Next Steps

I applied for the next school year – 2020-2021, what are my next steps?

Great! If you’re here, you probably took advantage of all of your Oakland public school options, district and charter. The On-Time Application deadline for both district (OUSD) and charter schools was February 7, 2020. If you missed this deadline for whatever reason, don’t worry, there are still options. If you have already applied, next steps come in March. Here are the details:

• For district schools (OUSD), please visit www.ousd.org/enroll, as they have their own processes.
• For Oakland charters participating in the common charter application, here’s how it works:
  • Applications received by the February 7, 2020 deadline will be included in charter school lotteries, which will be held in early March 2020. Admission is not guaranteed; a public random lottery is held if a school has more applicants than space available. The “lottery” is the process by which – per state law – schools randomly assign students into available spaces. For each On-Time Application submitted, there are two possible outcomes: 1. you could receive an offer, or 2. you could be placed on the school’s waitlist. 
  • There is nothing left to do until after the school lotteries. All lotteries will be held in early March. You will be notified of your results on March 12, 2020 by text and/or e-mail. You can also check your results– Offer or Waitlist – by logging into your SchoolMint account on March 12, 2020.
  • The deadline to Accept or Decline a charter school offer is March 26, 2020. If you do not accept by this date, the charter school lottery offer(s) will expire. Once you accept an offer, offers from other participating charter schools will be automatically declined. You can remain on waitlists but may only accept an offer at one charter school.  Accepting an offer from a participating charter school will not impact applications to the district (OUSD) and/or non-participating charter schools as they are separate systems. However, we encourage families to accept just one offer to free up seats for other interested families. You must contact the district and/or non-participating charter schools directly for an update on your assignment(s).
  • After that, the next step is registration directly with the school.
  • Applicants that do not receive a lottery offer and/or those that apply in the Late Application Period will be placed on the waitlist at each of your selected schools and offered enrollment if space becomes available. The school will notify you by text, email, phone and/or mail. Waitlists expire at the end of each school year.

To contact the school(s) that you applied to, visit our list of participating schools for their website and contact info at https://OaklandEnrolls.org/participating-schools/. For questions about a district (OUSD) school, call/text (510) 879-4600 or go to https://www.ousd.org/enroll for more information. For questions about the Enrolloak.org charter application, call/text us at (510) 454-9360.

If you applied during the Late Period (after February 7, 2020): 

You will be placed on the school’s waitlist – seats are not guaranteed. You will only be offered a seat if one becomes available. We recommend applying to more than one school to increase your chances of getting a seat.

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AFTER MARCH 12, 2020

IF YOU RECEIVE AN OFFER

This means the school has a seat for your child and is extending you an offer to take that seat. If you receive an offer, you may either 1. accept it,  or 2. decline it. Accepting means you are telling the school you plan to attend. Declining means you are telling the school that you plan not to attend. If you accept one school’s offer, all other charter school offers will be automatically declined. However, accepting an offer will not take you off of any charter waiting lists. 

IF YOU ACCEPT AN OFFER

This means that you communicated to the school that you plan to attend the following year. However, you still need to register for the school in order to secure your seat. Registration requirements are different for every school. You will have to fill out forms, and/or bring documents into the school, and/or go to a meeting or orientation – or more. The best thing you can do is contact the school directly to make sure you are completing all of the required steps for registration by the school’s deadline.

Schools will take away the offer if a child is not registered by a certain date so it is best to contact the school and complete registration right after accepting the offer.

IF YOU REGISTER FOR A SCHOOL

Once you accept an offer, you must register. Each school’s registration process is a little bit different, but usually includes turning in documents (birth certificate, immunizations, proof of address, and more) and filling out more forms with information on you and your child. Some schools require that you attend an orientation or other meeting, and some require other things as well.

If you believe you have completed all the registration paperwork and fulfilled any other requirements for the school, make sure you confirm with the school that they have verified your registration and there is nothing else for you to do to keep your seat.

IF YOU ARE PLACED ON A WAITLIST

If you are placed on a school’s waitlist (WL), it means there are no open seats at that school. You will remain on the waitlist until:

1) you remove yourself, or

2) you receive an offer because a seat has opened up, or

3) the waitlist expires. 

It is important to note that just because you are on a school’s waitlist, you may never get an offer to that school. If more seats don’t open up, the school won’t make any more offers.

Waitlists generally expire at the end of each school year. So if you apply to a school for the 2019-20 year, the waitlist will expire in May of 2020. Waitlists do not roll over to the following school year. If you are on a waitlist and the waitlist expires, you must apply again for the following year in order to be considered for the school.