About the School Selection Process
The school selection process allows students currently in pre-kindergarten through 11th grade to apply to attend any school for the 2025-2026 school year with available space other than their catchment school. A catchment school is the school that connects to your family’s home address, so you don’t have to apply. See more in the School Options tab.
The District’s school selection process:
- uses a centralized lottery and waitlist system
- applies school-specific grades, attendance and standardized assessment criteria
- makes the online application available in 10 different languages
- opens each fall, and closes each spring – this is the only application window for school selection
- prioritizes the applications of qualified applicants who live in specific zip codes that have the lowest representation of students accepting offers over the last four years, at the following criteria-based schools:
- Academy at Palumbo (for admission to 9th grade)
- Carver Engineering & Science at (for admission to 7th and 9th grades)
- Central High School (for admission to 9th grade)
- Masterman (for admission to 5th and 9th grades)
This application process does not include other charter or tuition-based schools like Catholic or Friends Schools.