WSB
FYI unless something has changed – did your child take the Spectrum/APP test this past fall? If not, the program wouldn’t be a factor for you next school year (someone correct me if this has changed).
When we realized our son (now an 8th grader) had to change schools toward the end of 1st grade, it was too late for him to get into Spectrum for 2nd – the results of fall testing are used for admission the following fall. He subsequently took the tests and was in Spectrum in Lafayette the next year, had an incredible time there 3rd through 5th grades. He attended Alki in 2nd grade but that was way too long ago for our experience to have any relevance now. Perhaps the biggest change in Lafayette from what we have seen/heard about in the three years since he “graduated” is that it’s now got more students since the school closures have forced more kids into less space. And if he were going into elementary Spectrum now, Arbor Heights is supposed to start this fall, so “south end” Spectrum kids, as he was, would be going there instead of Lafayette, which at the time was the only Spectrum elementary in West Seattle (there was some attempt to start a program at then-High Point elementary but it never became self-contained, which is how the elementary-level program is supposed to be).
Good luck!