HWDSB Grade 1 French Immersion applications for 2027-28 are open until November 27

What is open

The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) opened its online application for Grade 1 French Immersion for the 2027-28 school year on October 27, 2026, and the board says the form closes on November 27. Applications for Grade 1 entry are accepted only through the online form linked from the board's French Immersion page, and the application is only available to current Senior Kindergarten students. To be eligible for 2027-28, a child must have been born in 2021.

How places are decided

The board says the Grade 1 process is run on a lottery system. HWDSB guarantees a placement within the French Immersion program, but not necessarily at the closest neighbourhood school, and living in a school's catchment does not give a child priority there. When on-time applications to a school exceed the places available, a random selection decides who is offered a home-school placement and who is offered a place at another school, which the board calls a re-direct placement.

• Availability of the program closest to the student's home address, based on the French Immersion boundary.
• Siblings: a Grade 1 child may attend the same school as an older sibling in French Immersion there, space permitting; the board says these applicants are offered a place before any random selection.
• The balance of English and French Immersion enrolment in dual-track schools (50 to 60 per cent in English or French, as the board puts it).
• The year-over-year effect as students move through Grades 1 to 8.

Schools and busing

HWDSB lists 18 schools offering French Immersion in 2027-28, grouped in the Sherwood and Westdale secondary school clusters. Thirteen of them start at Grade 1: A.M. Cunningham, Eastdale, École Élémentaire Michaëlle Jean, Frank Panabaker, Lawfield, Norwood Park and Parkdale in the Sherwood cluster, and Bennetto, Cootes Paradise, Dundana, Earl Kitchener, Guy B. Brown and Mary Hopkins in the Westdale cluster.

Transportation to French Immersion at a child's in-catchment school follows the board's transportation policy and is offered when that school is beyond the 1.6-kilometre walking distance for Grades 1 to 8. In Grades 1 to 6 that means yellow school buses with community stops, which the board says may not be within walking distance of home. Transportation to an out-of-catchment French Immersion school is the responsibility of the parent or guardian.

Also worth knowing

• The board says French instructional minutes and subjects are under review for the 2027-28 school year, and families will receive an update in the spring.
• Applications received after the deadline are reviewed at the beginning of April and then at the start of each month until September, and placement depends on the openings left.
• Friday, November 27, the day the application closes, is also an HWDSB P.A. Day, so students do not attend school.