Admissions Policies
Student Admissions & Lottery Process
General Plan:
The Charter School Committee has determined all policies, processes, and procedures governing application, admission, and enrollment policies of the school.
The School recruits a diverse student population from the neighborhood middle schools. Admission to the school is open to any resident of the State of California. The School is non-sectarian in its programs, admissions policies, employment practices, and all other operations, shall not charge tuition, and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, or disability.
The School does not require students to provide information on health, educational placement, or academic record.
The following process would be followed if a Lottery were to take place:
Implementation of Lottery System if Needed
Parents of prospective attendees will be informed by means of the school application packet of the school's capacity and the possibility of a lottery if demand for school slots exceeds the number of slots available. The packet of information will apprise prospective school families of the order of preference in selection of students.
The order of preference in selection of students is:
First Priority: Current Families
Second Priority: Families within the East Side Union High School District
Third Priority: Non-district students
If such a lottery becomes necessary, it will be held as many days from the start of the school year as is possible from the time it becomes clear there will be more applicants than slots. This will be done to give those students not admitted to the charter school sufficient time to register in another school.
Admissions and Enrollment Timeline
The below timeline of Recruitment and Admissions activities is a general outline of the sequence and timing of the general activities relating to new students. The general order of the events will remain, however the details of the events (including enrollment targets) may be modified over time in accordance to best practices. All processes, modifications and dates of the lottery will be communicated to the district and on the school's website in the interest of transparency, as follows:
August-June: Application period officially opens; application materials sent to target students (contact information from first semester presentations); enrollment target of 30% (30-40 students) of entering freshmen.
Bilingual (English and Spanish) open houses, middle school presentations, tabling sessions, parent meetings community events, home visits and enrollment drives with interested families; intent to enroll forms and interest cards collected. In school presentations will be ongoing.
End of April: Enrollment target of 60% (60-80 students) of entering freshman class.
May: Registration seminars to complete enrollment process (lunch application, student records acquisition, etc); Family Orientations and Summer School Enrollment.
June 30th: Application deadline, if the waitlist is achieved. Otherwise, applications will be accepted continuously.
June: Enrollment target of 100 with a projected 95 ADA. Enrollment figures less than 80 and more than 120 are considered a material change and will be communicated to the district.
The first week of July: Public random drawing held, if necessary (more than 120 applications). Status of application mailed to families.