School Admission & Lottery Policy
Applications will be accepted during a publicly advertised open enrollment period each year for enrollment in the following school year. Following the open enrollment period each year, applications will be counted to determine whether any grade level without an established wait list has received more applications than availability. In the event that this happens, the Academy will hold a public random drawing (or “lottery”) to determine admission for the impacted grade level, with the exception of existing scholars, who are guaranteed admission in the following school year.
Admission preferences in the case of a public random drawing shall be given to the following scholars in the following order:
Children and grandchildren of employees of California Republic Leadership Academy Capistrano.
Children and grandchildren of Board Members.
Siblings of scholars enrolled in or admitted to California Republic Leadership Academy Capistrano
If the Academy operates a campus that is physically located in the attendance area of a district operated public elementary school in which at least 55% of the enrollment is eligible for free and reduced price lunch, then students currently enrolled in that school and students who reside in that elementary school attendance area will be given preference to attend such campus operated by the Academy in accordance with Education Code Section 47614.5(c)(2) (for purposes of the SB 740 Charter School Facility Grant Program).
Students who reside in the District.
Waitlist
All applications drawn after reaching capacity in any grade level will be placed on a waitlist for each respective grade level, in order in which they are drawn. If a vacancy occurs, the Academy shall notify the parent/guardian by phone and email and provide the parents/guardians with 72 hours to accept the offer of admission. If the parent/guardian does not contact the Academy to accept the position for their scholar within this period, the Academy shall contact the parent/guardian for the next scholar on the waitlist for that grade level. The Academy shall keep copies of documents relating to the lottery on file for one academic year to demonstrate the fair execution of lottery procedures.
Public random drawing rules, deadlines, dates and times will be communicated in the application form and on the Academy’s website. Public notice for the date and time of the public random drawing will also be posted once the application deadline has passed. The Academy will also inform parents of all applicants and all interested parties of the rules to be followed during the public random drawing process via mail or email at least two weeks prior to the lottery date.
Further, this policy shall provide admission preference on the waitlist for applicants in the same categories and order as listed above who are hired/appointed/apply after the lottery is conducted. The Academy’s individual grade waitlists shall be extinguished at the end of each school year.
The Academy shall notify parents/guardians of this policy as part of its regular open enrollment process. Thereafter, parents/guardians will be encouraged to contact the Academy to obtain information about their child’s position on the waitlist.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Academy may refine lottery policies and procedures in accordance with policies adopted by the Board of Directors. A copy of the revised policy, which may be designed to improve the Academy’s lottery efforts, shall be provided to the District upon request. In the event that revisions of the lottery policies contain changes to the admission preferences, a copy of the changes to admission preferences shall be provided to the District for approval in a public hearing by the District’s governing board prior to the enrollment period of the year in which the revised admissions preferences will be implemented.