Enrollment Lottery

Parker Performing Arts School will purge its entire waiting list for each academic year after October 1, and any interested parties will need to complete new Intent to Enroll Forms for every year they wish to be considered in the annual enrollment lottery.

If you have further questions, please contact [email protected].

Parker Performing Arts School Official Enrollment Policy

Parker Performing Arts School (PPA) launched in the fall 2016 by filling 809 seats in grades K-8 through a standard lottery process.  The following guidelines shall be followed:

• In December of each year, PPA will conduct a lottery to fill any open seats Kindergarten through 8th grade.
• Enrollment at PPA will be open to students in all surrounding areas with no district priority given.

Method of Enrollment

Parents request enrollment for their child(ren) by submitting an online Intent to Enroll form. Submitting an Intent to Enroll form in no way guarantees an invitation for enrollment in PPA, nor does it obligate the family to enroll their child(ren) should they receive an invitation.

Non-Discrimination Policy

PPA will not discriminate against the enrollment of any student as per PPA Non-Discrimination Policy (See Appendix M), and the Directors of the Board and school Principal are responsible for ensuring that the policy is upheld. As such, school enrollment will not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, creed, color, gender, national origin, religion, ancestry, socioeconomic status, language, or need for special education services. Furthermore, PPA will not discriminate on the basis of performing arts talent or ability, and enrollment will not be based in any way from an audition or of any assessment of a student’s ability or potential in any artistic discipline.  PPA also prohibits discrimination in enrollment based on the academic ability of any student.  After students are officially enrolled, PPA reserves the right to test to determine a student’s academic knowledge using diagnostic or placement exams are given per The Colorado Charter Schools Act [C.R.S. 22-30.5-104 (3)].

Special Education and Services for Special Populations at Parker Performing Arts

Like all charter schools, Parker Performing Arts (PPA) is a public school. PPA does not
discriminate on the basis of disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin,
religion, ancestry, need for special education services, or any other grounds prohibited by law.
PPA serves students with disabilities and English Learners and provides services to students as
required by state and federal law.

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Act, students with disabilities are entitled to a Free and
Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). Applicants to
PPA are not required to identify whether the applicant has an IEP and the school admits
students without considering a student’s disability. After a student with an IEP is initially
enrolled in the school, an IEP team meeting may be required to determine whether this school
is an appropriate placement for the student based on their needs.
In most cases, the services required by a student with disabilities can be provided at PPA. In
some cases, a student’s individual needs require that they be placed in a different program or
location as determined by an IEP or Section 504 team.

Information about disabilities will not be requested until a student has been admitted to the school.

Waitlists

When the school’s student enrollment is at capacity, wait lists shall be prioritized according to Douglas County Board of Education Policy JCA/JFB-R.  These priority lists will be created if the number of applicants exceed space available at PPA.

Priority Enrollment

Priority for enrollment into the school will be given to the following groups of students prior to the lottery:

• Children in the household of Founding Families; Grandchildren of Founding Families;
• Currently enrolled students;
• Siblings of currently enrolled students. Siblings that share the same birth date (i.e., twins or triplets, etc.) shall receive automatic enrollment; and
• Children of full-time staff.

Founding Families are defined as families who provide 50 or more hours of approved services toward the development, formation, and completion of PPA prior to the initial year December lottery (ending November 30, 2016).  These founding families are maintained by the school registrar.  The child(ren) of these families receive a guaranteed enrollment and bypass the lottery. All volunteers must complete only approved volunteer services.  “Staff” children are the child(ren) of staff of PPA who are full-time employees by the definition of the Douglas County School District.  Founding Families and Staff children will not exceed 20% of the total enrollments in the lottery.

Lottery

All applicable dates and deadlines for the enrollment lottery will be clearly communicated.  Public meetings, website information, social media, posted notices, appropriate news press releases, and other methods approved by the Directors of the Board, school Principal, and Douglas County School District will provide adequate time and opportunity for all interested parties to submit Intent to Enroll prior to the lottery.

The lottery process shall commence in December of the initial academic year. All students for whom an Intent to Enroll was received prior to the date of the lottery are eligible for enrollment and will be assigned a unique identification number and placed on a list (by number).  The list will be sorted using computer-generated, randomized numbers. Each entry is assigned a Lottery ID depending on where they landed in the sort.  The Lottery ID will be utilized one time for the upcoming academic year only.  Enrollment vacancies will be filled by grade, beginning with the highest grade for which there is one or more vacancies, and will continue in descending order (grade eight, grade seven, grade six, and so forth) until all vacancies are filled for all grades.  Following priority enrollment as noted above, enrollment invitations will be extended to students in order of their assigned Lottery ID (lowest to highest). To ensure authenticity and integrity of the lottery process, no less than two Directors of the Board and the Principal or Academic Director will oversee the randomization of computer-generated Lottery ID assignments; the final sort will be printed and signed by all witnesses.

DCSD Open Enrollment Policy

By providing written Enrollment Acceptance to the school, the child(ren) will forfeit enrollment in their neighborhood school, as defined by DCSD open enrollment policies. Please see the DCSD website for details regarding their open enrollment policies.

Enrollment Acceptance

Upon receiving an Invitation to Enroll via email, the parent(s) or legal guardian(s) of the child(ren) shall provide written or verbal Enrollment Acceptance to the appropriate school contact no later than forty-eight hours after the enrollment invitation was extended. Clear instructions on how to complete enrollment and accurate return contact information will be provided to each parent(s) or legal guardian(s) of the child(ren).  Registration forms shall be downloaded by the parent(s) or legal guardian(s) from the acceptance email and will be signed and submitted to the school within one week (7 days) of acceptance.  Parent(s) or legal guardian(s) of the child(ren) will also need to provide the child(ren)’s certificate of birth, immunization records, proof of residence (Warranty Deed, Deed of Trust, Tax Notice, Lease Agreement, Assessor Page, Notarized Letter from the person they are living with if they are living with someone and their name doesn’t appear on the proof of residency).  A student who accepts enrollment and provides completed enrollment documentation will be deemed an enrolled student at PPA.  Once enrolled, that student will also be allowed continual enrollment for the duration of their K-8 education in accordance and compliance with the schools policies and procedures.  The academic records of enrolled students will either be created or transferred into PPA from the student’s former school in accordance with PPA and Douglas County School District Student Data & Information Services policies and procedures.  PPA school administration will continue to execute an ongoing communication plan of critical information to families preparing to attend PPA that will continue all the way to the commencement of the school year.

If no written or verbal Enrollment Acceptance is received by the school within forty-eight hours from the time any child was extended an Invitation to Enroll,  the school will assume the parent(s) or legal guardian(s) of the child(ren) have declined to enroll the child(ren) in the school and will be removed from the system. The school may then extend an Invitation to Enroll to another child using the established lottery process.

The parent(s) or legal guardian(s) of the child(ren) who complete an Intent to Enroll and who are not selected and enrolled into PPA during the lottery process will remain on a wait list until October 1.

Vacancies, Withdrawals, and Transfers

When a vacancy in enrollment is created prior to, during, or after the school year, the vacancy may or may not be filled at the discretion of the Principal, in the event it is considered to be fiscally, logistically, or otherwise in conflict with the school’s ability to meet its mission and goals.  If the school chooses to fill the vacancy, priority will be given as specified in the Priority Enrollment section of this document and according to Board of Education Policy JCA/JFB-R. An Invitation to Enroll will be extended to a child in the same manner as described for Enrollment Acceptance above.

In the case of withdrawals or transfers of students causing a vacancy, PPA will partner with Douglas County School District Student Data & Information Services to adhere to all current and correct policies and procedures surrounding the accurate maintenance and movement of student records from PPAS to the destination school in Douglas County or abroad.  Additionally, a plan will be created by the PPA administration to smoothly transition student records accurately from eighth grade to the student and family’s high school of choice.  PPA will work to establish feeder school relationships with nearby and surrounding high schools to streamline an efficient student transition.