The deadline to enroll in the CMS school choice lottery is approaching. What to know
There are only a few days left to enroll in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to participate in the district’s “School Choice Lottery” for 2024-25.
The district offers a number of special programs, such as language immersions and the International Baccalaureate program, at elementary, middle and high schools around the county.
▪ The deadline for new CMS families to enroll for the next school year is Nov. 13. Current CMS families “will receive students’ IDs and PINs before the lottery opens,” the district says.
▪ The lottery application opens Nov. 27 at 6 a.m., and are due by Dec. 29 at 10 p.m.
The lottery takes into consideration multiple factors, including socioeconomic status and where a student’s siblings are in school. Some students will be waitlisted and eventually get placed as seats open up.
How to apply for the CMS school lottery
Once you’ve got your student enrolled and have their information, the district recommends attending an open house and/or information session for the school or schools your family is interested in. The full slate of events can be found at cmschoice.org/calendar.
After narrowing down your choices, it’s time to apply for the lottery.
Most students will be able to apply to up to three schools. Students coming from a “priority school” — defined by the district as “a school that, based on the most recent data available, has been identified as among the lowest-performing schools in the state” — will be able to apply to up to six schools.
Lottery results will be mailed to all families who participated a few weeks after the lottery closes, according to CMS.
How the CMS school lottery is decided
The lottery application is not first-come, first-served, according to CMS.
A family’s socioeconomic status impacts how they fare in the lottery system, the district explains. That is determined by census data and “family-reported data” gathered during the application process, including household income and how many children are in the household.
“Applications with these questions answered are given priority,” CMS says.
CMS also considers “proximity priority” and has a “sibling guarantee.”
The sibling program says “an older sibling can pull a younger sibling into a magnet program if the older will still be in the school when the younger sibling attends.” The guarantee applies to all programs except early and middle colleges, and the younger sibling must still participate in the lottery and list their older sibling’s program as their first choice.
What if your child is waitlisted?
Students who don’t get accepted into any of their chosen schools initially will automatically be “randomly assigned a waitlist number for their first choice” school, CMS advises.
Reporter Mary Ramsey contributed to this report.
