Massachusetts Charter School Waitlist Initial Report for 2026-2027 (FY27)

As of March 12, 2026 (Posted April 2026)

Each spring, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (Department) collects the number of students enrolled at charter schools for the upcoming school year as well as the number of students who were placed on the charter schools' waitlists through each charter 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 and were reported to the Department as of March 12, 2026. Note that charter schools may have established a waitlist during the principal application cycle, but exhausted it prior to the March 12 reporting deadline. Additionally, charter schools may have implemented their principal application cycle and offered a seat to every applicant, resulting in no waitlist being established. Charter schools that have exhausted or not established a waitlist as of March 12 typically run subsequent application cycles. The waitlist report does not include any applications that were collected but not yet included in an admissions lottery. This initial 2026-2027 waitlist report finds the following:

• 63 out of 72 charter schools in the Commonwealth reported a waitlist as of the March 12 reporting deadline.
• There are 28,861 total entries on all waitlists, representing 18,944 unique students.
  • Of the unique students, 14,153 students appear on a single waitlist and 4,791 students (25 percent) appear on more than one waitlist.

Figure 1. Unique Number of Students on Charter School Waitlists

The table below (Figure 2) identifies all charter schools that have reported a number of students added to each charter school's initial waitlist after its principal lottery as of March 12, 2026.

Figure 2. Total Number of Applications Reported on Charter School Waitlists

The unique waitlist counts provided in this current report should be taken as the Department's best understanding and representation of the demand for the upcoming 2026-2027 school year rather than exact numbers of students willing to accept offers at each school.

Each charter school is responsible for maintaining its own individual waitlist. To ensure uniformity, the Department created a waitlist collection application and required charter schools to use this online collection platform to submit waitlist data as of March 12, 2026. The collection application had built-in data validation systems, which identify data anomalies for removal or revision, such as duplicated records, unrealistic dates of birth (e.g., 2/28/2026), grade assignments, transcription errors, and inconsistencies. Finally, the Department continues to implement its matching process, which is refined and updated to increase accuracy in identifying students who applied for admission to more than one charter 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 the efforts made by schools to submit their waitlist reports as promptly as possible.

The appendix to this report contains the following numbers based on the March 12, 2026, data collection:

1. the unique number of students on waitlists;
2. the total number of new applicants reported on charter school waitlists by March 12, 2026;
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 grades subject to backfilling);
6. the unique number of students on waitlists by city/town and grade; and
7. the total number of students on waitlists for each charter school by city/town by grade.

For more information on waitlist policies 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 FAQs and Pre-Enrollment and Waitlist Data. For further information regarding this report, please contact Brenton Stewart or the Office of Charter Schools and School Redesign at charterschools@mass.gov .

Attachment

• FY2027 Initial Waitlist Appendix

Last Updated: May 8, 2026