1.     All applications submitted for Juneau School District Optional Programs are processed through the District Office, are considered confidential, and are used only for placement purposes. In the case of students new to the Juneau School District, the family will be required to provide further information to the child’s school before the registration process is complete.

2.     The application for enrollment in any optional program is the Optional Program District­-Wide Application Form.  The Household Application for Free & Reduced Price School Meals may also be used to determine eligibility for placement preferences in weighted lotteries.

3.     The goal of the Board in developing this placement process is, to the extent compatible with the intent of each Optional Program, to have the demographics of the students enrolled in each Optional Program reflect the population in the Juneau School District as a whole.  This goal is not limited to the criteria actually used in placement.  Targets applied in a weighted lottery should not be regarded as maximums; it is acceptable to have the number of students in a program who meet the targeted criteria exceed the proportion of students in the district with those characteristics.

4.     Sibling preference shall be given to an applicant if a sibling of the applicant has been enrolled in the program during the current year, and will be enrolled and participating in the program during the coming school year.  Sibling preference is also extended to the siblings of applicants who are selected through the placement process.

5.     Children of Optional Program employees scheduled to work more than 15 hours a week are given preference in placement into the program in which their parent works. Employee preference is also provided to grandchildren of employees, such as elders working in the Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy program.

6.     The District encourages teachers and principals to recommend students who would benefit from the optional programs.

7.     Mid year openings in an optional program are filled by students drawn from the waitlist established through the placement procedure. The same weighted or random lottery rules apply to mid-year placements as apply to the initial placement process in the spring. Families may submit an application to be placed on the waitlist for mid year openings.  Applications received after the application deadline will be placed at the end of the wait list.  A mid-year spot in an Optional Program may only be intentionally left unfilled with the approval of the Superintendent. Applicants may choose to carry over their waitlist spot to the placement process for the next school year. Families will be contacted about their waitlist status prior to the next application period. Once a student accepts a position in an optional program, their name will be removed from any other optional program waitlist.  

8.     If an optional program has more applicants than openings for a particular grade, a lottery will be held to determine which students are placed in the program. This lottery will either be a Random Lottery or a Weighted Lottery, depending on the program. The steps required to be followed when placing students using either the random or weighted lottery are outlined below.

●      The Random Lottery rules apply to the Juneau Community Charter School as prescribed by law.

●      The Weighted Lottery rules apply to Montessori Borealis, with weighted preferences given to low income students or students who qualify for Special Education services.

●      The Weighted Lottery rules apply to the Tlingit Culture, Language, and Literacy program, with weighted preferences given to students who have a foundation in Tlingit Language based on assessment or who are achieving at or above the proficiency target for their grade level based on recent MAP test scores or kindergarten screener.

Changes to these assignments may be made in future years as determined by the Superintendent who is responsible for notifying, in advance of the proposed changes, the Board of Education and explaining the rationale behind them.

9.     The application deadline for Optional Program applications to be included in the spring lottery will be in April or May of each year. 

10.  A student who has attended an Optional Program in one school year is automatically placed in the same program for the following school year.  

11.  This placement process is used to determine which students will be placed in an Optional Program.  The process may give consideration to diversity candidates or students in extraordinary circumstances. Once a student has been offered a place in a program, and has accepted that spot, they will be assigned to a classroom within the program by program staff using criteria consistent with Board Policy 6152.  Classroom placement is not part of this Placement Process.  

The placement criteria for the Weighted Lottery have been established to promote the balancing of the enrollment in the District’s optional programs, so that the student population of each program will reflect the diversity of students in the district.  The Board of Education believes that students learn best in a diverse group where they are exposed to students with a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives. The Board advocates the dignity and worth of all people and recognizes that identification and removal of systemic barriers are essential to achieving equity in education

Balancing efforts are made by grade level, with the intention that grade-level diversity will expand to program diversity.

The demographic characteristics used in the Weighted Lottery vary based on the needs of the Optional Program.  Some are designed to give a placement preference to students who are of low socioeconomic status (Low SES), qualify for Special Education services, or are achieving at or above the proficiency level for their grade, until the percentage of children with those characteristics in the particular grade for the affected program matches the percentage of students in the district at that grade level with the same characteristics. Students with Tlingit Language proficiency will be given placement preference for the TCLL program. 

The following steps shall be taken in order to determine the target number of students in each grade of an Optional Program to which the Weighted Lottery applies.

1.     Determine the number of students to be enrolled in each grade for the program.

2.     Determine the percentage of students in the Juneau School District at each grade level who qualify for Free or Reduced Lunch (FRL), who meet the requirements for Special Education, or who are achieving at a Proficiency level for their grade.  If this data is not available or is considered unreliable for a particular grade level, then data from another similar grade may be used.

3.     The target number of spots in each grade level for Low SES students equals the total number of students in the grade times the district-wide FRL percentage for that grade level, rounded to the nearest whole student.

4.     The target number of spots in each grade level for Special Education students equals the total number of students in the grade times the district-wide Special Education percentage for that grade level, rounded to the nearest whole student.

5.     The target number of spots in each grade level for students achieving Proficiency equals the total number of students in the grade times the district-wide Proficiency percentage for that grade level, rounded to the nearest whole student.

1.     Assign each applicant a random number. For each grade, place applicants on a list in numerical order using assigned random numbers.

2.     Commence the placement process by grade level order chosen at random and work with each grade separately.  For each grade level, the placement process ends when all openings in the grade have been filled or when there are no more applicants that have not been placed. 

3.     For each step in the process, students are placed in the program in the order of their assigned random number.

Placement of Students with Targeted Characteristics – Used for Weighted Lottery Programs only

4.     Low-SES placement (used only for programs for which Low-SES is a weighted characteristic)

a.      Determine the number of targeted Low-SES openings in the grade level by comparing the targeted number of Low-SES students in the grade with the number of Low-SES students already enrolled in the program at that grade.

b.     Following the numerical order on the placement list, place applicants meeting the low-SES criteria in the grade until the total number of new plus returning students in the grade who meet the low-SES criteria equals the target or until there are no more low-SES applicants for that grade.

5.     Special Education placement (used only for programs for which Special Education is a weighted characteristic)

a.      Determine the number of targeted Special Education openings in the grade level by comparing the targeted number of Special Education students in the grade with the number of Special Education students already enrolled in the program at that grade.

b.     Following the numerical order on the placement list, place applicants meeting the Special Education criteria in the grade until the total number of new and returning students in the grade who meet the Special Education criteria equals the target or until there are no more Special Education applicants for that grade.

6.     Proficiency placement (used only for programs for which Proficiency is a weighted characteristic)

a.      Determine the number of targeted Proficiency openings in the grade level by comparing the targeted number of Proficiency students in the grade with the number of students meeting the Proficiency criteria already enrolled in the program at that grade.

b.     Following the numerical order on the placement list, place applicants meeting the Proficiency criteria in the grade until the total number of new and returning students in the grade who meet the Proficiency criteria equals the target or until there are no more Proficiency applicants for that grade.

Siblings and Employees’ children/grandchildren – Used for all programs

7.     Following the numerical order on the placement list, place applicants who are siblings of students who have been and continue to participate in the program or who have been placed in the program earlier in the placement process.

8.     Following the numerical order on the placement list, place applicants who are children/grandchildren of qualifying program employees.

Remaining openings – Used for all programs

9.     Place the remaining children from the list at that grade in the program following the numerical order on the placement list.  

1.     Efforts will be made to notify families as quickly as possible after the application deadline of their child’s acceptance or status on the waitlist.

2.     Parents will be notified of their child’s acceptance or their status on the waitlist by the Optional Program and will be given two business days to respond following notification of the success of their child’s application.

3.     If parents are unavailable or do not respond, the next applicant on the waitlist will be offered the position. The child of a parent who does not respond within the two business day time frame will not be removed from the waitlist as a result of the parent’s failure to respond, unless the parent subsequently fails to respond within two business days to a second offered opening.

4.     A child whose parent declines an offered opening shall be removed from the waitlist.  The child may reapply in the future, but will receive no preference for previously having been selected.

5.     Once a student accepts a position in an optional program, their name will be removed from any other optional program waitlist.  

6.     Parents who have been notified of their child’s placement on the waitlist for a program should make arrangements to register or continue their child’s education at a neighborhood school.

Related board policies:

Policy 5116:  School Attendance Boundaries

Policy 6181:  Charter Schools