This week thousands of New Orleans public school students find out if they got into the school of their choice.

Placement letters are set to go out by Friday from OneApp, the city’s common application process, and the few public schools that don’t use OneApp are also expected to have their notifications in the mail this week.

At least four schools – SciHigh, Lake Forest Elementary Charter School, Edward Hynes Charter School and Benjamin Franklin High School – have already sent out notifications.

OneApp users were able to select up to eight schools. School placements were based on several considerations: student preference, available space, geographic location, and whether an applicant’s siblings are enrolled at a particular school. Students from two schools the Recovery School District is closing at the end of this year, A.P. Tureaud Elementary and Benjamin Banneker Elementary, received first-choice preference.

The nine schools that don’t use OneApp also have enrollment preferences. Lusher Charter School, for example, gives preference to children who live nearby and to children of Tulane University faculty and staff. When there are more applicants than seats, Lusher and other schools hold admissions lotteries. OneApp schools don’t hold lotteries; when one school fills up, the applicant gets assigned to his or her next choice.

If a student didn’t apply in OneApp’s main round or didn’t get into any of the chosen schools, there’s a second round to shoot for, with an application deadline of May 9. The second-round options are usually more limited, but some seats open up if plans change and students opt out of schools they were assigned in the first round. Some of the non-OneApp schools are also accepting late applications.

Public schools that don’t participate in OneApp:

  • Lusher Charter School
  • Einstein Charter School
  • Robert R. Moton Charter School
  • Lake Forest Charter Elementary School
  • Audubon Charter School
  • Edward Hynes Charter School
  • New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School (SciHigh)
  • Warren Easton Charter High School
  • Benjamin Franklin High School

Jessica Williams stays on top of the city's loosely organized collection of public schools, with a special emphasis on charter schools. In 2011 she was recognized by the Press Club of New Orleans for her...

3 replies on “Applicants to parish public schools find out this week where — if? — they got in”

  1. So, OPEN-ADMISSION OPSB-authorized charter schools like EINSTEIN, MOTON, and HYNES (which do not participate in OneApp) should have accepted every student who applied (and for which room exists – “Room” is based on building capacity, not the vacancies which these schools “say” exist). And, if the number of applicants exceeds the room/building capacity (or even vacancies which these schools say exist) to be “ACCEPTED,” then public lotteries should have been conducted. (1) Did the number of applicants exceed the available openings? (2)Were public lotteries conducted for any of these open-admission charter schools? Seems to me like I would want to check the “numbers”/”lists”… and see which students were ACCEPTED, which students are WAITING, and which students were REJECTED. Easton might need to be added to the open-admissions list referenced above, too. Some schools declare themselves to be open-admission, but have wiggle room!

  2. I have a few questions that I’m wondering if someone can answer for me:

    – Is there a way to find out for certain whether a student who turned in an application was actually included in the lottery/computer matching program or not? (presuming there is reason to believe they did not get included- ie: lack of notification letter, notification/rejection letter sent out only after parent calls and emails to question whether the child was placed, etc.)

    – Are the individual schools given a list of those who were accepted, rejected and waitlisted (for preK where a waitlist applies) or is that list solely kept by OneApp/OPSB?

    – What obligation does OneApp/OPSB have to actually include all children who turned in applications? (And -Is there any recourse if a child who turned in an application did not get included in the lottery for some reason?- In other words- Is there any oversight to OneApp or any legal obligation to include all applications in the school-matching lottery/program?)

    Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer these questions for me.

  3. Another question I need an answer to (or a follow-up question of sorts):

    What happens when a child who should have been in the OneApp lottery/school matching program was left out of the process? (As in- the parents turn in an application on time, get email confirmation that the application was received, and then, after getting no placement letter in the mail, call and find out that the child was not placed/is “missing” from the system?)
    Is there someone higher up than the OneApp staff to report this to?
    It’s against the law for them to exclude kids from the lottery/placement, isn’t it? But it’s not like something you can report to the police…so who is in charge of the enforcement part? (The state legislature? the governor? state dept of education?)

    I’d really appreciate if anyone can point me in the right direction. Thanks.

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