La. Admin. Code tit. 28 § CXXXIX-2709

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 9, September 20, 2024

Section CXXXIX-2709 - Enrollment of Students, Lottery, and Waitlist in BESE-Authorized Schools

A. Each student submitting a timely application and meeting all residency requirements and admission requirements, as applicable, shall be considered eligible to enroll in a charter school. Additionally, students displaced as a result of a federally-declared disaster who submit an application and the form specified in §2701. F of this Bulletin shall be considered eligible to enroll in a charter school.

B. A charter school shall enroll all eligible students unless the total number of eligible applicants exceeds the capacity of a program, class, grade level, or school.

C. A charter school shall admit no student during the school's designated application period, but shall wait until the period has ended.

D. At the conclusion of a charter school's designated application period, it shall determine if fewer eligible applicants have applied than the maximum number of students that the school can admit.

1. If fewer eligible applicants have applied than the maximum number of students that the school can admit to a program, a grade level, or the school, all eligible students shall be admitted.

2. If the total number of eligible students exceed the capacity of a program, a grade level, or the school, applicants shall be admitted based on an admissions lottery from among the total number of eligible applicants.

a. A charter school shall use a lottery for the selection of students in order to reach its maximum capacity and to determine the order in which students will be placed on a waitlist.

b. If a charter schools enrollment capacity is increased for the purpose of enrolling students displaced due to a federally-declared disaster and the charter schools designated application period has passed, the charter school may enroll students displaced due to a federally-declared disaster on a first come, first served basis until the enrollment capacity is reached.

E Following the admission of applicants after a determination that the number of applicants did not exceed the capacity of a program, a class, or the school, the charter school may continue to accept applications and admit eligible students in the order in which applications are received until maximum capacity is reached.

F. A charter school lottery and continued admission of applicants, following a determination that a lottery is not required at the conclusion of the student application period, shall be performed in such a fashion that assures compliance with student population requirements detailed in §2713 of this bulletin. Nothing herein shall preclude the implementation of a weighted lottery to ensure such student population requirements are met.

G. Any charter school not participating in the recovery school district's unified enrollment system in Paragraph J of this Section shall maintain a waitlist of applicants not admitted to the charter school as a result of capacity being reached in a program, a grade, or the school.

1. Applicants shall be placed on the waitlist in the order in which they were selected in the charter school's lottery or in the order in which they applied if the application was submitted following the school's application period.

2. If an opening occurs at a charter school, selection from the waitlist shall begin with the first applicant on the waitlist.

H. A charter school shall maintain its waitlist throughout each school year. Any student admitted to the school must be an applicant on the waitlist, if a waitlist exists for the respective program, grade or school.

I. The charter school shall repeat the student admission process described in this Section each year.

J. Type 5 charter schools transferred to the RSD pursuant to R.S. 17:10.5 or R.S. 17:10.7 and type 3B charter schools shall comply with any unified enrollment system established by the RSD for the parish or region where the charter school is located. The RSD may create any policies and procedures to implement a unified enrollment system not prohibited by this Chapter, and may conduct one or more central lotteries to enroll students at participating schools, and enroll students applying or requesting transfers after the application period has ended throughout the year, manage student transfers, and student expulsions.

K. Upon request of a charter operator, the department may approve an enrollment preference for students matriculating into eighth grade or below between two BESE-authorized charter schools operated by the same charter operator.

L. All BESE-authorized charter schools (type 2, type 4, and type 5 charter schools) physically located in Orleans Parish shall participate in the unified enrollment system and expulsion process established by the recovery school district for Orleans Parish, with the exception of virtual charter schools, and shall continue to participate in the unified enrollment system and expulsion process upon the management of its transfer to the Orleans Parish School Board pursuant to 17:10.7.1. The department of education shall have discretion to determine on an individual basis whether to require virtual charter schools physically located in Orleans Parish to participate in the unified enrollment system and expulsion process. BESE-authorized charter schools participating in the unified enrollment system and expulsion process may retain admission requirements, geographic preferences, sibling preferences, and disciplinary regulations unrelated to expulsions, if authorized by law or BESE policy. BESE shall retain authority over the approval of amendments to charter contracts for such type 2 and type 4 charter schools for adjustments to grade levels served and enrollment projections. Schools participating in the unified enrollment and expulsion process shall not be permitted to maintain student waitlists.

La. Admin. Code tit. 28, § CXXXIX-2709

Promulgated by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in LR 34:1374 (July 2008), amended LR 38:753 (March 2012), repromulgated LR 38:1395 (June 2012), amended LR 38:3120 (December 2012), LR 39:1021 (April 2013), LR 39:1437 (June 2013), LR 39:3252 (December 2013), Amended LR 411265 (7/1/2015), Amended LR 43310 (2/1/2017), Amended LR 432478 (12/1/2017), Amended LR 44243 (2/1/2018).

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 17:6(A)(10), R.S. 17:3981, and R.S. 17:3991.