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Dear School District of Philadelphia Families,

The School District of Philadelphia’s Find Your Fit school selection process allows students currently in pre-kindergarten through 11th grade to apply to attend any District school, with available space, outside of their neighborhood or catchment area for the following school year.

The Find Your Fit school selection process for the 2026-2027 school year opens on September 8, 2025 at 4:00 pm and closes on October 23, 2025 at 11:59 pm.

Here is what students and families who plan to participate in the school selection process for the 2026-2027 school year can expect when the application opens this fall:

• The approved standardized assessment list will ONLY include the following assessments: PSSA, TerraNova, ERB-CTP, and state standardized assessments from other states.
  • Because the list has changed since last year’s application, this will be considered a transition year. That means that this year only, for assessment results from 2024, we will accept any of the previously approved assessments (i.e., valid CAT, ERB-ISEE, Iowa, or SSAT assessments dated 2024) in addition to the approved assessments on the updated Fall 2025 list.
  • For assessments dated 2025, only the standardized assessments on the updated Fall 2025 list will be accepted (i.e., PSSA, TerraNova, ERB-CTP, other states’ standardized assessments).
• Zip code preference is still considered, but the zip codes have changed slightly. The six zip codes are 19121, 19132, 19133, 19135, 19136, and 19140.

• Career and Technical Education (CTE) Preference will be given to middle school students who attended or currently attend a District middle school CTE program and are applying to an aligned CTE program for the 2026-2027 school year. 

• Sibling Preference has been expanded to include siblings/twins who are applying to the same catchment or city-wide school.

I want to remind you about the importance of ranking your top 5 schools in order of preference. Offers will be made based on the order in which an applicant ranked their five schools, the applicant’s eligibility, and the seats available in the school, program, and grade. Applicants may receive either one offer or zero offers during the initial response phase. Applicants will remain on the waitlist only for higher-ranked schools to which they did not receive an offer. For example, if a student ranked five schools and received an offer to their 3rd-ranked school, they will remain on the waitlist for their 1st and 2nd-ranked schools, but would be automatically declined for a seat at their 4th and 5th-ranked schools. If they subsequently receive a waitlist offer for their 2nd choice, they can accept that offer, which would automatically decline the original offer at their third choice, but allow them to remain on the waitlist for their 1st choice. They could later accept a seat at their first choice, if offered.

We will provide more detailed information about the Find Your Fit school selection process, including timelines, criteria, and helpful resources in the fall.

In the meantime, we invite you to begin exploring your school options using Explore – our new, user-friendly school search tool. This platform provides comprehensive information about each school to help you make an informed decision before the application window opens next month.

We look forward to supporting you during the upcoming Find Your Fit school selection process. Please enjoy the rest of your summer!

In partnership,
Tony B. Watlington Sr., Ed.D.
Superintendent