The Open Enrollment period is the period prior to the start of each school year when parents/guardians can complete an application for each child to enroll in their desired school(s). Open Enrollment dates for the upcoming school year will be posted on the AMS school website and will take place after January 1st of each year for the upcoming school year.

During the Open Enrollment period, parents/guardians complete an admission application for their student. During admission, the school offers the student a seat at the school; the student can decide to accept the seat or not. If the student accepts the seat, the school enrolls the student. To enroll the student, the school will require the parent/guardian to complete a registration packet.

Applications received after the Open Enrollment period will not be eligible to enter the Open Enrollment lottery. Instead, these applications will be processed on a first-come, first served basis behind applications received during the Open Enrollment period.

AMS charter schools are tuition-free. However, we do require a refundable security deposit that is held in the event that school property, such as textbooks, is lost or damaged. This deposit is refunded when the student has left their AMS school. In addition, due to state funding restrictions, the full-day kindergarten programs may have a varied fee. Please contact the schools directly for more information.

Parents/guardians should complete and submit admission forms during the Open Enrollment period. You may apply to more than one AMS charter school, but you must submit separate applications, per student, to each of your preferred schools. Admission forms may be submitted through the online portal or in person. The online admission application can be found by clicking on the “Apply Online” links above.
Applications need not be signed for entry into the lottery, nor to be considered for acceptance. Applicants who are offered enrollment at an AMS charter school will be provided with instructions for accepting the offer, and printing and signing the Registration Packet.

Lottery

If the number of students that apply exceeds capacity for each program, class, grade level or building, students will be selected through an equitable selection process, conducted as a lottery by the School; with the exception that preference is given to siblings of students already enrolled or who are selected through the lottery process.

For the 2020-2021 school year, we will hold an enrollment lottery for student admission after January 1st, 2020 and complete the enrollment process no later than March 15th, 2020. The date will be added to the AMS Schools’ online enrollment page and posted in the school’s lobby. We will not hold the lottery if the number of applications received is fewer than the number of available seats. In this case, we will admit every student who seeks admission.

We will notify parents of the students chosen by lottery via telephone or email. Parents will be given two weeks to complete a registration packet to enroll their student. If the registration packet is not completed within the time-frame given, admission will be offered to the next student in line or selected through the lottery process.

Waitlist and Lottery

Students who entered the lottery but did not gain admission will be maintained on a waitlist. A separate lottery is performed, either manually or electronically, for each priority preference group. Within each priority category, applicants are sorted and numbered in random order. The final lottery will be held for students who have no applicable enrollment priorities. We follow all requirements when holding subsequent lotteries.

Change of student preference on a wait list

It is important to note that positions of names on a waitlist are not static because enrollment preferences change. There are many scenarios in which the enrollment preference of a student on the waitlist may change. Students with a new sibling preference—for example, once the sibling of a student on the waitlist begins attending the charter school—would move ahead of students who do not have a sibling preference.