District/School Administration Administration
Education Laws and Regulations

603 CMR 1.00:
Charter Schools

Most Recently Amended by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: January 25, 2005

1.06: Charter School Enrollment

(1) Eligibility for enrollment may be consistent with the school's grade levels. Charter schools shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, creed, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, age, ancestry, athletic performance, special need, proficiency in the English language or a foreign language, or prior academic achievement.

(2) Charter schools may not administer tests to potential applicants or predicate enrollment on results from any test of ability or achievement. Requirements for enrollment in a charter school, including but not limited to attendance at informational meetings and interviews, shall not be designed, intended or used to discriminate.

(3)

Schools shall give reasonable public notice, of at least one month, of all application deadlines.

(4) In conformance with M.G.L. c. 71, § 89, enrollment in Commonwealth charter schools shall be conducted as follows:

(a) in such cases where there are fewer spaces than eligible applicants who reside in the city or town in which a Commonwealth charter school is located, or who are siblings of students already attending said charter school, the charter school shall hold an enrollment lottery for all such applicants;

(b) if there are more spaces available than eligible applicants from the city or town in which said Commonwealth charter school is located and who are siblings of current students, and there are more eligible applicants from outside of that city or town than spaces available, the charter school shall hold an enrollment lottery;

(c) the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education shall notify each Commonwealth charter school no later than February 15 of any limitation on the number of students from a district that may be enrolled in charter schools for the upcoming school year; and

(d) Charter schools shall place names of students not selected in an enrollment lottery on a waiting list in the order the names were drawn. Students on the waiting list may be enrolled as space becomes available. In cases where the enrollment of a student, who is not a sibling of another previously enrolled student, from the waiting list would exceed the district charter tuition cap, the student should be skipped over but kept on the waiting list. In cases where the enrollment of a student who is a sibling of a student already attending a charter school would exceed the district charter school tuition cap, the sibling may be enrolled with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts providing tuition for said sibling, subject to appropriation.

(5) In conformance with M.G.L. c. 71, § 89, enrollment in a Horace Mann charter school shall be conducted as follows:

(a) priority shall be given first to any students actually enrolled in said school on the date that the final application is filed with the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and to their siblings. In such cases where there are fewer spaces in a Horace Mann charter school than eligible applicants who were enrolled in said school, the charter school shall hold an enrollment lottery;

(b) if there are more spaces available than eligible applicants from the school, and there are more applicants than spaces available who reside in the city or town in which the charter school is located and who are currently enrolled in the public schools of the district in which the Horace Mann charter school is located, the charter school shall hold an enrollment lottery for all such applicants; and

(c) if there are more spaces available than eligible applicants from the school or district, and there are more applicants than spaces available who reside in the city or town in which the Horace Mann charter school is located, the charter school shall hold an enrollment lottery for all such applicants.

(6) If the principal enrollment process fails to produce an adequate number of enrolled students, a school may repeat the process more than once, if necessary, providing such process is fair and open, with reasonable public notice given at least one week prior to the application deadline. As spaces become available during the school year, a school may repeat the enrollment process to fill these openings. No student entering an enrollment process may be admitted ahead of other eligible students who were previously placed on a waiting list during a prior enrollment process, except in cases described in to 603 CMR 1.06 (4) (d). The total number of students attending a charter school in a given school year cannot exceed the total number of students reported to the Department in the previous spring in accordance with 603 C.M.R. 1.09(4).

(7) All lotteries shall be conducted in public, with a disinterested party drawing names, and with reasonable public notice given at least one week prior to the lottery.

(8) A school may integrate its enrollment process with that of the school district, provided that the enrollment application is submitted in conjunction with the local school district and such district maintains an intra-district school choice enrollment program.

(9) A school shall specify age thresholds and ceilings for kindergarten and/or high school programs, respectively.

Regulatory Authority:
603 CMR 1.00: M.G.L. c. 69, § 1B; c. 71, § 89.