New Family Info & Resources

View the 2025-26 Academic Calendar

View the 2025-26 Cultural Calendar

E-bikes have become an increasingly popular choice to get around, especially for Mercer Island youth. Parents should make sure they’re informed about the rules and risks when buying or gifting an e-bike to students.

Visit our E-Bike Safety Page to learn more about the different classifications of E-Bikes and E-Motorcycles and what the laws are around the use of each. 

The City of Mercer Island has a E-Bike and E-Motorcycle Safety Page that also has important information families should consider when purchasing a E-Bike.

2025-26 Lunch Prices
The prices for lunch at our schools are listed below.

Elementary Student $4.50
IMS Student $4.75
Adult Lunch $5.50 (at both elementary and IMS)
MIHS – A La Carte $0.50 to $6.70

Food Payment Information
Families have several ways to pay for student meals. Students can bring a check to school to be put in their food services account. Families can also add money to their food service accounts online with Family Access. There are instructions on our website for how to add funds to Family Access.

More Information on Food Services, like Free and Reduced Meal Information, can be found on our Food Services website.

MISD Highly Capable Services (HiCap) are provided to meet the needs of students who perform or show potential for performing at significantly advanced academic levels when compared with others of their age, experiences, or environments in our District.

Annually, all MISD Kindergarten and Grade 2 students are universally tested during the school day in their respective classes. Testing occurs during a 2-week window in the middle of January. Each school determines its own testing schedule for these assessments.

Students in grades 1, 3-9 can be nominated by their families for testing. 

Learn more about HiCap on our HiCap website.

Both IMS and MIHS have Digital Course Catalogs that list all classes offered at each school.

You can filter classes at each school by department or grade.

The MIHS course catalog provides information on graduation requirements, Advanced Placement (AP) exams, Running Start, Summer School, CTE and CCR College/Dual Credit classes, and the schools’ Counseling Center

View MIHS Course Catalog

The IMS course catalog has 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade registration worksheets to help students determine the electives they will take. There are also informational videos from IMS administrators on electives, IEPs and 504s, world languages at IMS, PE waivers, HiCap, and the 5^th to 6th grade math progression.

View IMS Course Catalog

Elementary students are expected to attend the elementary school within their home boundary, except for those students who attend a district program outside of his/her geographic boundary (e.g., HiCap)

However, each year the district opens a form for parents to apply for their child to attend an elementary school that is out of their boundary area. The window opens on April 1 and closes on April 30 of each school year. If approved, parents are responsible for transportation of their child(ren) to school.

At the start of the 2024-25 school year we introduced MI Phone-Free Schools at IMS and MIHS to foster the learning environments we desire and promote healthy social and emotional development.

Each IMS and MIHS student will use a Yondr pouch to safely and securely store their cell phones, smartwatches, AirPods/Earbuds, and any other personal cell devices. Students will turn their cell phones off or put them in Do Not Disturb mode and then place them and their other items in the pouch and lock the pouch prior to the start of school. Students will then keep the Yondr pouch with them during the course of the school day and will unlock the pouch when leaving school for the day.

On our MI Phone-Free Schools website we have a robust FAQ with four sections, videos from the Superintendent and school principals on the policy, and additional resources. We encourage new families to learn more about MI Phone-Free Schools.

The Mercer Island Schools Foundation (MISF) was started in 1985 by community members and has since raised over $31 million to provide our schools with programs that inspire learning, enrich teaching, and promote innovation and academic excellence. MISF is the single largest donor to the Mercer Island School District.

The Foundation has provided a means for parents and community partners to invest in an exceptional public education for our island students. The need in the first few years for some textbooks and a few computers has grown into around a million dollar commitment to the District each year that maintains small class sizes, rigorous academics, and a breadth of educational experiences from kindergarten through high school.

ParentSquare is an easy-to-use communication tool that combines multiple communication streams – email, text, app notifications, and voice calls – into one easy-to-use interface for families. ParentSquare is used by teachers, schools, the district, school groups, athletic teams, fine arts groups, and other school and district affiliated groups to communicate with families.

ParentSquare syncs with Skyward, our School Information System, to pull your email and cell phone to send you email and text messages Your school registrar will send you a ParentSquare invite to download the ParentSquare app. Through the app you can select how you want to be notified and when you want to be notified. There is a “Digest” setting where you can receive all school, teacher, and district messages at 6pm each night.

Learn more about how ParentSquare will keep you in touch with what is happening in your student’s classroom and school on our ParentSquare page.

In our ongoing effort to increase communication between school and home, we are pleased to offer Qmlativ (Skyward) Family Access to our families. Qmlativ is our statewide Student Information System (SIS), and all families have access to the system. 

With this online ability, you will be able to view your child’s schedule, daily attendance, quarter/semester grades and grade books, and general and emergency information. The information is on a secure server, and you will access the information using a unique login and password.

MIHS student schedules will are usually available the third week of August and and IMS student schedules are usually available in the last week in August. 

Click here for Qmlativ (Skyward) Family Access

More information on Qmlativ can be found on our Qmlativ web page. 

Each school website is accessible via the “Our Schools” menu in the upper right corner of this website.

Special Services is a range of services that can be provided in different ways in a variety of settings as defined by a student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP).  It is highly individualized. There is no "one size fits all" approach.

If you suspect that your school-age child has a disability that is impacting their education, please contact the school psychologist at your child's school by email or phone.

Island Park Elementary - Rebecca Presley -206-230-6193
Lakeridge Elementary - Simone Carmel - 206-230-6032
Northwood Elementary - Simone Carmel - 206-230-6032
West Mercer Elementary - Rebecca Presley - 206-230-6193
Islander Middle School - Kristal Lee - 206-230-6187
MIHS/Crest/Pathways - Mike Neff - 206-236-3347 & Simone Carmel - 206-230-6032
MI Private Schools - specialservices@mercerislandschools.org

Contact information for MISD Special Services staff can be found on the Special Services webpage.

MISD provides bus transportation for:

• All elementary students who live within their school boundaries and live 0.5 miles or more from the school they are enrolled in. (To find your school boundary, use this map.)
• All IMS students who live on Mercer Island and live 0.75 miles or more from IMS.
• All MIHS students who live on Mercer Island and live 1.0 mile or more from MIHS.

In order for students to ride the bus, families need to sign up for service. To sign up for service please use the Transact Parent Portal or EZ A2B app (iOS / Android). In Transact/EZ A2B, you are able to view your student’s transportation information (including updated stop location and stop time information), track their bus, and receive notifications when the bus is nearby/delayed/re-routed.

MISD also provides bus transportation for:

• 5th graders attending music programs at IMS or MIHS
• Elementary students taking classes at IMS
• IMS students taking classes at MIHS
• (Limited service to) after-school programs at the Stroum Jewish Community Center or the Mercer Island Boys & Girls Club

Contact information for MISD transportation staff can be found on the Transportation website.

Visit our Volunteer In Our Schools page to view the requirements to volunteer at a school. 

When snow, inclement weather, or poor air quality is in the forecast, we have a plan in place to assess and monitor weather and road conditions overnight, in the early morning hours, and during the school day.

For overnight issues our goal is to make information available to families about school closures or changes in school operations by 6:00am. We will notify families of one of three options: 

• Schools will start at their regular times
• The start of school will have a 2-hour delay, meaning buses and classes are two hours later than a regular school day
• No school and all activities canceled. 

We notify families through ParentSquare email, text, and app notifications, post on all District social media platforms, and post a pop-up message on the home page of all school websites. Local radio and TV stations also broadcast information regarding closure and delays. 

Winter weather may bring road and driving conditions that cause changes in school operations such as delayed opening, early dismissal, or closure. The District takes into consideration the conditions on Mercer Island but also in surrounding areas where staff make their commute. The Superintendent, Director of Transportation, Director of Operations and Maintenance, and other administrators collaborate in the days leading up to a weather event to make sound and safe decisions during the weather event. 

When a decision has to be made aboutg 

Learn more about delays and closures due to inclement weather on our website.