April 23 and a start date of Aug. 10, 2027. Children now in VPK or Pre-K who will start kindergarten can apply only in Window 3. The school list and seat counts for later windows may differ from the November list.

Background: school capacity and new homes

A St. Johns County Planning Division staff report dated Oct. 6, 2026, covers Bartram Grove, a request for up to 90 single-family and 90 multifamily homes on about 42.3 acres at 5404 Race Track Road. The School District estimated the homes would generate 38.5 elementary, 20.5 middle and 26.5 high school students. It found elementary and middle school capacity in the Beachside Concurrency Service Area and reserved those seats until Jan. 15, 2027. It found no high school capacity in that area or in the adjacent ones. The report says a school proportionate share mitigation agreement for the 180 units was scheduled for the Oct. 13 School Board meeting, and it lists a Board of County Commissioners hearing date of Nov. 3, 2026.

The School Board itself is changing. Tammie McClafferty won the District 4 seat on Nov. 3 with 60.82% of the vote, according to unofficial results reported by the St. Johns Record. First Coast News reported that District 4 covers the Nocatee and Ponte Vedra areas. Kevin Allen joins the board after defeating District 1 incumbent Beverly Slough in August. The board's next regular meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 4:30 p.m., and its reorganization meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 9 a.m., both at 40 Orange Street in St. Augustine.

What it means if you're moving here

• Middle and high school: Controlled Open Enrollment cannot move a middle or high school student out of the assigned school in this window. The home address sets the school. Check any address against the district zone lookup through our school directory and the school zones guide before signing a contract.
• Nocatee and Ponte Vedra Beach: none of the five schools on the list is in these areas, and the district says all of its K-8 schools and high schools are full. Buyers who want a specific school here should confirm the zone for the exact address.
• Northwest St. Johns: the Bartram Grove report shows the School District finding no available high school seats for new homes on Race Track Road. New subdivisions can still be approved with mitigation payments, so the zoned high school for a new-construction address is worth confirming with the district.
• World Golf Village and the State Road 16 corridor: Wards Creek Elementary on State Road 16 lists 33 open seats, mostly in kindergarten, first, fourth and fifth grade.
• St. Augustine: Ketterlinus and Webster are both on Orange Street, and Hartley and Osceola also have St. Augustine addresses. Together, the four list 144 of the 177 seats.
• Timing a move: a family relocating for the August 2027 school start would look at Window 3, March 29 to April 9, 2027. Applicants already living in the county are drawn in the priority lottery. Out-of-county applicants are drawn only if seats remain.
• Homes for sale: filtered community listing searches on ancientcitystays.com are where we send readers looking at homes in St. Johns County.

Our take

This is our opinion, based on the district's enrollment pages and the county staff report cited below.

The district promotes Controlled Open Enrollment as a way into Florida's top-ranked district, and its own table shows how few seats exist right now: 177 elementary seats at five schools, and nothing at the middle, K-8 or high school level. For a family moving here with children past fifth grade, the address on the purchase contract determines the school, so check the zone before making an offer.

Under the district's 90% rule, a school drops off the list once enrollment reaches 90% of permanent capacity, so schools in fast-growing zones are unlikely to appear. The Bartram Grove report shows the same pressure from the land-use side: elementary and middle seats were available for those homes, and high school seats were not, in that service area or the ones next to it.

Families with younger children have more options. Hartley, Ketterlinus, Wards Creek and Webster each list at least 10 seats in one grade. Without busing, those seats work best for families who live or work near the school.

What to watch next

• Lottery notifications from Nov. 16 to Dec. 4, 2026, and the Jan. 5, 2027 start date for Window 1 placements.
• The next 12-week capacity review and the school list for Window 2, which opens Feb. 1, 2027.
• The School Board's Nov. 10 regular meeting and Nov. 17 reorganization meeting.
• The county's decision on Bartram Grove and any school mitigation tied to it.