Applicants will be considered for qualification on their acceptance of the Nittany Valley Charter School mission and their parent's willingness to participate in the required volunteer time. If both of these qualifications are met in the student's application, the student will be considered a qualified applicant for enrollment.
Students applying for 1st grade must be six years of age by September 1.
Recruitment will begin in March for enrollment for the following Fall. The open enrollment period will be advertised through various media that may include but is not limited to newspapers, magazines, radio and mailings.
Applications for new students will be available on April 1 and will be accepted until April 30. The school will hold open houses on April 5th, 13th, and 21st from 5:30 PM until 7:00 PM for interested families to attend.
All students currently enrolled in NVCS, whether in-district or out-of-district, are exempt from the lottery process but must fill out a re-enrollment application by April 1. Children of the founding coalition and siblings of current students who qualify for enrollment are exempt from the lottery but must fill out an application due by April 30. If there are more eligible siblings than openings for a given grade level, these students will enter a separate lottery, held before the primary lottery, to assign the available positions. The siblings who do not gain entry will be placed at the top of the waiting list in the order produced by the sibling lottery.
By April 10, the NVCS returning student's applications will be reviewed and class placement determined by the Admissions Committee and staff. The committee will then determine how many openings are available for each class realizing that the best class size is 12 students in four classrooms. However, this may change slightly as needed based on the number of returning students and those student's optimum class placement.
All completed new student applications received by April 30 will be processed through a lottery system. The Admissions Committee will hold the lottery by May 1st. Applications received from families within the State College School District will be in a lottery separate from those outside. If there are class openings that cannot be filled with the applications received from in-district families, then those openings will be filled with out-of-district applications in order of their lottery number. If a student and his/her family move out of district after being accepted for enrollment, the enrollment status for that student does not change.
As in-district applications are received, each will be given a number. These numbers are then their identification during the lottery process. The actual lottery process will be conducted by the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, the CEO and the Chairman of the Admissions Committee. As each number is drawn, it is placed in order by grade on the Lottery Chart. Out of district applications are similarly drawn with separate identifiers and are then placed by grade on the chart behind the in-district applicants.
The Admissions Committee compares the already determined class openings with the Lottery Chart results and identifies those applicants who will be offered a space in NVCS. These applicants will be contacted by phone and mail by May 8 to inform them that the applicant is eligible for enrollment. NVCS must receive a signed contract within ten days. If the available class spaces are not filled after those ten days, the next applicant on the Lottery Chart for that grade will be offered enrollment. The applicant will have ten days to return to NVCS their enrollment confirmation. This process continues as needed until all class spaces are full.
Sibling preference is given to current students only. If the lottery results in one sibling (A) being offered a place in NVCS and the other (B) on the waiting list, sibling (B) may be given preference during the school year for which Sibling (A) is in attendance. In order for a sibling (B) to be given preference, a signed contract for the new NVCS student (A) must have been received.
The waiting list is valid and used until the last school day of the year for which the applicant applied for admission. To be considered for enrollment for the following year, an applicant would have to re-apply.
Applicants who miss the deadline for the lottery may be placed at the bottom of the waiting list after all appropriate paperwork has been completed.
Any openings that become available mid year will be filled using the following guidelines:
Any new student offered a position mid-year will have 7 days to submit a signed contract. If after 7 days a contract is not submitted, the next applicant would be contacted with the same procedure.
** Please note that if a date noted above falls on a weekend or holiday, the next business day will be used.
