Policy of Admission

Seven Hills Charter School in Worcester, Massachusetts houses 665 students Kindergarten through grade 8. Admission to Seven Hills Charter School is determined strictly through an annual public lottery system. The student application process begins December 1, and the deadline for accepting student applications is March 1. Applications received after our March lottery will be held for a second lottery to follow the same process.

Applicants for available Kindergarten positions must be 5 years old by December 31 of the year they begin school in order to participate in the lottery. The applicant must be a resident of Massachusetts at the time of application, and proof of Massachusetts’s residency is required, with Worcester residents receiving preference for admission. There are no other admission criteria or screening devices for acceptance into Seven Hills Charter School other than noted above. When applications are received that do not fit the eligibility criteria the parent/guardian of the applicant is notified by phone that the eligibility criteria was not met. If application numbers do not meet or exceed numbers required to fill class targets, then non-Worcester residents may be admitted.

The school determines the number of spaces available per grade level based on our class size targets. The lottery date, time and location is published on the student application, on reminder postcards, in informational flyers, within the school, at area day care provider locations, on the local access television channel, and in the local newspapers at least one week prior to the lottery date. A community representative not affiliated with the school draws the names in a public session, and assigns an enrollment or waitlist number to each candidate. Written notification is mailed home to all participants to inform them of their waitlist or acceptance status. Students are given two weeks from the date of notification to accept enrollment, and the actual date of enrollment is the first day of school, based on the current years calendar. Residents of Worcester have preference over non-resident applicants. Our total enrollment will not exceed the 9% tuition cap.

Preference for admission to Seven Hills Charter School is given to the siblings of current students. Available seats are filled first by sibling on the waiting list and then by new sibling applicants. Admission of sibling occurs following the close of applications but prior to the public lottery. However, if the number of new sibling applicants exceeds the available seats in any grade, a public sibling lottery is held by grade. Siblings not drawn in the sibling lottery will be wait listed for future admission.

In keeping with the philosophy of admitting the siblings of present students whenever possible, siblings of currently enrolled students whose names appear on the wait list receive preference admission during the school year even over students whose names precede them numerically on the wait list in any given grade. Wait listed siblings also take precedence over new sibling applicants in filling available seats prior to the annual lottery.

The name of each child applying for admission is drawn and the child’s name recorded in numerical order by grade level at the annual lottery. Those names drawn after all available seats have been filled are added to the current wait list. Students on the wait list are contacted in numerical order during the calendar year following the lottery; the student’s name is to remain on the wait list. Students who decline an available seat during the school year but who wish to remain on the wait list for placement the following year will remain in their original place on the wait list but will not be called again during the current school year. Students who decline immediate admission and deferment are removed from the wait list, as requested by the guardian. Should vacancies become available at grade levels for which there is no remaining wait list, an additional application and lottery process is held. This process will adhere to all of the same notification and procedures as with the original lottery.

Most special education students can be well served by our innovative programs, and are admitted to Seven Hills through the same equitable procedures as other students in the public lottery. According to Massachusetts charter school legislation, students with Individualized Education Programs which mandate services outside those available in a regular public school are usually best served by their home school district in the facilities recommended on the IEP. Families are urged to call the Special Ed. Coordinator if they wish to discuss the specific needs of an individual student who is applying, the rights of the child and family, and possible strategies and techniques that Seven Hills might use to meet the needs of the student.

Seven Hills Charter School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, creed, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, age, ancestry, athletic performance, special need, proficiency in the English language or a foreign language, or prior academic achievement.