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Enrollment Information

The Admissions Policy of Horizon Science Academy McKinley Park Charter School, HSAMP, is developed based on the language of the state law; hence the following statutory provisions apply:

For a charter school authorized in the City of Chicago, enrollment shall be open to all pupils who reside in the City of Chicago who meet the admission policy. If there are more applications to enroll in the charter school than there are spaces available, pupils shall be selected to attend using a random selection process. However, a charter school may give enrollment priority to a sibling of a pupil enrolled in the charter school. A charter school shall allow any student who was enrolled in the charter school in the immediately preceding school year to enroll in the charter school in the appropriate grade.

EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY

HSAMP does not charge tuition and does not discriminate in its pupil admissions policies or practices on the basis of intellectual or athletic ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, status as a handicapped person, or any other basis not permitted by Illinois’s public schools. Diagnostic tests may be required to determine the proper placement in a subject. Such diagnostic tests are done to determine academic background of our students in a particular subject.

OPEN ENROLLMENT PERIOD

Spaces in each grade for the following school year will not be officially assigned until a particular deadline set up and publicized by the board of directors of HSAMP each year at which time Open Enrollment closes.

ADMISSION PRIORITY

To identify which applicants may be admitted for the following school year, an Admissions Meeting will be held at the school shortly after the close of open enrollment at a publicized date and time to be announced via the School calendar. At that time, other applicants, if necessary, may be placed on a prioritized wait list.

If more students apply than we can accommodate, there will be a random selection from new applicants. Once a student is accepted, all applicants from the same family will also be admitted by grade based on the results of a random selection process if there is open seat in their grade level.

Priority Groups

The order of priority in which spaces for each grade will be filled is as follows:

  1. Students enrolled for the current school years who re-enroll on or before the application deadline set up each year. (Re-enrollment by the deadline applies to all students who enrolled for the current school years)
  2. Siblings of students currently enrolled, if the sibling applies on or before the application deadline.
  3. Siblings of newly enrolled students. When, at the close of open enrollment, one sibling is accepted into a grade that is not oversubscribed, or is accepted by lottery, any of their siblings are immediately accepted if the related grade level is not oversubscribed.
  4. New students that enroll on or before the close of open enrollment who do not have a sibling that was accepted, subject to space availability, which may be determined by random selection process.
  5. Any applicant that applies after the application deadline. Such students would be accepted in wait list order only if space is available.

Priority Group 1 – Current Students: If a student is enrolled at HSAMP for the current school year, that student shall be allowed to enroll for the next school year if a Re-enrollment Application Form is completed and returned on or before the re-enrollment deadline.

Priority Group 2 – Brothers/Sisters of Current Students: If a student is currently enrolled and has one or more siblings that wish to attend HSAMP for next school year, the currently-enrolled student’s siblings will be given enrollment priority if an Enrollment Application Form for each sibling is completed and returned on or before the last application deadline.

Priority Group 3 – Brothers/Sisters of Newly-enrolled Students: HSAMP strives to allow brothers and sisters to attend the same school and tries to give all preference allowed by law to accomplish this during the Open Enrollment and, if necessary, the random selection process. However, if a family has two or more children that apply to HSAMP, when one child is validly accepted and enrolled at the Admissions Meeting, all of that child’s siblings who have applied are accepted and may enroll as long as space is available in that grade. If space is not available, they advance to the sibling wait list. This preference is not available after the Admissions Meeting has been held and Open Enrollment is closed.

Priority Group 4 – New Applicants: If the number of applicants for a grade is less than or equal to the number of spaces available for that grade, all new applicants for that grade are accepted and are enrolled at the Admissions Meeting. If there are more applicants than spaces available, a random selection process will be used. Applicant families are encouraged to attend the Admissions Meeting, but are not required to attend or have representation.

Priority Group 5 -Applicants: After the Close of Open Enrollment. For grades that are not oversubscribed at the end of Open Enrollment, applicants will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis until the grade is full, at which time further applicants are placed on a wait list. The wait list will be kept by grades.

The Wait List has two parts:

  • Sibling Wait List
  • General Wait List

For the purposes of enrollment priority, a parent’s children, step-children, adopted children, and foster children are all considered to be each other’s siblings. The sibling wait list is given priority over the general wait list.

RANDOM SELECTION PROCESS (LOTTERY)

For each grade that has more applicants than spaces available at the close of Open Enrollment a random selection process will be performed to create a preference order for the applicants in Priority Group 4. Each applicant selected by lottery has a numerical “lottery priority” ahead of each student subsequently selected by Lottery for that particular grade. If there are lotteries for multiple grades, the lotteries will be performed from the highest grade to the lowest grade.

After the lottery has been held for each grade that needed to hold one and siblings are accepted based on the policies above the remaining applicants are placed on a wait list in the order they were selected by lottery.

SELECTION FROM WAIT LIST

If a space in a grade with a wait list becomes available for any reason, the space will be offered to the next available applicant on that grade’s sibling wait list. If there are no remaining applicants on a grade’s sibling wait list, an available space will be offered to the next available applicant on that grade’s general wait list.

ADMISSION IS CONDITIONAL

Applicants must complete required enrollment materials and provide all necessary information, including, but not limited to, the enrollment application form and acceptable proof of residency and age. Applicants also must provide evidence of required health examinations and immunizations as required by law. Failure to provide accurate, legally required information may be sufficient cause for denying an applicant admission or continued enrollment.

COMPLIANCE WITH CODE OF CONDUCT

All students and prospective students must abide by the HSAMP Discipline Policy and are subject to disciplinary action for violations thereof, up to and including expulsion. In other words, a prospective student is subject to the all school policies, practices and procedures (and consequences for violations), even before their first day of class.

HSAMP also accepts students in an approved foreign exchange program based on the state law.