School Finance: Charter Schools

Enrollment Policies

MEMORANDUM

Charter schools in Massachusetts are subject to certain requirements when recruiting students, accepting students, and reporting the number of students pre-enrolled to the Charter School Office at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Schools are reminded that these reports are submitted under the penalties of perjury. The purpose of this memorandum is to clarify those requirements going forward, particularly regarding the timeline and legal admissions preferences, because charter schools have begun or are about to begin their enrollment process for the 2004-05 school year.

Dates

Below is a general timeline that all charter schools must follow in accepting students and reporting pre-enrollment figures to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for the following school year. Please note the dates that are set in regulation and do not change from year to year, and those that are set annually by the Department.

1. February 15 -- The annual date by which the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will notify every Commonwealth charter school that will be open the following September of any limitation on the number of students from a district that may be enrolled in charter schools for the upcoming school year. 603 CMR 1.06(4). Based upon this report, charter schools may choose to extend their application period beyond February 15, particularly if there is any question about whether a district may reach its 9 percent net school spending cap. *

   * The charter school statute generally limits the transfer of charter school tuition payments to Commonwealth charter schools to nine percent of a district's net school spending.

2. March 15 -- The annual date by which charter schools, both Commonwealth and Horace Mann, must complete their initial enrollment processes for new students, including a lottery if necessary. 603 CMR 1.09(4).

3. March 19, 2004 -- The date, set annually by the Charter School Office, by which charter schools must submit a pre-enrollment report to the CSO that details the school's enrollment for the following school year by grade level and sending district. The number of students placed on the waiting list should also be reported, if applicable. 603 CMR 1.09(4).

4. April 1 -- The annual date by which the Charter School Office will report to school districts the number of students from their district either pre-enrolled or placed on a waiting list for a charter school for the following school year. This figure is derived by aggregating the pre-enrollment reports from charter schools, as specified in number 3 above, and is considered the April 1 Pre-Enrollment Report required in the charter school statute and regulations. See M.G.L. c. 71, & 89(o). The total enrollment for a charter school included on this report is the maximum number of students for which that charter school can receive tuition in the following school year.

Admissions Criteria

Charter schools are public schools and are therefore open to all students on a space available basis. This means that a charter school may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, creed, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, ancestry, athletic performance, special need, proficiency in the English language or in a foreign language, or prior academic achievement when recruiting or admitting students. Moreover, a charter school may not set admissions criteria that are intended to discriminate or that have the effect of discriminating based upon any of these characteristics. M.G.L. c. 71, § 89(l); 603 CMR 1.06(1).

After a charter school determines the number of spaces available for new students based on the cap for that grade and the number of returning students, charter schools must:

1. Give a preference to resident students as defined in 603 CMR 1.06(4);

2. Give a preference to siblings of students already attending that charter school, defined as attending in that current school year.

Charter schools may not:

1. Give preferences to children of staff members or Board members;

2. Give preferences based on auditions (in the case of schools specializing in music or art);

3. Give preferences to siblings of students accepted to the school but not yet attending the school; or

4. Make statements in meetings intended to discourage, or that have the effect of discouraging, parents/guardians of students with disabilities, students with limited English proficiency, or any other protected group of students from submitting an application to the school. See M.G.L. c. 71, § 89(l).

At the same time, every charter school has an interest in making sure that any prospective students and their families understand the particular mission and focus of the school and are interested in being a part of that school community. Toward that end, charter schools may:

1. Require students to complete the grade preceding the grade the student plans to enter;

2. Strongly encourage parents/guardians to attend informational sessions; and

3. Ask students and parents/guardians to sign compacts or memorandums of understanding that demonstrates their agreement with the school's mission.

The Process for Accepting Students

The regulations on how to accept students are somewhat different for Commonwealth charter schools than for Horace Mann charter schools. There are different requirements for Commonwealth charter schools with respect to providing an enrollment preference for applicants residing in the community in which the school is located as opposed to regional Commonwealth charter schools that draw students from several communities.

All Commonwealth and Horace Mann charter schools must take the following initial steps to begin every enrollment process:

1. Determine the number of spaces available in each grade based on the capacity in that grade and the anticipated number of returning students.

2. Set a deadline for accepting student applications for the available new spaces, with reasonable public notice of at least one month given, and make clear that returning students do not reapply.

3. Publicize the application deadline and the fact that there will be a lottery if there are more eligible applicants than there are available spaces.

4. Set a date for the lottery, with reasonable notice of at least one week before the lottery date. 603 CMR 1.06(6).

5. Set a final date for students to accept enrollment.

After the application deadline passes, a Commonwealth charter school must divide all applications into two categories under 603 CMR 1.06(4):

• Residents - Students who live in the city or town in which the charter school is located, or who have an offer of admission in that enrollment process and a sibling attending the charter school at the time of the offer. Residents enrolled in district, charter, private or parochial schools get equal preference. In the case of regional charter schools, residents are those students who live in the cities or towns that comprise the school districts designated in the school's charter as its region.

• Non-residents - Students who live outside the city or town in which the charter school is located. For regional charter schools, non-residents are those students who live outside the cities or towns comprising the school districts designated in the school's charter as its region.

The applicants in the "Residents" category are chosen first for admission without regard to when their application was submitted as long as it was prior to the deadline. Schools must either extend an offer of admission to all applicants within a group, Residents or Non-Residents, that meet the application deadline or select applicants randomly using a lottery. Schools may not offer admission to applicants on a first come first serve basis.

Lottery

If there are more eligible applicants in the "Residents" category than there are spaces available, the school must hold a lottery to determine which "Resident" applicants will receive an offer of admission. 603 CMR 1.06(3)(a). As previously mentioned, the school must give reasonable public notice of the lottery at least one week before the lottery date. Charter schools must have an individual without any connection to the school randomly draw the names of all students who submitted applications before the deadline. After the available slots are filled, the individual shall keep drawing the names of the remaining applicants in the "Residents" category and place them on a waiting list in the order they are drawn.

If a charter school has spaces available after selecting resident students for admission, it then would proceed to determine which non-resident applicants will receive an offer of admission. If there are more eligible applicants in the "Non-Resident" category than there are remaining spaces available, the school must hold a separate lottery to determine which "Non-Resident" applicants will receive an offer of admission. Schools should conduct this lottery in the same manner as the lottery for "Resident" students. 603 CMR 1.06(4)(b)

Waiting Lists

School must specify the rules for their waiting lists clearly and in writing as part of their enrollment policies. The process that a school uses in taking names off the wait list in the event of openings, however, must conform with state regulations on enrollment policies. First, resident students with a sibling preference must be drawn first from the wait list in the order they were selected in the lottery. Second, if there are any non-residents on the wait list, all resident students on the wait list must be taken first from the wait list in the order they were selected in the lottery.

If a charter school chooses, it may roll its waiting list over from one school year to the next and enroll students from the waiting list in the next school year prior to accepting new applicants with one exception. This exception is that if a space became available and the enrollment of a student from the waiting list would cause his or her sending district to exceed the net school spending cap, the school should skip over that student but keep them on the waiting list. If that student on the waiting list is a sibling of a student currently enrolled at the charter school, the school may enroll that student and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will pay the tuition to the charter school, subject to state appropriation.*

* Please note that this line item was not funded for the 2002-03 school year and only partially funded for the 2003-04 school year.

Other Limitations

Commonwealth charter schools must ensure that they do not enroll a number of students from a sending district that would cause the district to exceed the 9 percent cap on net school spending. M.G.L. c. 71 (89)(i). This may require charter schools that are drawing students from the same sending school district to coordinate their admission processes. Additionally, charter schools should note that the number of students specified for a school in the April 1 Pre-Enrollment Report is the maximum number of students for which the charter school will receive tuition in the next school year.

Additional Requirements for Horace Mann Charter Schools

After the application deadline passes, a Horace Mann charter school must accept students based upon the order of preferences specified in M.G.L. c. 71, § 89(m), and 603 CMR 1.06(5).

1. In the first year of operation, Horace Mann charter schools must give priority for admission to all students actually enrolled in the school on the date the school's final application is filed with the Charter School Office and their siblings. This is the first group of students.

2. If there are fewer spaces than there are eligible applicants in this first group of students already at the school, the charter school must hold a lottery to select applicants from this group.

3. If this initial preference does not fill the available spaces, the Horace Mann charter school next must give preference to applicants currently enrolled in public schools in the district in which the charter school is located. It is not permissible to subdivide a school district geographically when providing this preference. This is the second group of students.

4. If there are fewer spaces than there are eligible applicants in this second group of students already enrolled in the school district, the charter school must hold a lottery to select applicants from this group.

5. If this secondary preference does not fill the remaining available spaces, the Horace Mann charter school must open admission to all students who reside in the district and are enrolled in private, parochial, or charter schools, or who will be entering school for the first time. This is the third group of students.

6. If there are fewer spaces than there are eligible applicants in this third group of all students who reside in the district but are not enrolled in the school district, the school must hold a lottery to select applicants from this group.

Other Issues in Enrollment Policies

If the principal enrollment process fails to fill all the available slots, a charter school may repeat the process one or more times, provided that the school completes all enrollment processes by no later than March 15 each year and submits the Pre-Enrollment Report to the Charter School Office by March 19, 2004 for the 2004-05 school year. 603 CMR 1.06(5). This means that charter schools must have accepted students, extended offers of admission and received acceptances of admission prior to March 15^th. As any spaces for the 2004-05 school year become available at any point after the March 19th report is submitted, a charter school may repeat the enrollment process to fill these openings, provided that all students on a current waiting list have first been selected according to the school's policy and in conformity with the state regulations. 603 CMR 1.06. A charter school may also integrate its enrollment process with that of a school district provided that the enrollment application is submitted in conjunction with the local district and the district maintains an intra-district choice enrollment program. 603 CMR 1.06(7).

If you have any additional questions about the enrollment process or require additional information, please contact Charlie Toulmin, Director of Charter Schools in the Charter School Office, at 781-338-3217 or by electronic mail at ctoulmin@doe.mass.edu.