FAQs

UW Youth & Teen Programs offers noncredit enrichment courses for youth, both online and in-person at the UW Seattle campus. 

Our programs are designed for students entering grades 4 through 12. Most courses are open to all students, regardless of experience; some courses, like coding or writing, may have prerequisites or English proficiency requirements. Visit the course detail pages for more information.

UW Youth & Teen Programs offers a wide range of courses on the UW Seattle campus and online during the summer, from late June to August.

Summer courses meet Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to noon or 1 to 4 p.m., for two weeks. We offer four sessions of courses during the summer. 

Youth & Teen Programs will no longer offer Winter and Spring  programming beginning Fall 2026. 

Homework is minimal, if at all.

Because UW Youth & Teen Programs courses are noncredit, no transcript is available and students do not receive a grade.

High school students who successfully complete a UW Youth & Teen Programs course earn a digital badge that they can share in college applications and on social media. Learn more about digital badges.

Families can also print simple completion certificates for courses from the registration portal after a course has ended.

Courses for credit are available through UW Summer Sessions.

The federal EIN for the University is 91-6001537. Our programs are FSA eligible. Please keep your confirmation email as that is your invoice for the program. For additional questions, please email us at ytp@uw.edu.

You can register for courses online.

When registering for a course, you’ll need to enter a Gmail address (xxxx@gmail.com) for your student. A Gmail account is needed to use our online learning management systems. If your student doesn’t already have one, you can create a Gmail account here.

Register your student for the grade they will enter in the fall, also known as their rising grade level.

For example, if your student is in 5th grade but entering 6th grade in the fall, register them as a 6th grader. 

Yes. Registration for each course closes two weeks before the course start date.

Learn about our refund and course cancellation policies.

After you register, you’ll receive a confirmation email from our Ideal-Logic registration system.

About seven to 10 days before your course begins, you’ll get a welcome email directly from our team with important details about the course, including the instructor, class location or Zoom link, any supplies you might need, and more.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at ytp@uw.edu.

If your student is on a waitlist and a space becomes available, you’ll get an email from ytp@uw.edu. To ensure that you receive waitlist emails, we recommend that you add this address to your Safe Senders List.

You’ll have 48 hours to let us know if you’d like the space. If we don’t hear back from you, you’ll be removed from the waitlist and the opening will be offered to the next waitlisted student.

As we get closer to the start of a course, the time you’ll have to respond to a waitlist email may be reduced to 24 hours.

The costs of our courses vary. You can find the cost at the bottom of the course detail page. In addition to the course cost, there’s a $50 nonrefundable registration fee per student for each quarter you register.

Payment is due in full at the time of registration. At this time, we can only accept payments via credit/debit. You can pay by Visa or Mastercard.

We offer a 15% discount to current UW employees and students. You'll need to enter your UW NetID during registration to access this discount.

We offer limited financial assistance every quarter to students with demonstrated financial need. Awards are made on a first-come, first-served basis until funds are exhausted. To qualify, students must meet the income criteria for the federal free and reduced-price school lunch program. 

Awards cover the course and registration fees for one course. For online courses, we cannot assist with technology needs, including a high-speed internet connection, computer, headset or webcam. Students are eligible for one award each academic year, ending in August.

Financial assistance applications are submitted as part of the registration process. To apply, register for the course you’re interested in and select the financial aid option at the time of payment.

You can upload your qualifying documents and submit your application at that time. Staff will respond within three business days. Applications are processed on a rolling basis until funds are exhausted.

Dates & Deadlines

To receive a full refund of your course fees, not including the nonrefundable registration fee ($50), you must withdraw from a Youth & Teen Programs course no later than June 1.

Details

• There are no refunds after this date. 
• The $50 registration fee is nonrefundable.
• We can help you transfer your registration to a new course during the same summer. However, we’re unable to offer credit to be used to register for courses at a later date.

Hardship Withdrawals

If your student is unable to attend a course because of circumstances beyond your control and the refund deadline has passed, you may petition for a hardship withdrawal by emailing us at ytp@uw.edu.

You’ll need to complete and return a hardship withdrawal form. We’ll review your request and notify you about our decision in a timely manner. Refunds are not guaranteed.

Hardship withdrawal decisions will be made by the Youth & Teen Programs team. 

To drop a course and cancel your registration, return to the registration system. On the course details page of the course you want to drop, click on the Cancel Registration button. At this point, staff will be prompted to confirm and process your cancellation and refund, if applicable.

Once your cancellation is complete, you’ll receive a confirmation email.

UW Youth & Teen Programs reserves the right to cancel a course for a range of reasons, such as unexpected change in availability of facilities or instructors.

In the event of a course cancellation, we’ll notify you as soon as possible before the program start date.

Refund Details

• If a course or program is cancelled and your student is registered for only one course, all fees will be refunded.
• If a course or program is cancelled and your student is registered for multiple courses, only the course fee for the cancelled course will be refunded.
• There may be times when class is cancelled for our courses due to weather, heat or smoke concerns. If this occurs, we will only begin offering pro-rated refunds if more than two days per session are cancelled.

Because UW Youth & Teen Programs courses can be rigorous and move at a fast pace, they may not be the best fit for students who don’t have a high level of English language proficiency. Check the Who Should Register section of the course detail page for any English language proficiency requirements.

UW Youth & Teen Programs does not provide lunch for students, and students do not have access to refrigerators or microwaves. Please provide your child with snacks and lunch as appropriate.

We also ask that you send your child with a water bottle. Water fountains and bottle filling stations are available in most campus buildings.

Elementary and middle school students who are registered for both a morning and afternoon course will automatically be registered for our supervised lunch hour between classes. If you do not want your student to participate in supervised lunch, please email us at ytp@uw.edu to let us know. Please note that if a child withdraws from supervised lunch, they may not drop in on a case-by-case basis.

If your student needs to miss a class, arrive late or leave early, please notify us ahead of time via email at ytp@uw.edu or by calling (206) 685-6525.

Our staff takes attendance at the start of every class. To ensure your student is safe and accounted for, we’ll contact guardians via email and phone about any unexcused absences.

As soon as you know you are running late, please call or email YTP staff immediately at ytp@uw.edu or (206) 685-6625.

Our staff members are required to stay until the last child is picked up. We ask families to be considerate of staff and children as we work together to provide your students with an awesome summer experience.

After two late pick-ups of 30 minutes or more, all students in the family group will be removed from on-campus classes for the rest of the summer, including any remaining days of the current session. No refunds will be issued.  

You can share any information about your student’s learning or social needs during registration. A staff member will follow up before the start of class if additional information is needed or to discuss whether we can provide any accommodations to help ensure your student’s success. We’ll share this information with the instructor before the course begins.

The University of Washington is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, activities, education and employment for individuals with disabilities.

Whenever possible, you should request accommodations before enrolling your student. For more information about requesting accommodations, contact us at ytp@uw.edu or the UW Disability Services Office at dso@uw.edu.

To help ensure that your student has a positive experience, please share information about any special needs your student has that staff should know about when you register. We’ll reach out if we need any additional information. We don’t require any official documentation, such as IEPs or 504 plans.

When possible, we will ship any required supplies for online courses directly to students, though we will often ask families to provide basic supplies, such as writing implements, scissors, etc.

When registering for your course, please ensure your shipping address is accurate. Due to budget constraints, we are unable to ship supplies internationally at this time.