School choice is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. Charter schools alone added 80,000 new students last year. But any school administrator knows that the increasing popularity of school choice means working with more parents who aren’t familiar with competitive enrollment processes and school lotteries.
For charter and district schools, using a school lottery system only increases the importance of clear communication with families. In fact, transparency around the application and lottery process can make or break the enrollment experience—without it, families may look elsewhere for their child’s education.
To foster strong family relationships from day one, you need to anticipate their biggest questions. The more clearly and proactively you can address these questions, the better situated you’ll be in building trust, easing concerns, and positioning yourself as an equitable and trustworthy provider of school choice.
Question 1: How Does a School Lottery Work?
Every family will want to know: How does the lottery work, and what does it mean for my child?
At its core, that means communicating that school lottery systems are an equitable way to fill seats when the number of applicants exceeds the available spots. Studies continue to support this fact. However, parents need a clear, step-by-step breakdown of exactly why that is the case.
Make it easy to follow by:
- Outlining the steps of your application and the rules of your lottery process.
- Specifying application deadlines and how exactly it will be submitted.
- Reassuring families that their child’s application will be entered into the lottery and considered based on your school selection rules.
While school lotteries can be conducted manually, an automated system creates a more equitable lottery system, ensures fairness, and allows families to see an audit trail of their selection outcome.
Pro Tip: Leverage Multiple Resources and Channels
Visuals like flowcharts and timelines can help parents understand your application process and student selection rules. You can even offer information in live Q&A sessions or virtual office hours, during which parents can ask questions and build an open dialogue.
Finally, mobile-friendly and multi-language communications and application processes can go a long way in enhancing accessibility and reducing confusion.
Question 2: Is the School Lottery Process Fair and Unbiased?
When a new lottery system is introduced, parents often want to confirm that it is truly fair.
The best way to ease that worry is through transparency. Explain how your lottery ensures fairness—whether through automation, independent oversight, or a publicly run lottery. Many states require public audits of lottery results to ensure an impartial process, so sharing your lottery results asynchronously or in real-time may be required.
The right education technology can improve transparency in your school lottery system. Configurable, rule-based algorithms make the selection process neutral and fair. As a result, each student is considered based on pre-set criteria without human interference.
Pro Tip: Take the Extra Step in Parent Transparency
It’s natural to keep internal processes behind the scenes—but when it comes to your lottery system, transparency is your best asset. If you use third-party oversight or an algorithm-based selection process, share that openly. An extra level of disclosure reassures families and strengthens your school’s credibility.
Question 3: What are the Odds of Getting In?
Depending on applicant demand for your school and your enrollment capacity, the answer to this question may vary widely. Here are a few ways you can be clear in your communications to answer this question:
- Share your typical admission numbers. For example, “We typically receive around 200 applications for 50 seats.”
- Share examples of percentages to set more realistic expectations. For example, “In the past three years, the acceptance rate has been around 25%.”
- Explain influencing factors, like sibling priority, that may affect odds.
Pro Tip: Back Up Your Claims
Help parents understand that specific results cannot be guaranteed. If your lottery system is computerized, it may include enrollment statistics and applicant demographics that can provide informed estimates.
Question 4: What Criteria Does the School Lottery Use to Select Students?
Preferences in school lotteries help schools maintain a diverse student body and enable applicants to apply for their preferred programs. However, if these criteria in admission policies are not spelled out properly, they can confuse families.
When communicating with families, be clear about how your system is configured to weigh specific priorities and preferences for different groups of applicants. Are siblings of current students, children of staff, and other groups prioritized and weighed differently? Especially in the context of choice placements, letting families know about preferences upfront helps set clear expectations for how your school accurately and fairly meets diversity and inclusion goals.
Pro Tip: Leverage Automated Rule-Based Systems
A configurable lottery system that supports your rules for school admissions and can eliminate human error and biases, ensuring equity and confidence in the process. Automating your school lottery in a software solution also helps your school account for other groupings like choice program rankings, with exclusions and thresholds built in as necessary.
Question 5: When Will We Know if We Got In?
After submitting a lottery application, families are eager to know if their student will be accepted to your school. Publishing a clear timeline of your selection process makes the wait easier. Ideally, your lottery results should be made public shortly after the lottery draw and consistent with the school admission dates you share in advance of your application window opening.
It is helpful to provide as specific a date or time frame as possible and to communicate updates to parents throughout the application process. Publish key dates on your website, your application materials, and any other parent communications. Take it a step further by explaining how they’ll receive the news. Offering multiple means of communication (such as texts, emails, and online portals) ensures no one overlooks updates about their applicant’s admission status.
Pro Tip: Share Results Dates Early and Often
Even the most diligent parents can miss key communications if they’re not informed in time. Avoid confusion or frustration by sharing expectations and timelines early and throughout your communications in the lottery process. You may even consider sharing a helpline number or email address they can contact for any updates.
Question 6: What Happens Once We Get Chosen (And What if We Don’t)?
Lottery results are very important to parents and students. Keep them moving through your enrollment process by ensuring they know exactly how to accept their child’s spot if they’re selected. As part of your communication, include key deadlines for seat acceptance and any required documents for submission. These may include proof of residency, birth certificate, or vaccination records. Let families know when to expect orientation and registration information.
Additionally, emphasize how important timely responses are in accepting their spot and the potential of a rescinded offer if they cannot respond in time. Be sure to include information about reapplication opportunities in the future, should they need to take advantage of that option.
Finally, continue to do outreach to parents whose child is not chosen and remains on the waitlist. Not getting in right away can be disappointing, but being on the waitlist doesn’t mean an automatic denial of admittance. Provide guidance to these families on any opportunities their child may still have to be considered for a spot in your school.
Pro Tip: Automate the Post-Acceptance Process for Reliable Communication
Automating the post-acceptance process can ensure that all parents receive the information most relevant to them. You can create automated, personalized communications or offer information and resources through a parent portal, enabling families to access resources without needing to reach out for clarification every time.
Question 7: How is the School Lottery Waitlist Managed?
As anticipation for seat placement builds, families will want to know how the waitlist works. Here, it’s crucial to be both proactive and mindful in the process.
For example, you can tell them that while you are currently at full capacity, you can inform them of their rank on the waitlist and let them know you will reach out if a spot becomes available. Cancellations can happen, and it’s common for spots to open in the weeks leading up to the school year. If this is the case for your school, inform families early and proactively. To ease the limbo period, make sure to communicate when families are expected to make their final decisions.
Just as importantly, communicate how your waitlist is established, whether it’s a ranked list of potential students or a wait pool where applicants are grouped together.
Pro Tip: Prioritize Building Trust With All Your Parents
Even if there’s no immediate change, keep families engaged with periodic updates throughout the wait. A smart and proactive communication approach leaves a positive impression that could lead to more reapplications and goodwill in the future.
Setting Your School Up for Successful and Transparent Waitlist Communication
Transparency is vital in creating a successful and equitable lottery system. As you move through your school lottery system checklist, you can enhance your chances of successfully building trust by anticipating families’ questions and accounting for their needs throughout the process.
Of course, creating these communications manually is inherently time-intensive and adds to already busy administrative schedules. That’s where the right school and enrollment management system comes in handy.
With a solution like School Pathways, you can build a more automated lottery system and automate your parent communication—ensuring that parents get the right information at the right time while building trust. It’s how you can ensure that parents leave satisfied with the process, knowing enough to apply and trusting that the process works fairly for them. Contact us today to learn how you can get started.
