Process

ENROLLMENT PROCESS

1. The school will conduct a lottery after this initial lottery, which will be held at the Banneker administration building, 35 Middlessex Ave, Cambridge, MA   02140, after this initial lottery enrollment period only if needed and will publicizing the date and time with reasonable notice of at least one week before the lottery date. 603 CMR 1.09(9).
2. The school will set a final date for students to accept offers of enrollment.
3. Any applications submitted after this date will be accepted for a secondary lottery enrollment period between April 1 and August 30, if needed.
4. The Banneker will publicize all lottery enrollment deadlines with reasonable public notice of at least one month (603 CMR 1.05(8).  After the application deadline passes, the Banneker will divide all applications into three categories: siblings, residents, and non residents.

• Siblings –  Students who share a common parent, either biologically or legally through adoption.  Whether the children reside in the same household has no bearing on determining if the children are siblings for purposes of a sibling preference.  Children who live in separate households may be siblings and those that live in the same household may not be.  If siblings are placed in foster homes and one of them enrolls in the charter school, then the siblings of that student are entitled to admission preference.  Foster children are not considered siblings of other children in the foster home unless they share a common parent.  Sibling Status does not include: children who live in the same household but do not share a common biological or legal parent; siblings and children of aluni/ae; siblings of applicants who have been accepted for admission but are not yet attending.  Must show a birth certificate to prove common parent.
• Residents –  Students who live in the city, or town in which the charter school is located at the time of the lottery.  Residents enrolled in district, charter, private, or parochial schools get equal preference for Commonwealth charter schools.  Residency is determined by where the child actually lives, irrespective of guardianship custody and domicile.
• Non-Residents – Are students who live in Massachusetts but outside the city of Cambridge.  For regional charter schools, non-resident students are those students who live outside of the school districts specified in the school’s charter.   All applicants must be residents of Massachusetts to apply, to enroll, and to attend, our charter school.

LOTTERY

If there are more eligible applicants in any of the categories (“Siblings”, “Residents” or “Non-Residents”) than there are spaces available, the Banneker must hold a lottery to determine which applicants will receive an offer of admission. 603 CMR 1.05(6)(a) and (c). The school must give reasonable public notice of the lottery at least one week before the lottery date. Charter schools must have a neutral party randomly draw the names of all students who submitted applications before the deadline. After the available slots are filled, while taking into consideration the Growth Plan for Boston Residents, the individual shall keep drawing the names of the remaining applicants in each category and place them on a waiting list in the order they are drawn. If a parent requests that their child’s name not be publically announced, we can assign your child a number.  The parent will be informed of the number at the lottery.  At the time of the lottery, we will know the number of K students that will be invited in, other grades are as seats become available.  

ENROLLMENT CONFIRMATION

Families will be notified by mail of their admission status (accepted or placement on waiting list).  All families, that are accepted into the school, will receive notification and must reply by the three-week timeline. If a student is selected off of the waiting list and if the family is notified after June 15th, or before August 15th, the family has fifteen days to confirm enrollment.  If the family is notified after August 15th, the family will have three days to confirm enrollment.  Students do not take exams before being admitted to the school and we offer no financial incentives to recruit students.

WAITING LIST

At the end of each school year, the waitlist will be eliminated and the new waitlist will consist of students that have gone into the lottery for an upcoming school year.   At the end of each school year students that did not get in would need to apply for the next school year if interested.  Siblings are the first to be admitted; then “Resident” students; then “Non-residents” students.  There is one exception, 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 charter 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 appropriations.  If a student declines an offer of admission, that student is taken off the wait list and the next child on the waiting list for that grade will be called, keeping in mind the current status of enrollment preferences and the Growth Plan for Boston Residents, until the vacant seat is filled.   No student may be admitted ahead of other eligible students who were previously placed on a waiting list during a prior enrollment process, except in cases where enrollment preference change of as described in 603 CMR 1.05(10)(b). Accurate records containing students’ names (first, middle, last), dates of birth, cities or towns of residence, and grade levels are kept for those students remaining on the waitlist.