Enrollment Lottery & Waitlist:
Applications for the 2024-2025 waitlist remain open!
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Our next enrollment period for the 2025-26 year will begin on the first Monday in December and end on the third Friday in January of the following calendar year. (Current HLCS scholars do not need to fill out the application or engage in the lottery.)
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All applications received after the lottery deadline will be added to the waitlist in the order in which they were received.
The Enrollment Lottery
All FREE Public Charter Schools in Minnesota are required to use a Lottery for enrollment if the number of applicants exceeds the number of available openings. And what would you know, in our very first year we had so many applicants that we will needed to use a lottery for all grades.
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We are currently accepting student applications for the 2025-2026 lottery, so please apply now if you don't already have a scholar attending Heartland Lakes.
Some Key Points
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Already Enrolled?
If your child is already enrolled at HLCS for he 2024-2025 school year you do NOT need to fill out another student application or go through the lottery process. Your scholar has a spot at HLCS for as long as you want it!
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How Many Open Spots?
We won't know exactly how many open seats we have for 2025-2026 until later in the year, as our current scholars have the first opportunity to re-reserve their spot for next year. ​
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We do know we will have a brand new Kindergarten Crew!
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Who Gets Preference?
In accordance with Minnesota State Law, there are two groups who get preference in the enrollment lottery:
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(1) Siblings of Enrolled Students
(2) Children of HLCS Staff
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If either of these apply to your child, you will have an opportunity to indicate that on the student a pplication.
The Lottery Process:
The lottery process is dictated by Minnesota State Law and the HLCS Student Enrollment Policy. Below is a description of the step-by-step process that you can expect if you have one or more students in this year's lottery.
Step One:
Each student who was entered into the lottery between December and January will be assigned a number. This number will be emailed to the parent or caregiver who completed the student application. These numbers will be what is drawn in the lottery!
Step Two:
At the lottery, an HLCS representative will draw the assigned numbers out of a hat for the available spots in each grade level. These numbers will establish the waiting lists for each grade level.
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The waiting list (numbers only, no names) will be posted on the HLCS website.
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PLEASE NOTE: these waiting lists are TENTATIVE due to our legal requirement to offer preference to siblings of enrolled students.
Step Three:
Once the waiting list is established we will begin offering enrollment to students on the waitlist starting with Kindergartners and moving up through the grade levels. All enrollment offers will be communicated via email - so please watch you email closely!
If you receive an offer of enrollment, you have 7 calendar days to return your Statement of Commitment, accepting your spot. If any student declines their offer of enrollment, we will move down the waitlist to the next Kindergarten student.
Step Four:
This process will continue with each additional grade level until all the available spots in grades Kindergarten - 7th Grade have been offered.