Mystic Valley Regional Charter School 770 Salem Street l Malden, MA 02148 l Telephone 781-388-0222 l Facsimile 781-321-5688 Admissions Criteria Enrollment Policy and Procedures Charter schools are public schools and are therefore open to all Massachusetts students on a space available basis. This means that the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, creed or religion, sex, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, age, ancestry, athletic performance, special need, proficiency in the English language or in a foreign language, or prior academic achievement when recruiting or admitting students. Moreover, the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School may not set admissions criteria that are intended to discriminate or that have the effect of discriminating based upon any of these characteristics. M.G.L.c. 71, 89(m) ; 603 CMR 1.06(1) & (8). The Mystic Valley Regional Charter School has an interest in making sure that all prospective students and their families understand the mission and focus of the school and are interested in being a part of the school community. The school s enrollment process is not integrated with that of the school s sending school districts. The Mystic Valley Regional Charter School requires: 1. Applicants to Kindergarten must be five years old by August 31 of the year they are entering Kindergarten. 2. Candidates for admission to apply for the grade immediately following their current grade and to successfully complete their current grade to be admitted. The school will require proof of prior completion, which may include transcripts, report cards, a school leader affidavit, and/or a homeschool education plan, before enrollment is completed. 3. Applicants to be residents of Massachusetts at the time that they submit a Request to Attend (attached) and at the time of enrollment and attendance. Please note that failure to meet requirements 1 and 2 from time of application to time of attendance may result in the school rescinding the offer of admission and unenrollment. 4. That primary preference for admission be given to siblings of students currently attending the school at the time an offer of admission is made, in accordance with Massachusetts Law M.G.L.c. CH71, S 89 (n); 603 CMR 1.05 (6) Department of Education regulations. 5. That secondary preference for admission is given to prospective students who are residents of the charter region (Everett, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Stoneham and Wakefield) as defined in 603 1.056(64) at the time that they are offered admission to the school. Reasonable proof of current residency is required at the time an offer of admission is made and registration paperwork is submitted. 1 Board Approved: 9/14/15
and strongly advises and requests: 6. Parents/guardians and prospective students attend an open house and orientation session prior to enrollment (attendance at such open house and orientation is not required as a condition of enrollment). 7. As part of enrollment process, parents/guardians and students sign compacts that demonstrate their agreement with and understanding of the school s mission and handbook (signing the compact is not required as a condition of enrollment). The Mystic Valley Regional Charter School will not: 1. Give preferences to children of staff members or members of the Board of Trustees. 2. Give preference to siblings of students accepted to the school but not yet attending. 3. Make statements in meetings intended to discourage, or that have the effect of discouraging, parents/guardians of prospective students with disabilities, prospective students with limited English proficiency, or any other protected group of prospective students from submitting a Request to Attend to the school. See M.G.L. c. 71 89(1). 4. Administer tests to potential applicants or predicate acceptance for admission on results from any test of ability or achievement. Require prospective students or their families to attend interviews or informational meetings as a condition of enrollment. 5. Charge an application fee for admission or use financial incentives to recruit prospective students. 6. Set any principal application deadlines or hold any enrollment lotteries for student admission for the upcoming school year until after January 1. The school shall conclude its principal enrollment process no later than March 15 of each year. Outreach The Mystic Valley Regional Charter School provides information about the school to those who are interested throughout the year. The school provides many informational sessions at open houses held throughout the year, beginning in early November. Request to Attend forms can be obtained on the school s web site at www.mvrcs.com or in person at the school business office at 576 Eastern Ave., Malden, MA. The school has and will implement its recruitment and retention plan, as outlined in MGL Chapter 71 Section 89(1):CMR 603 1.05(i). The enrollment process can include regional outreach efforts that features advertisement in local newspapers, open houses at the school, parent/guardian meetings at local preschool centers, and announcements on the school s website. All applicants will receive a document outlining the rights of students with diverse learning needs to attend the charter school and to receive accommodations and support services, including students who may have disabilities, require special education, or are English language learners. Information regarding the availability of the school s services may be found on the school s website at www.mvrcs.org. Please refer to the school s Annual Report, also located on the school s website, for a comprehensive overview of the school s recruitment and retention 2 Board Approved: 9/14/15
plan. Attendance at an open house event is strongly encouraged, but not required, for prospective students and their families. Enrollment Steps 1. Complete a Request to Attend form. Request to Attend forms can be obtained on the school web site at www.mvrcs.com or in person at 576 Eastern Ave., Malden, MA. Request to Attend forms will be accepted until the Friday before the Enrollment Lottery (lottery) held each January. The school shall give reasonable public notice, of at least one month, of all application deadlines. Applicants to Kindergarten must be five years old by August 31 of the year they are entering Kindergarten. 2. Receive an official lottery identification number by mail after submitting Request to Attend form. 3. Attend one of the informational open houses beginning in early November (note: not required for enrollment). Families may attend before submitting Request to Attend form or receiving an official lottery identification number. 4. Watch for the publicized date, time, and location of the lottery event, which will be published at least one week before the event on the school s website and in local newspapers. 603 CMR 1.06(6). 5. After the deadline to submit the Request to Attend form passes, the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School will enter all Request to Attend forms into the lottery. A single lottery will be held for all the applicants, and then will be sorted by grade, in order to establish an original random lottery rank order. After the original random lottery rank order is established, preferences for admission will be applied. Preference for admission is given first to applicants in the siblings (regional or non-regional) category, defined below, followed by applicants in the regional category, and then by applicants in the non-regional category without regard to when their Request to Attend forms were submitted, as long as it was prior to the lottery enrollment deadline. Regional - Applicants who live in the city or town that is part of the charter community (Everett, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Stoneham or Wakefield). Residents enrolled in district, charter, private, or parochial schools or enrolling in schools in the charter community get equal preference. Non-regional - Applicants who live in the city or town that is not part of the charter community (Everett, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Stoneham or Wakefield). Residents enrolled in district, charter, private or parochial schools or enrolling in schools outside of the charter community get equal preference. Siblings are defined as prospective students who share a common parent, either biologically or legally through adoption. Whether the prospective students reside in the same household has no bearing on determining if the children are siblings for purposes of a sibling preference. Prospective students who live in separate households may be siblings and those who live in the same household may not be. If siblings are placed in foster homes and one of them enrolls in the school, then the siblings of that student are entitled to admission preference. Foster children are not considered siblings of other children in the foster home unless they share a common parent (biologically or legally). 3 Board Approved: 9/14/15
6. Attend lottery in January (note: not required for enrollment). 7. Receive notice of acceptance or being placed on waitlist. 8. The school will set a final date for prospective students to accept offers of enrollment for the following school year within two months of lottery which will be outlined in the offer letter. 9. Parents/guardians will be able attend an orientation event near this date to complete the enrollment package. Lottery Process Mystic Valley Regional Charter School serves students in Grades K through 12. The school accepts applications for, and enrolls new students in, Grades K through 6, in accordance with the enrollment growth plan attached on page 7. Each year, the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School will determine the number of spaces available by grade level for Grades K through 6. If there are more eligible applicants than spaces available, the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School must hold a lottery to determine which applicants will receive an offer of admission. 603 CMR 1.06(3)(a). As previously mentioned, the school must give reasonable public notice of the lottery, at least one week before the lottery date. The lottery will be conducted in public at 576 Eastern Ave. in Malden, with the date and time posted as part of the school s advertisements. Charter schools must have a neutral individual, without any connection to the school, randomly draw the lottery identification number of all prospective students who submitted Request to Attend forms before the deadline. Upon receipt of a Request to Attend form, the school will assign an official lottery identification number to each application. The school will send out a notice to all applicants, prior to the lottery, informing them of their assigned random number. At the lottery, all the official lottery identification numbers will be randomly drawn to establish the original random lottery rank order for each grade. After the original random lottery rank order has been established, preferences for admission will be applied and the lottery outcome will be announced. Attendance at the lottery is not a requirement for enrollment. Offers of Admission and Enrollment Offers of admission will be made to applicants based on the order in which their official identification number was drawn and their preference for admission. Preferences for admission are: 1. Siblings (regional and non-regional) 2. Regional applicants 3. Non-regional applicants All applicants selected out of the lottery from January to June receive an enrollment packet. Selected families are given a two-week deadline to notify the school of their decision to enroll. Applicants receiving an offer from the waitlist (from July through January) are given a three-day deadline to notify the school of their decision. If the parent/guardian of a selected child from the lottery or from the waitlist does not contact the school within the designated deadline or declines the offer, their enrollment offer is rescinded and they must reapply in a future lottery in order to obtain another enrollment offer. When an offer of admission is made and registration paperwork is submitted, proof of current residency or sibling status will be required. Proof of residency, except for homeless prospective students (which will be handled on a case by case basis to determine preference for admission based on the current or temporary address), may be made by providing one of the items below. 4 Board Approved: 9/14/15
Utility bill (not water or cell phone) Mortgage payment dated within the past 60 days Property tax bill dated within the last year Current lease or Section 8 Agreement, or landlord affidavit W2 form dated within the year or a payroll stub dated within the past 60 days Bank or credit card statement dated within the past 60 days Letter from an approved government agency 1 dated within the past 60 days The school will hold an orientation session in August (before the start of school) to prepare new families and students for the transition to the school and to assist families with any remaining paperwork. If the principal enrollment process fails to produce an adequate number of enrolled students, the lottery process may be repeated if a waitlist does not exist and the required lottery process is strictly followed, including public notification and deadlines (603 CMR 1.05 (8)). In accordance with Mystic Valley Regional Charter School s attendance policy, students who have accepted an offer of admission must begin attending school within 10 days of their anticipated start date (e.g., the first day of school). Waitlist When the number of applicants exceeds the number of open seats, those applicants will be placed on a waitlist in the order the names are selected for the grades applied for and are offered positions in the respective grades if/when they become available. No child may be admitted ahead of other eligible children who were previously placed on a waitlist during a prior enrollment lottery, except in cases where enrollment preferences change or as described in 603 CMR 1.05(10)(b). (603 CMR 1.05(8)). Beginning with the 2015-2016 lottery, applicants will remain on the waitlist only for the school year for which the prospective student applied. The school will maintain all waitlists that were established prior to March 31, 2014 until such waitlists are exhausted (Grades 5 and 6 for the 2019-2020 school year). The school will maintain accurate records of the waitlist containing the names (first, middle, last), dates of birth, home addresses, telephone numbers, and grade levels of the prospective students who entered lottery but did not gain admission. Parents/guardians are responsible for notifying the school if any of this information changes. Please note that the waitlist order is not static and will fluctuate over time with updates based on preference changes (children gaining sibling status or moving into or out of the regional school district). If an opening becomes available during the year, the first eligible prospective student on top of the waitlist will be called and offered enrollment (the school official will talk to a parent/guardian or leave a voicemail message via the home or cell phone number). If a prospective student is selected from the waiting list, the parent/guardian has three days after the school makes contact to confirm enrollment. If the parent/guardian fails to respond within three days, the offer is rescinded (the prospective student must reapply for future consideration), the prospective student is removed from the waitlist, and the next eligible applicant from the waitlist is offered the position. 1 Approved government agencies: Department of Revenue (DOR), Children and Family Services (DCF), Transitional Assistance (DTA), Youth Services (DYS), Social Security, any communications on Commonwealth of Massachusetts letterhead. 5 Board Approved: 9/14/15
Waitlist Exceptions Due to state-imposed caps on the number of students who can attend a charter school from a town, there may be prospective students from these towns who will remain on the waitlist for grades that are not completely full. If a space becomes available and the enrollment of a prospective student from the waitlist would cause his or her sending district to exceed the net school spending cap, or a limitation on enrollment, the school is required to skip over that prospective student but keep them on the waitlist. In cases where the enrollment of a prospective student who is a sibling of a student already attending a charter school would exceed the district charter school tuition cap, and the school has not admitted other prospective students prior to admitting the sibling, the sibling may be offered admission and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will provide tuition for the sibling, subject to appropriation. Example: If the Malden cap has been reached, and a Malden prospective student on the waitlist in an under-enrolled grade is next on the list, the school would not be allowed by the state to admit that child even though the prospective student s grade may not yet be completely full. The school would be required to offer the spot to the first eligible non-malden candidate on the list. In the event that a child from Malden cannot be removed from the waitlist because of the statutory cap, he or she will maintain his or her place on the waitlist under the provisions cited above until that grade s waitlist expires. Once the waitlist expires, the prospective student will need to reapply by submitting a Request to Attend form in the next lottery cycle. There is also a possibility that the departure of a Malden student will allow a child from Malden in a different grade to be admitted. If, for example, a Malden student leaves, and the child who fills his or her seat in the same grade is a non-malden resident, there would then be room for another Malden child in another grade. In such a case, the school would admit the first prospective student on the list that is from Malden and who is in a grade that is not yet full. Other Limitations and Conditions When a student stops attending the school for any reason in Grades K through 6, the school will attempt to fill vacant seats through February 15. A vacancy not filled after February 15 moves into the subsequent grade, to be filled the following August if such grade is not in the last half of the grades offered and is not Grades 10, 11, or 12. Seats for students who have accepted an offer of admission in the charter school but have never attended are exempt from this provision (603 CMR 1.06(4)(d). In the unlikely case that the school s principal enrollment process fails to fill the available admission spaces, the school may repeat the process more than once to meet the requirements of G.L. c. 70, 89(n). (603 CMR 1.05(8)). Please note, the school will not disclose student information with the exception that charter school and municipal public school districts may request from each other student names and addresses once a year and may send mailings through a third-party mailing house. Parents/guardians will be given an opportunity to opt out from this list via the enrollment form (registration paperwork). The school will not admit students in excess of the school s approved maximum enrollment and growth plan specified in the school s amended charter. 6 Board Approved: 9/14/15
School Transportation The school provides transportation (in accordance with Charter School Technical Advisory 16-1, found on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education s website) to students who reside within the region (Everett, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Stoneham, and Wakefield) and who live more than two commonly driven miles from the school they attend. 7 Board Approved: 9/14/15