Austin Regional Spelling Bee
The Austin Regional Spelling Bee is the final, local spelling bee and the culmination of a program that runs in parallel with the school year. It begins in the classrooms and the classroom champions advance to the school wide spelling bee. The school spelling bee determines their champion that will advance into the Austin Regional Spelling Bee program.
The qualifying step before the final, local Bee is performed by the school champions on the Scripps National Spelling Bee Online Testing Platform. This will determine our top spellers and the participants in the Austin Regional Spelling Bee. The event will feature 40-50 of the area’s top student spellers, usually grades 4th-8th, from Austin and 10 surrounding counties: Bastrop, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Fayette, Hays, Lee, Milam, Travis and Williamson — an area encompassing over 600 schools and thousands of students.
The Austin Regional Spelling Bee champion will be awarded a trip to Washington D.C. for 'Bee Week' and guaranteed participation in the national competition, the Scripps National Spelling Bee. This is an excellent opportunity to showcase their knowledge and highlight our city!
Spelling Bees are one of the longest running academic traditions in the country. Participation teaches students confidence, public speaking, on the fly problem solving, sportsmanship. dealing with pressure, success and disappointment. The rewards of participation are endless!
How Can Your Child Participate?
Each year 11 million students compete in spelling bees at the school level, learning important new words along the way. Encourage your school to learn more about the spelling bee program and the materials provided for 1st through 8th grade students.
Important Dates 2022-2023
Program General Timeline:
August 25th - January 31st, 2023: Schools can enroll in the Program*
* Although enrollment is open through the end of the year, waiting doesn't give you much time to execute the classroom and school spelling bees to meet the next deadline
January 20th, 2023: School Spelling Bees should be complete and champion information reported to Scripps by January 21st, 2022.
January 27th - February 10th 2023: Online Testing Window for School Champions to determine the Austin Regional Spelling Bee participants.
March 4th 2023: Austin Regional Spelling Bee will be shared with qualifying spellers!
May 28th through Friday, June 2nd, 2023: BEE WEEK in Washington D.C!
**Schools may report their top two finalists as champions to advance beyond the school Bee to the online qualifying test. This can be a champion and runner-up or tied co-champions.