14 Boston Charter Public Schools

Free, Rigorous, Independent Public Charter Schools

Signing Up

Charter public schools admit students by random lottery. There are no tests or interviews or recommendation letters. If more students sign up for a charter school than there are open seats than state law requires that school to hold public lottery to determine which students are offered a spot. The fourteen Boston charter schools hold their annual admission lotteries on the same day in early March. If you want to enter an admission lottery, you must fill out an application for that school -- basically just your name and address. Each school has a slightly different process for recruiting students and running its lottery. Individual schools aggressively recruit students from throughout the city by advertising, presenting at parent council meetings and other community forums. Parents are encouraged to attend open meetings (open house) where you can come and learn more about that particular school and find out if it's right for you. Applications are available at those meetings, and often also available on the school's website. You can call the school directly and ask for them to mail you an application. Every year in early February there is a charter school showcase (fair) at U-Mass, Boston. For details about the showcase, contact Boston Collegiate at (617) 265-1172 or info@bostoncollegiate.org. Boston charter schools are not allowed to participate in the district's school fair. Unfortunately, many charter schools have many more applicants than available seats. A school may have 60 seats, for example, but 300 applicants -- so they would put every student drawn after #60 (#61, #62, etc) on a waiting list. The brothers and sisters of students who are ALREADY enrolled in a particular charter school get "sibling preference" by state law. To attend any Boston charter school you can live in any part of Boston, but you must live in Boston. (Except for Excel Academy, which is a "regional charter school" and gives first preference to students from Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Everett). If you live anywhere else -- Cambridge, Quincy, Milton, etc -- you can apply but you are put on the waiting list after all the Boston students. See below for more information on how to go about signing up, including the application process for each school.

Boston charter schools start in one of five grades: K1, K2, 5th, 6th or 9th. (Except MATCH and Edward Brooke, which are in the middle of expanding and thus have two entry levels. See right.) The best chance of being admitted to any given school is to sign up the year before your child is about to enter that school's starting grade. For example, if you want to sign your child up for grade five, you need to submit an application before early March of his/her fourth grade year. Some schools may allow you to sign up at a later grade. For example, a school that starts in fifth grade may also allow you to sign up when you child is entering 6th, 7th or 8th grade, but usually chances of being admitted are much smaller. It depends on the school, but the earlier the better. You are allowed to submit applications at more than one school. Signing your child up for multiple lotteries will greatly increase your chances of being selected at at least one of the schools. Since charter schools use waiting lists, you won't be taking another family's seat. On the right are links to the application process webpage for each individual school. For more links and information, click on the school within the list on top left side of this page.	Schools that start in K1: Boston Renaissance Neighborhood House Schools that start in K2: Conservatory Lab Edward Brooke Schools that start in grade 5: Academy of the Pacific Rim Boston Collegiate Edward Brooke Excel Academy Uphams Corner Schools that start in grade 6: Boston Prep MATCH Roxbury Prep Smith Leadership Academy Schools that start in grade 9: City on a Hill Codman Academy MATCH