Newark Charter School Admissions Policy

(Amended by Board of Directors 6/21/16)

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), or new children of current employees (via adoption, marriage, etc., which

takes place after the open enrollment period has closed). These students will be placed on the waiting list at the end of the
Children of Employees section of the waiting list; in the order their applications are received.
4. The order of the lotteries to determine admission for 2017-2018 and thereafter will be K, 1, 2, 3, 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. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. All Kindergarten applicants must be at least five years of age on or before August 31, 2017 to apply for Kindergarten
in the 2017-2018 school year. The parent/legal guardian of the child may have their child participate in the Newark
Charter School lottery for admission to Kindergarten only once. A birth certificate showing that the child will turn five
years of age on or before August 31, 2017 will be required during the registration process in order for the student to be
officially accepted. No child may participate in the Newark Charter School lottery for admission to Kindergarten more
than one time.
10. 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).
11. 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.