For parents in New York City, the school application process—whether for kindergarten, middle school, high school, or specialized programs—can be as stressful as choosing a college. This year, high school offers are expected to be released on March 6. There are three offer paths:
- Up to one general application high school offer
- Up to one specialized high school offer
- Up to one offer for every LaGuardia program applied to
If your child doesn’t get into their top-choice school, it’s normal to feel disappointed, but there are still other options and paths forward. Here’s what you need to know and the steps you can take to ensure your child receives a quality education.
Understand the placement process
NYC uses a lottery and ranking system for many public schools, with factors such as geographic priority, sibling priority, and academic performance for certain programs. Specialized high schools use the SHSAT exam, while charter and private schools have their own admissions criteria. Knowing how placements are made can help you better understand your child’s results. We’ve covered a lot of this here.
Review your offer and waitlists
If your child is placed in a school that wasn’t their top choice, carefully review the offer.
- Check waitlist status: You can log into MySchools to see if your child is on any waitlists and monitor updates.
- Stay in touch with the school: Some families decline offers, which can create openings for waitlisted students.
High school waitlists are organized differently based on the type of admissions process.
Open and education option programs: students are automatically waitlisted based on a random number unique to each waitlist, while those who join later are added in timestamp order behind existing students.
Screened programs: students are ordered first by admissions group (Group 1 first) and then by a random waitlist number within their group.
Audition and screened-with-assessment programs: rank students based on grades, assessment scores, or audition performance, with those who didn’t complete an assessment or audition placed lower.
Schools with priority groups (e.g., borough-based priority): place students in that order first. Diversity in Admissions priorities generally does not apply to waitlists, except at Bard Manhattan and Bard Queens.
Tip: If you receive an offer from a school you know you are not going to accept, letting the school know ahead of time helps them get a better idea of how many seats they will have to offer to those on the waitlist.
Know your options
While not getting into your top choices can be disappointing, take time to learn more about your student’s placement. The DOE also has an offers and waitlists tutorial on their website that you can check out.
If you are still absolutely not happy with the placement, there are still options:
- Get in touch with the Family Welcome Center for support- be persistent.
- Place your student on a waitlist for another school that you did not originally apply to through MySchools.
- Consider applying for another school for the 10th grade. Transfers are usually only granted for specific reasons, so applying for 10th grade is usually the best bet.
For more information, visit the DOE’s website or visit a Family Welcome Center.
Read more of our education and parenting stories here.
