Massachusetts Charter School Waitlist Initial Report for 2020-2021 (FY21)

As of March 16, 2020 (Posted June 2020)

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 16, 2020. This initial 2020-2021 waitlist report finds the following:

• 72 out of 78¹ charter schools in the Commonwealth have waitlists².
• There are 50,087 entries on all waitlists, representing 25,788 unique students.
  • Of the 25,788 unique students, 643 students applied for admittance prior to March 2014³.
  • The remaining 25,145 unique students⁴ newly applied for admittance to at least one charter school for the 2020-2021 school year; representing a decrease of 880 students when compared to number of unique students who newly applied for the 2019-2020 school year.
  • Of the unique students, 17,642 students appear on a single waitlist and 8,146 students (31.6 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 for the upcoming school year. These regulations, however, allowed schools to keep students on their waitlists who submitted applications before March 31, 2014. As shown in the table below, 3 schools continue to include such students from prior years on their active waitlists.

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This year's report continues to build on the additional support and technical assistance provided by the Department to the field over the past few years. The Department continues its efforts to increase the timeliness and accuracy of school waitlist reports. Each charter school is responsible for maintaining its own individual waitlist. To ensure uniformity, the Department created a waitlist collection template and required charter schools to use it to input waitlist data. This template embedded tools that automatically flagged duplicate records, which each school could then remove before submitting its waitlist. The template also embedded tools that flagged the waitlist for other inconsistencies, such as unrealistic dates of birth (e.g., 2/28/2020) and student age. In order to verify student information and address overall waitlist accuracy, the Department corrected any transcription errors or inconsistencies in submitted charter school 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 (and continued to remain on their waitlist) and each student who was removed from those waitlists. Finally, the Department continues to implement its matching process, which gets fine-tuned and updated to increase accuracy in 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 the updated demand for the current 2020-2021 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 as possible. The Department appreciates all of the efforts made by schools to submit their waitlist reports as promptly as possible during the school shutdowns due to COVID-19.

The appendix to this report can be found in the attached Excel file, which contains numbers based on a March 16, 2020 data collection:

1. the unique number of students on waitlists;
2. the total number of pre-March 2014 applicants and new applicants reported on charter school waitlists by March 16, 2020;
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 unique number of students on waitlists by city/town and grade; and
8. the total number of students on waitlists for each charter school by city/town by grade.

For more information on waitlist policy and procedures and the number of students found on previous cycles of charter school waitlists, see Charter School Technical Advisory 16-3: Enrollment Processes and FAQ's and Charter Schools Enrollemnt website. For further information regarding this report, please contact Brenton Stewart or the Office of Charter Schools and School Redesign at charterschools@doe.mass.edu .

Attachments

• Initial Report of Charter School Waitlist as of March 16, 2020

• FY21 Initial Waitlist Appendix

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¹ Please note that the reduction in the number of charters overall is due to two schools closing at the end of FY20 and two other schools consolidating for the upcoming FY21.

² 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.

³ The Department continues to work with schools (three remain) to identify the students who were placed on waitlists prior to March 31, 2014 and continue to be maintained on a waitlist. This additional information allows the Department to identify students who submitted applications for admittance in the current year. Please note that the number of uniquely identified students who applied for admittance prior to March 2014 declined by 1,075 when compared to the 2019-2020 waitlist initial report.

⁴ Note: Out of 25,145 newly applying students in 2020-2021, 29 were added to new waitlists while still remaining on other school waitlists based on applications submitted prior to March 31, 2014.

Last Updated: June 18, 2019