How to Get School Referrals for Your Program: 6 Steps

Updated September 17, 2026

To get school referrals for your enrichment program, ask a happy principal or PTA lead for one specific introduction right after a strong term, and make it easy to give. Name the school you'd like to meet, send a three-sentence blurb they can forward, and attach your one-page recap. A referral gets your email opened. You still complete the new school's approval steps.

The full procedure for a first school, from the packet to the pilot, lives in the guide to getting your program into schools. This post is about what comes after: turning one good school into the next one.

I spent a decade in public education, leading schools. Then I founded Journey to STEAM, which runs programs at 75+ school sites, and 95% of our school partners renew. I've been the principal getting the cold email, and I've been the operator sending it. The warm introduction wins from both seats.

Why do referrals work better than cold emails to schools?

Because a principal's first question about any outside program is "who else trusts them?" A referral answers it before you've said a word.

Here's what most operators never see. When I was a principal, I had a district meeting on my calendar every month where all the principals gathered. Principals talk to each other. They compare what's working in their buildings, and that includes the programs they let in. A name a colleague vouches for is a known quantity. A name in a cold email is an unfamiliar risk to kids the principal is responsible for.

Cold outreach still works, and you should keep doing it. In my experience it's slow: it can take 6 to 12 months to get from a first email to a first session. A warm introduction can shorten the part where a school decides whether to take the meeting at all.

Who should I ask for a referral?

Anyone at a current school who has watched your program run well and knows someone at another building. That's more people than the principal.

• The principal. The strongest voucher, and the one with a monthly room full of peers.
• The PTA or PTO enrichment lead. These leads often know their counterparts at nearby schools, and at many elementary schools they run the enrichment calendar.
• The office manager. They know whether you made the front office's life easier or harder, and other offices ask them.
• A site coordinator who runs the daily after-school schedule.
• Families. A parent with a younger child at another school, or a friend on another school's PTA, can put your name in front of the right person.

When is the right time to ask?

Right after a visible win, and before next year's plans are set. Two windows work.

The first is the week a term ends, when you hand over your one-page recap: enrollment, attendance, what kids made, what families said. The proof is in their hand while you ask.

The second is February or March. That's when I check in with every partner about the coming school year, before the principal has started planning it. A principal who just agreed to bring you back is a principal who'll introduce you.

The wrong time is the week after a problem, or the first week of school, when nobody in the building has a spare minute.

What do I say when I ask for a school referral?

Ask for one named introduction, and do the work for them. "Do you know anyone who might be interested?" gets you a warm smile and nothing else. A specific ask gets a yes or a no.

1. Thank them with a specific. "Eleven of the twelve kids from fall signed up again."
2. Name the school. "I'd love to bring this to Hillcrest Elementary. Do you know the principal there?" Pick schools close to the ones you already serve.
3. Offer to write the note. "I can send you three sentences you could forward. Would that help?"
4. Send it the same day, with your one-page program sheet and the recap attached.
5. Follow up with the new school within two days of the introduction, and copy nobody. Your referrer did their part.
6. Close the loop. Tell your referrer what happened, and thank them whether or not it turned into a class.

In the blurb, lead with specifics and geography. "I run robotics and coding classes at 12 elementary schools within fifteen minutes of yours" reads as a known quantity. "I offer enrichment programs" reads as a stranger. Use your real numbers, whatever they are. Three schools is a real number.

What does a principal care about, and what does the district office care about?

A principal cares about kids and the building. A district office cares about paperwork and risk. Bring each one what they're looking for.

A referral speaks to the first column. Your paperwork speaks to the second. You need both.

Does a referral let me skip district approval?

No. A referral opens the conversation. The approval steps stay the same. Some schools can approve an outside program on their own. Others sit in a district that approves providers centrally, which takes longer the first time and then covers every school in that district.

So before you ask for an introduction, find out which kind of district the new school is in. If you're already approved there, say so in your blurb. "We're an approved provider in your district" is the most useful sentence you can hand a principal, because it tells them a yes won't create work. For what the approval steps look like and how long they run, see how long school vendor approval takes.

How much can referrals grow my program?

Here's the arithmetic with example numbers, made up to show the method. You have 10 partner schools. This spring you ask each one for a single named introduction. That's 10 asks. Say 6 people make the introduction, 3 of those turn into meetings, and 2 of those become a pilot class in the fall. You went from 10 schools to 12. That's 20% growth from ten conversations with people who already like you.

Your numbers will be different. The point is the first number. Zero asks gets you zero introductions.

How do I become the program schools refer?

Meet the school's standard, then add one thing the school didn't expect.

The standard first. What a principal remembers at renewal time is simple: kids were safe, families were happy, and the office never had to chase you. Nobody refers a program they had to manage.

Then the unexpected. One year on Principal Appreciation Day, I sent a principal at one of our schools a thank-you note and a coffee, unprompted. The reply said it was the very first email they read that morning, and that it made their day. I knew to do that because I had years of those mornings. Principals give all day. Almost nobody pours into them.

Registration counts too. A school that once hosted a program with paper forms and checks in backpacks remembers the work it made for the office. When families register and pay on their phone and the front office gets a clean roster with grade and homeroom teacher, you've made the office's week easier, and offices talk. That's the job we built enrops for after-school programs to do. See how it works.

Frequently asked questions

Can I offer a school a referral bonus?

Skip the bonus. People who work in public schools follow gift and ethics rules that differ by state and district, and paying for an introduction can put your contact in an awkward spot. A sincere thank-you note costs nothing and lands better. If you want to do more, ask the district what's allowed.

What if the principal says no to making an introduction?

Thank them and ask if you may mention that you run programs at their school. Most will say yes, and "we're in our third term at your neighbor school" does much of the same work.

Should I ask for a written testimonial too?

Yes, at the same moment, and ask permission in writing before you publish it. Two sentences from a principal on your one-page program sheet helps every future conversation.

How do I pick which schools to ask about?

Start with schools near your current sites, then score them. I use five signals, laid out in how to choose the right school partners.

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Arielle Hammond, Ed.D. is the founder of enrops and host of The Youth Enrichment Leader, presented by enrops.