FAQ
All K-12 teachers at CCS are Washington State–certified and teaching in their field of expertise. In addition to state certification, our teachers are further trained as Christian school certified. Early learning lead teachers have their CDA certification.
Elementary school begins promptly at 8:30 a.m. (9:30 a.m. on Mondays). Parents may drop off their students beginning at 8:20 a.m., unless they are in Cougar Club. The school day ends at 3:00 p.m. Parents may pick up their children between 3:00 and 3:10 p.m. Students not picked up by 3:15 will join Cougar Club.
Junior high/high school classes begin at 7:45 a.m. and end at 2:45 p.m.; Mondays are late start with classes beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Early learning class times may vary. Please see the website of the campus you are looking into for more details.
Parents are asked to let the office know before the start of school by phone or email if their child will be absent that day. If you know ahead of time that your child will be absent, let your child’s teacher(s) and the office know. Prearranged absences for vacations must be approved by the principal. You may also notify us via the Absent/Tardy Notification on the CCS website.
Class sizes vary somewhere between 15–25 students.
Additional information is available in the District Parent/Student Handbook. The campus webpage is also a valuable source of information.
Our dynamic Cougar Club, which operates before and after school, provides loving care and enriching opportunities outside of regular school hours. The fee is a separate tuition, based on the number of hours for which the student is enrolled each week. There is also the opportunity to utilize the program on a drop-in, as needed basis. Parents may enroll their students in the program by filling out the application and contracting for the days required.
Yes, we offer Variable Tuition. Once a student is accepted and enrolled, the family may apply for Variable Tuition. See the tuition information page.
We do not offer transportation through our school district. Most children come to school in carpools arranged by their parents. To help facilitate this process, the school office can direct parents to other CCS families who live in the same vicinity.
We conduct MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) testing in the fall and the spring, and teachers review results to maximize student learning.
Students begin computer classes in first grade, focusing first on computer literacy—learning the parts of the computer and the language of technology. By sixth grade, students will have had opportunities to apply Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in classroom projects. Junior high and high school students are issued a laptop device.
Students in our schools do not wear uniforms. The complete dress code is stated in the District Parent/Student Handbook. In general, students are expected to be well-groomed in clean, properly fitting clothing appropriate for school activities and suitable for a Christian school environment.
Our behavior and discipline expectations and processes can be found in our District Parent/Student Handbook.
Our Parents for Cascade (PfC) group meets once a month for an event planning and fellowship time. Call the office for the next meeting date. All parents are welcome!
The school has a district health coordinator (registered nurse) who reviews and manages general policies and practices that pertain to student health-related matters. The office personnel handle minor health and first aid needs. All staff members are required to be current on first aid training, CPR training, and the proper handling of blood-borne pathogens. For a major emergency, 9-1-1 would be called immediately.
Our CCS director of safety and security works to establish programs, procedures, and training to increase the safety of all CCS campuses. Emergency preparedness is a key way that we keep children safe on campus. We routinely rehearse procedures that our staff would use in the event of an emergency incident. We regularly conduct drills for fire, lockdown, shelter-in-place, evacuation to a mutual aid site, lahar, and earthquake.
Other safety procedures on campus include the following: all staff members wear staff identification badges; all visitors are instructed to check in and out at the school office and to wear an identification badge while on campus; all outside doors remain locked throughout the day, and main doors are monitored; safe routes for traveling around campus are taught to students and reinforced routinely; playground times are supervised by a team of trained playground supervisors; dismissal procedures are monitored carefully; playground areas and routes to playground areas are off limits to vehicles during school hours; and students are always supervised and are not allowed to walk around campus alone.
Our entrance testing and interview process help our administrators determine whether we are able to serve and support the individual needs of students. We are open to enrolling any student with any additional support needs as long as we feel we are properly equipped to serve them well.
See our school Emergency & Inclement Weather page.
We ask parents to keep a student home if they have a fever or vomiting. If a student has strep throat or pink eye, the student must be on medication for at least 24 hours before returning to school. Other diseases may have longer at-home times. Please refer to the Health and Safety section in our District Parent/Student Handbook for more details.