Newark Charter School Admissions Policy

(Amended by Board of Directors 9/15/15)

1. Newark Charter School will advertise the open application period from the 1st Monday of
November through the 2nd Wednesday in January of the school year preceding enrollment. All interested
parties wanting to attend Newark Charter School must fill out an application and submit that application
to the school including founders, employees, siblings, and any other interested party. All applications
received after the deadline, but postmarked by the deadline, will be considered received by the deadline.
If oversubscribed at the end of the open application period, Newark Charter School will publicize and
hold a lottery, applying preferences as stated in the charter and allowed by state law. All applications
(inclusive of siblings, employees, founders, etc.) received after the open application period will be placed
at the end of the waiting list after the lottery has concluded. If not oversubscribed, Newark Charter
School will conditionally admit all students who apply within the open application period, and will add
additional students as applications are received in the order they are received.
2. The Lottery will be held in February.
3. Newark Charter School will show preference in filling the positions in the school, as allowed by
Delaware State Law. The following preferences will be applied in the order listed below:
A. Children of Founding Members - The Board will maintain a list on file. This number cannot
exceed 5% of the total seats available. Founders cannot be added to the list originally established
in 2000-2001.
B. Children of employees of Newark Charter School.
C. Siblings of children already currently attending the school and that will be in attendance the next
year.
D. Siblings of children conditionally accepted during this lottery.
Once the lottery begins, this preference is applied to the siblings of the newly accepted students.
E. Children residing within a 5-mile radius of the school.
The 5-mile radius map prepared for the school by the Center for Applied Demography and
Survey Research at the University of Delaware and approved by the Newark Charter School
Board of Directors at its September 2006 meeting will be the official resource used to determine
whether a residence is considered to be located within the 5-mile radius. The center of the 5-mile
radius has been defined as the flagpole in front of Newark Charter Schools intermediate school
building at 2001 Patriot Way. It has been decided by the Board of Directors that when the 5-mile
radius line encompasses or touches any part of a single residential tax parcel that residence should
be considered as being inside the 5-mile radius. When the 5-mile radius line encompasses or
touches any part of a multi-family dwelling unit (that is, an apartment building, townhouse or
condominium sharing a common tax parcel) then all the residences within that tax parcel should
be considered as being inside the 5-mile radius. When the 5-mile radius line touches part of the
tax parcel of a multi-family dwelling complex, but does not encompass or touch any residence
(dwelling unit) located on that tax parcel then all residences on that tax parcel are considered as
being outside the five-mile radius. In cases where individual dwelling units are located on a
common tax parcel (that is, individual houses or dwellings that do not share common walls) each
individual dwelling will be considered as being inside the 5-mile radius only when the 5-mile
radius line encompasses or touches that individual dwelling. The official 5-mile radius map
reflects these parameters and identifies the properties that are considered to be within the 5-mile
radius for admission preferences to Newark Charter School.
Residency must be established as of the date of the lottery and proper verification will be required
after students have been accepted. NOTE: Residency must be with the primary or shared
custodial parent(s) or legal guardian(s) -- not other relatives or friends. Residence must be
students primary home, not a rental property, place of business, etc. If an applicant has an
established residence in Delaware that is outside the five-mile radius they cannot substitute
another home/residence that is inside the five-mile radius. Staying with friends or relatives, or
subletting a residence inside the five-mile radius does not take precedence when a primary
residence has been established elsewhere.

Once an applicant is assigned a number on a waiting list for a given grade, that applicant will not receive
sibling preference in this fiscal years lottery due to a brother or sister being admitted to another grade
later in the lottery, nor will such an applicant placed on the waiting list provide a sibling preference to a
brother or sister who is applying for any other grade(s).
After the lottery, the only addition to the waiting list would be for the child (ren) of a newly hired
employee (hired by the school after the open enrollment period closed). They will go to the front of the
waiting list in the order their applications are received.
4. The order of the lotteries to determine admission for 2016-2017 and thereafter will be K, 1, 2, ,
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10, 11 and 12.
5. The intent of the sibling preference law is to keep families together.
SIBLING by definition is a:
A. Biological/adoptive sibling
B. Stepsiblings residing in the same household.
C. Foster children residing within the same household
D. Stepsiblings living in different households are not considered for a sibling preference.
E. **An alumnus of the school with a sibling applying for the following year does not qualify as a
sibling for entrance preference. If a student is enrolled from the lottery based upon receiving the
sibling preference and the student currently attending NCS withdraws to go to another school,
the sibling accepted during the lottery will be deemed to have lost their acceptance to NCS.
F. Same grade siblings will be treated as one single applicant unit, rather than as multiple
applicants. When that one applicant unit is drawn in the lottery, the same grade siblings will be
numerically ordered on the waiting list or conditionally accepted dependent upon where in the lottery
that applicant unit was drawn.
NOTE: Siblings of current students must submit an application to the school during the open enrollment
period to be considered for admission.
6. In order to determine the number of available seats for 9th grade, it is essential that the school has an
accurate roster of its 8th grade students who are committed to continuing their enrollment in Newark
Charter High Schools 9th grade. To demonstrate this commitment, currently enrolled 8th grade students
and their parents must complete and return the commitment to high school form during the open
application period and they must complete the registration process (according to the registration deadlines
established by the school) after the lottery, including signing a new Intent To Enroll form. Students and
parents who do not complete this commitment form and registration process will be withdrawn and their
vacated seat will become available to other students who have applied, as determined by the established
waiting list created during the lottery. Such students, who have withdrawn, as stated above, must reapply
through the application process described above should they wish to re-enroll at Newark Charter High
School.
7. After the lottery takes place, those who wish to apply may request an application from the office. Once
received, the application would be placed on the waiting list in order received.
8. Applications are only valid for one year. New applications for the following year will need to be
submitted for next years consideration. The waiting list does not carry over year to year.
9. The School Director may fill or not fill any new openings on a space available basis at his/her
discretion not necessarily restricted to the grade in which the opening occurred. If the school director fills
an opening, the established waiting list will be utilized providing all parties have determined that the
placement is appropriate. Since the intermediate, junior and senior high school use homogeneous ability
grouping, space availability in these groupings is independent of space availability for the grade as a
whole. After student schedules are complete during the summer, space availability will be determined for
these groupings by the School Director.
10. All Kindergarten applicants must turn five years of age in the period from September 1, 2015 to
August 31, 2016 to apply for KN in the 2016-2017 lottery. Students applying for Kindergarten do not
necessarily have to be currently enrolled in a pre-K program. A birth certificate showing that the child

will turn five-years old on or after September 1, 2015 and no later than August 31, 2016 will be required
during the registration process in order for the student to be officially accepted.
11. All other applicants to Newark Charter School must apply to the next consecutive grade level that
they would matriculate to if they were to remain in their current school (For example, a current 1st grade
student must apply to 2nd grade).
12. The order of the waiting list is established according to the rules described above. It should be
noted, however, that the number of openings in any grade may fluctuate based on other factors such as
student withdrawals, retentions, reassignment of students to other grades or specific classes, finances, etc.
These changes may occur at any time and will affect the number of openings available but not the order
of students on the waiting list established during the lottery process.