How are students enrolled in Charter Public Schools? Don’t they enroll only the best and brightest students, leaving the others in traditional public schools?
Charter public schools are required to run a random lottery to enroll students. Charter public schools only run a lottery if applicants outnumber the available seats; otherwise, all interested students are accepted. If there are more applicants than seats in the school, the school has to keep a waiting list. Schools aren’t allowed to: 1) save seats for any category of student; 2) give preference to children of staff or board; or 3) administer admissions tests or screenings. On the other hand, schools can give preference to the siblings of enrolled students to enable families to have their children at the same schools. Because of this open and non-selective enrollment process, charter public schools do not pluck the “best and brightest” from the traditional public school system; rather, they operate on an open enrollment basis and are available to any student whose parents agree to enroll them in the school.
