LITERACY FIRST CHARTER SCHOOL
Admissions Policies
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Student Enrollment

Literacy First Charter School (“LFCS”) is a tuition-free public school. LFCS is open to all students in California. LFCS has established procedures to ensure that potential students and their families are fully informed of the school’s mission, design, and expectations. Once informed, students and their families can choose if LFCS is best for them. Once a student is enrolled in LFCS, he/she will not be required to re-enroll for subsequent school years.

Enrollment Procedure

Each year LFCS will establish and open enrollment window period of time in which the school will accept applications for the coming school year. This enrollment window period shall be set by LFCS governing board prior to January 1 of each year.

Enrollment packets shall be available at the LFCS office all year round. However, only those packets that are completed (including all required medical records) and received during the enrollment window period will be considered for enrollment in the subsequent school year. Applications received by LFCS after the close of the enrollment window period will not be considered for admission and will be returned to the applicant.

Student Eligibility:

A student is eligible for admission to LFCS if he or she is a resident of California. However, should a lottery be necessary, certain student will receive preference in the admissions procedures as required by the Charter Schools Act and as stated in LFCS’ charter.

Selection Procedures:

At the close of the enrollment window period, all enrollment packets shall be reviewed to determine if they meet the admissions requirements described above. A qualified applicant will have completed LFCS admission procedures, including all forms in the admissions packet and will have supplied all information required by the admissions packet.

If the number of qualified applications exceeds capacity at any grade level, LFCS shall apply the first level preference to qualified applicants (please see hierarchy of preferences listed below). LFCS shall make offers of admission and request a written confirmation of acceptance within five (5) days of receipt of a letter of acceptance. If the application of a preference exceeds the school’s capacity within a single grade level, LFCS will conduct a public random drawing within that preference. If space is still available after the application of the first level preference, the LFCS shall apply the next level of preference. If the application of a preference exceeds the School’s capacity within a single grade level, the school will conduct a public random drawing within that preference. This process will be applied beginning with kindergarten and then each successive grade level until LFCS is at capacity.

All qualified student who are not admitted will be assigned a number (by random lottery) and may be offered admission throughout the year as vacancies become available. LFCS reserves the right to determine its capacity at each grad level and to reserve spaces within a grade level for, among other things, students that may not be promoted to the next grade level or for students who may be returning in a subsequent year.

If during any open enrollment window period, insufficient enrollment packets are received during the enrollment window period, offers of admission shall be made from the qualified applicants on a first come, first served basis and then another enrollment window period shall be advertised and established. Any student on the waiting list who did not receive an offer of admission during the year will be required to submit an additional enrollment packet in a subsequent year in order to considered for enrollment in that year.

Hierarchy of Preferences in Admission for Qualified Applicants:

1. Currently enrolled students;
2. Siblings of currently enrolled students;
3. Children from last year’s waiting list who have submitted a current enrollment packet;
4. Children of former LFCS families within the 3 years;
5. Children of current employees working at LFCS;
6. Children residing within the district’s boundaries; and then
7. All other children.

Public Random Drawing (lottery):

If required, the public random drawing shall be conducted by LFCS at a public meeting that meets all the notice requirements of the Ralph M. Brown Act (California Government Code § 54950 et seq.) for a regular meeting of LFCS’ board of directors. Information regarding the procedures used to conduct the drawing as well as the events triggering the drawing shall be available upon request. However, non-public information regarding a student or his or her family shall not be disclosed.

New Student and Parent Orientation:

A new student parent orientation meeting will be held prior to school beginning. If at least one parent or guardian of a new student fails to attend a new student parent orientation meeting, that student’s enrollment will be forfeited.

Charter Requirements

This policy implements the directives of Section D (Governance / Enrollment Preferences and Processes) and Section H (Admissions Requirements) of the Literacy First Charter School Charter.