Spotlight On:
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 need to use a lottery for all grades.
The Enrollment Waitlist: 2024-2025
Below is the list that was drawn in our Enrollment Lottery on February 1, 2024. It has been adjusted for sibling preference, in accordance with state statute.
Please Note: this list remains TENTATIVE until enrollment offers are accepted. All enrollment offers will be made via email so please watch for an email from info@heartlandlakescs.org.
We have the following number of seats to offer in each grade level:
Kindergarten (20), First Grade (20), Second Grade (10), Third Grade (10), Fourth Grade (10), Fifth Grade (10), Sixth Grade (5)
Applications for the 2024-2025 Waitlist remain open! All applications received after the lottery deadline will be added to the waitlist in the order in which they were received.
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 4, 2023 and January 19, 2024 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:
The lottery will take place on Thursday, February 1, 2024 at 4:30 pm at the Red Pine Lodge at Northern Pines Camp. The lottery is open to the public, but attendance is optional. 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.
The waiting list (numbers only, no names) will be posted on the HLCS website by Friday, February 2, 2024.
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 - 6th Grade have been offered.
Some Key Points
1
Status: "Waitlisted"
Following the lottery on February 1st some students will receive the status "waitlisted". As other students decide whether to accept or decline their enrollment offers, these waitlisted students will be next in line for any open seats.
In other words: if you are really hoping for a spot and your student is waitlisted - don't be discouraged!
2
The Lists are TENTATIVE
Because of our legal requirement to offer preference to the sibling(s) of an enrolled HLCS student, the waitlists COULD CHANGE!!!
We encourage you to hold loosely to the lists and be patient as the process unfolds.
We will keep an updated waitlist posted on our website.
3
It's Slow!
Most public charter schools are not using a lottery to fill 85 spots!! Because of the scope and complexity of the lottery process we know this is going to take some time. (And we are as impatient as you are!!)
Please know that we are taking incredible care to make sure this process is fair, legal, and easy to understand.