With as many as 10,000 families expected to enroll students in the Boston Public School system for the upcoming academic year, school officials are hoping to educate parents before they begin the enrollment process to improve their odds of selecting a school that works best for their child.

Parents living in the BPS East Zone, which encompasses South Boston, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park, must enroll their first-time students at the East Zone Family Resource Center located at 1216 Dorchester Ave between Jan. 3 and Feb. 3 in order to be eligible for placement in the 2012-1013 academic year.

While enrollment workers stress that they are willing to walk parents through the process, they said families that do their homework before coming to the center can expect shorter wait times and a smoother transition into the school system.

Denise Snyder, senior director of BPS Welcome Services, said small steps like pre-registering basic information about your family online can shorten an enrollment visit from 45 minutes to as little as 15. She also added that registration is set up in a staggered schedule based on the parent’s last name, so showing up on January 3 does not improve your chances of getting your first choice of schools.

“It can get pretty crazy here on the first day,” Snyder said, adding that even with extra staff on hand, “there will easily be 200 parents lining up. But someone who came in on the last day of the first registration period might get their first choice.”

Snyder added that as long as parents find the time to register within the first month-long period, there are only a few factors that determine whether their child will attend their first choice: the presence of siblings already attending a school, the family’s listed school preferences and a family’s proximity to the school. These factors are run through an algorithm once the registration window has closed to determine where a child will be assigned, while a randomly-generated lottery number is given to each student as tie-breaker in the event a school is over registered.

Snyder said that half the seats at every school are designated for students within that facility’s “walk zone,” which in kindergarden classes extends a mile from the school. However, nearby students who do not receive a walk zone seat are still eligible for enrollment. She added that siblings already attending the school factor into the equation because it streamlines transportation and helps minimize adjustments parents need to make while aclimating their new student to the program.

Finally, Snyder suggested parents perform some research and school visits as they devise a list of potential schools for their children and begin the registration process with at least five schools they feel are a good fit for their student.

While parents can do preliminary research into school start times, class and school sizes and extracuricular activities through the BPS What Are My Schools webpage, Snyder said school tours held from now until Jan. 20 are the best way to determine school preferences. Schools are required to have at least three open houses and dates are posted on the BPS website and can also be found through the Family Resource Center.

Snyder said picking the best schools boils down to balancing practical needs and the type of environment in which parents think their children will perform at their best.

“Before you start thinking about schools, make a list of what is important to you,” Snyder said. “Think about the start time, the commute, what time you can get to work, then focus on the educational side of things...When you make your visits, ask yourself if the kids look excited to be there, would you be excited to have this teacher teaching your child, is the work on the walls something you would be excited for your child to accomplish?”

In recent years, BPS has made efforts to simplify the registration process by decreasing the number of official documents required for enrollment and have also started printing registration material in eight languages ranging from English to Cape Verdean and Vietnamese. 

Despite these efforts, Snyder said there is still work to be done to ensure parents, espescially those in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury, are aware of the registration timeline and are signing up their children on time to ensure they get the best set of school choices.

“We’re going back to the grassroots. We have billboards, we flyer to tell people about this process,” Snyder said. “But until you register for us, you have to find us before we can find you.”