Enrollment/Lottery Guidelines

According to the School Reform Act (Sec 38-1802.06), enrollment in public charter schools is open to all students who are residents of the District of Columbia, and if space is available, to non-resident students who pay tuition at the rate established by the State Education Agency. A public charter school may not limit enrollment based on student's race, color, religion, national origin, language spoken, intellectual or athletic ability.

To ensure that children in the District of Columbia receive fair and equitable opportunities to enroll in and attend public charter schools, the District Of Columbia Public Charter School Board (PCSB) has created enrollment and lottery guidelines. Please note that these guidelines are located in the PCSB Policy and Procedures Handbook, which has been given to each school.

Enrollment/Lottery Process

School administrators will soon begin or have already begun the enrollment process. Student re-enrollment counts and school capacity should help to project the number of available slots. The following information should assist your school in developing a clearer understanding of the PCSB's policies regarding the lottery and waiting list procedures.
  1. School determines enrollment period and makes public announcement of enrollment deadlines. Evidence of school's public announcements will be verified during the PCSB's Annual Compliance Review. Therefore, these data should be collected and maintained at the school. Best Practices: Written announcement is posted in local papers, community fliers, bulletins, websites, etc.
  2. School receives completed applications for enrollment by posted deadline.
  3. If the school is over-subscribed at the end of the enrollment period, then all the applications go into the lottery.
  4. The lottery is a system of random selection of applications that identifies students for enrollment and generates the school's waiting list. During the lottery process all completed and accepted applications submitted during the enrollment period are publicly drawn in random order until capacity is reached and the remainder is placed on the waiting list.
    Best Practices: The public lottery should occur soon after the closure of the enrollment period.
    Example: School may choose to have the lottery drawing at a publicly announced parent teacher meeting, school board of trustees meeting, or a community meeting.
  5. The waiting list ranks applications that were submitted during the enrollment period. These applicants should be identified by number and by grade. As spaces become available at the school, they should be offered to the applicants in the order of placement on the waiting list.
  6. Schools may exercise two options in arranging the waiting list. 1) Schools may arrange their waiting list by lottery results, OR 2) Schools may place those applications received by the deadline in order of their submission on a waiting list and then all other applications should be placed after them in order of their submission on that waiting list.

    Examples:

    1. During the enrollment period, a school was over-subscribed by 4 students. The 4 students that were not selected for that school year will be placed onto the waiting list numbered 1-4. In September the school receives a post enrollment period application. That applicant must be given number 5 on the waiting list. If another application is submitted in November, that applicant is given number 6 on the waiting list.
    2. During the enrollment period, a school was neither under-subscribed nor over-subscribed, (the school had an exact number of applicants for the number of available spaces on the enrollment deadline date). An application is submitted the day after the enrollment period deadline. That applicant becomes number one (organized by grade level) on a waiting list. The school may continue to develop its waiting list (organized by grade level) based on submission dates of the applications throughout the school year.
    Best Practices: Schools should maintain a current waiting list in the main office.

Reminders

  1. Charter schools are required to include special needs students in its regular lottery.
  2. A school may limit enrollment to specific grade levels but this practice should be consistently enforced.
    Example: Some high schools have a policy of accepting only 9th and 10th graders.
  3. Schools may grant enrollment preference to siblings of current students during the enrollment period.
  4. If a parent submits applications for siblings within the enrollment period, if one of the siblings is chosen in the lottery, the other siblings may be enrolled as long as a slot is available in the siblings' grade levels.
  5. Weighted waiting-list for NCLB compliance – "No weighted preference must be given to students coming from school 'identified' as not meeting AYP for two consecutive years."
  6. The lottery drawing must be announced in advance and occur in a public forum. Evidence of the lottery drawing in a public forum will be verified during the PCSB's Annual Compliance Review.
  7. The lottery must be conducted for every grade and for every space available during the enrollment period.
  8. A waiting list is only valid for one school year. Schools must begin a new "enrollment-lottery-waiting list" process each school year.

New Reporting Practices for the Lottery

  1. Each school's description of its enrollment process should include its policy for accepting transfer students during the school year, if it is not already included.
  2. All schools must report the number of spaces available (if any), and the number of applications received by the end of the enrollment period organized by grade level. If the school is under-enrolled, they should report the number of spaces still available organized by grade level. PCSB will send a spreadsheet to schools for this reporting requirement.