Elementary School Admissions           High School Admissions

General Admissions Information

The John F. Kennedy School (JFKS) is an academically competitive college preparatory school. Admission is selective. It is based on past school records and, where necessary, on testing. All admissions are probationary for one semester. Qualified American applicants are admitted on a first-come, first-served basis, with certain priority exceptions. It is crucial that student applications be submitted as early as possible, prior to arriving in Berlin, as there are only a limited number of places at each grade level.

Admission to the JFKS is governed by the JFKS Law and by an Educational Directorate resolution ("Regulation of Admission to the John F. Kennedy School, as amended by Resolution No. 494/228 of March 8, 1988, No. 525/312 of October 17, 2000, No. 561/340 of November 2, 2004 and No. 582/345 of May, 10, 2005 of the Educational Directorate of the John F. Kennedy School)

Priority is given to German and American children who represent the culture of the passport they hold, linguistically and culturally. Third nationals, i.e. children who are not either German nationals or American nationals, may be admitted only upon vote of the Educational Directorate and only if their admission does not block that of an American or German child.

Siblings of students who have been at the JFKS for at least one year will receive priority status for admission. Children who are bilingual in German and English due to special cultural circumstances and background also receive admission priority. Children of full-time permanent teachers with either German or American contracts will be granted admission priority. Within the American student application pool, children of parents involved with official United States government business, the U.S. State Department, or U.S. government contractors receive priority over U.S. nationals living in Berlin independently.

In general, children from the German and American community living in Berlin are admitted in equal numbers.

For more information and application forms see Elementary School Admissions or High School Admissions.

Probation

All admissions to the John F. Kennedy School are probationary. For grades K through 6 the period of probation is one year from the date of admission. For students in grades 7 through 13, the period of probation is half a year or one semester from the date of admission.

Probation conferences are held at the end of the first and second semesters. These conferences consist of the appropriate classroom teachers, guidance counselor, and an administrator, who decide whether a child has passed or failed probation.

The decision by the probation conference to pass or fail a child is based on the consideration of whether the child can benefit from and is properly served by the school's bilingual-bicultural program. The criteria include both academic and social performance and particularly the assessment of a child's ability to master the school's bilingual requirements. Experience has shown that some children are not best served by the program of the JFKS.