An eligible school is an individual school that serves at least one grade from kindergarten through grade 12 and is authorized or recognized under applicable local, state, or federal law in the United States or its controlled domains.
To be eligible for consideration for the First Lady Seal of SI Readiness, a school must:
- Voluntarily register for the Challenge no later than December 18, 2026;
- Commit to work toward SI-readiness milestones;
- Submit verifiable, school-specific evidence of those milestones;
- Protect student information; and
- Cooperate with reasonable review of submitted evidence.
Participating schools may be eligible for prizes and the First Lady Seal of SI Readiness with Distinction if they complete all of the initial Seal milestones and demonstrate excellence in the remaining milestones.
Eligible school examples include:
- Public, charter, magnet, and other publicly funded schools;
- Private schools, including independent, recognized home, and faith-based schools;
- Schools operated or funded by the Bureau of Indian Education;
- Department of War Education Activity (DOWEA) schools and Department of State-supported overseas schools; and
- Eligible schools in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Each physical or administratively distinct school campus must register separately. A district, diocesan office, charter network, or other supervisory organization may coordinate implementation, but it may not earn or receive a single designation on behalf of multiple schools. Separate campuses submit separate registrations and school-specific evidence. A shared district or network policy may support a milestone only when the school also shows that the policy applies to and has been implemented at that campus. A school serving multiple grade spans under one recognized administrative identity should submit one registration.
The Challenge reserves the right to request documentation indicating that an applicant is an eligible, operating K-12 school. Homeschool students, homeschool educators, and community groups may continue to participate through the Challenge categories for which they qualify; this institutional pathway is limited to entities that can be verified as K-12 schools.
Note:
- Registration alone does not confer the First Lady Seal of SI Readiness, a reward, or an invitation to the National Finals.
- School registration to earn the Seal does not change the eligibility, judging, scoring, or awards for any student or educator project submission as part of the Presidential SI Challenge.
- Registered schools should follow their district or administrative organizations existing policies in pursuit of the Seal.