DATE:
November 17, 2022
TO:
Principals
Assistant Principals
Elementary Administrative Assistants
Secondary Registrars
Secondary Attendance Secretaries
FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services
Caleb Olson, Consultant, Planning & Enrollment
SUBJECT:
School Choice Permit Allocations and Procedures
The open enrollment permit window opened on Tuesday, November 15, 2022.
Permit seat totals can be found on each school’s Enrollment Dashboard. Open the “2023-24” tab and scroll down to the permit section.
A calendar of required tasks and completion dates is available at this link. As a general rule, the following are the requirements for schools to remain compliant and provide the best response to applications:
- At least weekly, schools should verify applications in the 2023-24 school year workspace and prepare them to be processed and moved to the waitlist.
- At least monthly, schools should verify applications in the 2022-23 school year workspace and prepare them to be processed and moved to the waitlist.
Schools should verify all outstanding applications prior to leaving for Winter Recess and verify any applications received during Winter Recess as soon as possible in the morning on Tuesday, January 3, 2023, so that the lottery can be run that afternoon. Once the lottery has been run, schools may immediately begin offering seats (if available). Seats not accepted within two weeks should be revoked (after attempting communication with the parent) and reoffered to the next student in line on the waitlist.
The calendar of required tasks and completion dates also reflects an important change for this year’s permit processing: In previous years, several schools have not kept current on processing permits or seating students, meaning these students were not given the appropriate opportunity to be awarded a seat. This year, to avoid this situation, Planning & Enrollment will “mass approve” unprocessed applications prior to the lottery and will “mass seat” students on the waitlist if schools do not verify and seat in a timely manner. Please note that these mass actions will be done to ensure compliance and permits will not be individually verified for discipline or other requirements. Schools concerned about ensuring that students with discipline or other concerns are appropriately processed should ensure they stay current in their own processing.
During the early enrollment window (now through February 3), the availability of permit seats is governed by BUILDING CAPACITY. Schools that are the most full will have the least available seats. Adding seats is governed by rules of the tier system established by the Board of Education and, in all instances, requires conversation with the Administrator of Schools for the building. In the late enrollment window (after February 3 and 2.0 allocations are released), schools may request additional seats from their Administrator of Schools. Available seats in this window will be determined by the availability of space, by grade, in the teacher allocation based on current enrollment figures.
One final reminder: the early enrollment window (now through February 3) requires schools to seat students if permit seats are available. Schools MUST follow the waitlist order when offering seats. It is inappropriate – and potentially illegal – for a school to modify the waitlist order so that students who listed the school as a “first choice” are placed before others, regardless of their lottery priority. Schools who follow this practice may lose the ability to seat permit applications themselves. School administrators with concerns over this guideline may raise the issue with their Administrator of Schools.
