Massachusetts Charter School Waitlist Initial Report for 2016-2017 (FY17)

As of March 15, 2016 (Posted June 2016)

Each spring, charter schools send the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (Department) the number of students enrolled for the upcoming school year as well as the number of students who were placed on the schools' waitlists through each school's initial lottery, which is typically held in February or March.

The information provided below reflects the number of students who applied to charter schools but did not gain admittance as of March 15, 2016. This initial 2016-2017 waitlist report finds the following:

• 74 out of 78 charter schools in the Commonwealth have waitlists¹.
• there are 44,250 entries on all waitlists, representing 32,646 unique students. Of this student headcount, 23,601 unique students² newly applied for admittance to at least one charter school for the 2016-17 school year; the remaining 9,045 unique students applied for admittance prior to March 2014.
• 27,089 students appear on a single waitlist and 5,557 students (17 percent) appear on more than one waitlist.

In 2014, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted regulations requiring charter schools to refresh their waitlists every year, based on the most recent application cycle. These regulations, however, allowed schools to keep students on their waitlists who submitted applications before March 31, 2014. As shown in the table below, 12 schools continue to include such students from prior years on their active waitlists.

Please note that the total number figure represents every student record found on each charter school's submitted waitlist.

†These 12 schools have indicated to the Department that they included waitlist information established prior to March 31, 2014 in accordance with 603 CMR 1.05(10)(a).

The year's report is the byproduct of additional Department support and technical assistance to the field, reflecting the Department's ongoing effort to increase the timeliness and accuracy of school waitlist reports. Each charter school is responsible for maintaining its own individual waitlist. To ensure uniformity, DESE created a waitlist collection template and required charter schools to use it to input their waitlist data. This template embedded tools that automatically flagged duplicate records, which each school could then remove before submitting its waitlist. In order to verify student information and address overall waitlist accuracy, the Department checked each charter school waitlist for transcription errors and inconsistencies. The schools then had to address any concerns or errors identified and resubmit their waitlists. Additionally, charter schools that self-identified as including waitlists established prior to March 31, 2014, as permitted by 603 CMR 1.05(10)(a), were required to identify each individual student who was included in those waitlists. Finally, the Department implemented changes to its matching process in order to increase accuracy for identifying students who applied for admission to more than one charter school.

The Department has made significant improvements over the years in quantifying the exact number of students who may be actively waiting for admission to a charter school. The unique waitlist counts provided in this current report should be taken as the Department's best understanding and representation of initial demand for the upcoming 2016-2017 school year rather than exact numbers of students willing to accept offers at each school.

The Department thanks all of the charter school administrators and staff who worked diligently to report their waitlists as accurately and as promptly as possible.

The appendix to this report can be found in the attached Excel file, which contains:

1. the unique numbers of students on waitlists;
2. the total number of pre-March 2014 applicants and current year applicants reported on charter school waitlists;
3. the unique number of students on waitlists by grade;
4. the unique number of students on waitlists by city/town;
5. the total number of students on waitlists for each charter school by grade (with backfilling overlay);
6. the total number of students on waitlists, by grade, for each charter school that includes pre-March 2014 applicants on their waitlist;
7. the total number of students on waitlists for each charter school by city/town;
8. the total number of students on waitlists for each city/town by charter school;
9. the unique number of students on waitlists by city/town and grade;
10. the total number of students on waitlists for each charter school by city/town by grade; and
11. the total number of students on waitlists for each city/town by grade by charter school.

For more information on waitlist policy and procedures and the number of students found on previous cycles of charter school waitlists, see Charter Schools Enrollemnt website. For further information regarding this report, please contact Brenton Stewart or the Office of Charter Schools and School Redesign .

Attachment

• Initial Report of Charter School Waitlist as of March 15, 2016

• FY17 Initial Waitlist Appendix

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¹ The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted changes to the charter school regulations in March 2014 (see 603 CMR 1.05(10)(a)), which has affected how charter schools collect waitlist data. Under the amended regulations, charter schools maintain waitlists only for the school year for which students applied (i.e., carrying over student names from enrollment lotteries from one year to another is no longer permitted). However, charter schools were allowed to maintain any waitlists that were established prior to March 31, 2014 until such waitlists are exhausted, provided that such maintenance is clearly articulated in the school's enrollment policy approved by the Department.

² The Department has worked with schools to identify the students who were placed on waitlists prior to March 31, 2014. This additional information now allows the Department to identify, for the first time, students who submitted applications for admittance in the current year. Note: Out of 23,601 newly applying students in 2016-17, 613 were added to new waitlists while still remaining on other school waitlists based on applications submitted prior to March 31, 2014.

Last Updated: February 6, 2019