Choice Selection Process

How It Works

Entry year for elementary school is generally kindergarten unless otherwise noted. All program selections run simultaneously. Applicants are placed in line for every program on their GoCPS application at the same time according to any priority groups that the program offers and are included and verified on the student’s GoCPS application. Students are placed in the highest priority group (just one) in the following order (if applicants don’t qualify for any priority group, they are placed in the General group):

1. Sibling: If more siblings apply than there are seats available, a computerized sibling lottery will be conducted to fill the available spaces.
2. Staff (Entry Year Only): Up to two seats in entry level years only.
3. Proximity (Entry Year Only): A proximity lottery is only run if a school meets policy requirements regarding the percentage of students within the proximity radius and the percentage of students of any one racial/ethnic group.
4. Tiers (Entry Year Only): Seats are distributed evenly among the four tiers, and the seats are filled by computerized lottery.
5. General: Includes all applicants who do not fit into any of the other priority groups.

A random computerized lottery system assigns a random number to each applicant. Applicants are lined up accordingly from lowest number to highest number.

• When an applicant matches with the highest-ranked program on their GoCPS application, they are taken out of line for all lower-ranked programs.
• Applicants can get a single best offer for their highest-ranked program that has availability and they are eligible for.

Students are placed on a waitlist for all programs they ranked higher than the offer they received. Programs ranked lower than the offer received will not be waitlisted. Tiebreakers are not needed as all choice elementary programs are lottery-based selections.