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Indianapolis Public Schools is leaving Enroll Indy, upending the one-stop school enrollment website shared by IPS and most charter schools in the city.
The district is moving its “application, lottery, and registration into PowerSchool — an existing platform our parents already know and use,” IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said in a Friday statement, in which she also said the move would save money for the district. But other education leaders quickly criticized the move, and some said it might run afoul of state law.
Families use Enroll Indy to enroll in the vast majority of both IPS and charter schools within Center Township. Enroll Indy, a nonprofit, launched about a decade ago and aims to streamline the enrollment process with a common application, information about each school, and enrollment specialists to help families. The district’s decision means families will no longer have one place to both review and enroll in district and charter schools.
The change will take effect for the 2027-28 application cycle and applies to schools directly managed by IPS, as well as Innovation Network schools that aren’t charters, according to IPS spokesman Marc Ransford. (Innovation Network schools are part of the district but independently operated, and many of them are charters.)
The lottery for the 2027-28 school year opens Nov. 5. Ransford said the district planned to send a message to families about the change on Friday evening. He also said the district’s contract with Enroll Indy ended in June.
The IPS decision comes as a new board appointed by Mayor Joe Hogsett, the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, takes over key responsibilities for IPS and charter schools from school boards — including the elected IPS board — in an effort to share resources more efficiently between schools. The vast majority of IPEC board members have charter school ties.
In a Friday statement, Enroll Indy’s board, which is made up of IPS and charter representatives, expressed disappointment that IPS is ending its relationship with Enroll Indy after working collaboratively “to build a coherent system, regardless of school type.”
“While this decision creates confusion and instability during a major transition for education in our city, we remain focused on our charge: to give families more efficient, equitable access to enrollment at the city’s highest-quality schools,” the Enroll Indy board said.
Charter leaders at the Indiana Charter Innovation Center, a statewide group, and The Mind Trust, an influential Indianapolis charter incubator, also criticized the move and called on IPS to reverse it.
“IPS’ decision will take us back to the days of a disjointed, difficult to navigate system that can easily be gamed,” said Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust, in a Friday statement.
The Mind Trust helped launch Enroll Indy and has supported it, giving the nonprofit $575,000 in 2025, per tax forms.
However, Johnson said the district’s priority was “making the enrollment process as simple as possible for IPS families.”
“We’re creating a one-stop experience that allows our team to directly support families at every step of the enrollment process,” she said.
Johnson also said the move “allows IPS to redirect cost-savings back into our classrooms.” According to IPS documents, the district paid up to $21,730 a month to Enroll Indy from September 2022 to June 2023.
Ransford added that the change will save more than $300,000 in annual software/service costs in the first year.
The district expects to make $20 million in budget cuts, and even more if voters reject a tax measure on the ballot this November.
In addition, the Indiana Charter Innovation Center and Brown at The Mind Trust argued that IPS lacks the power to leave Enroll Indy because power over enrollment management lies with IPEC. The state law that established IPEC says the organization has the power to “manage a unified enrollment system applicable to all participating school students.”
Ransford said in an email that “state law does not prohibit IPS from using a different enrollment platform at this time” but didn’t elaborate as to why.
IPEC didn’t respond to questions about the district’s legal authority to leave Enroll Indy.
Shaina Cavazos, director of the Office of Education Innovation in the mayor’s office, wrote in a Friday email to charter school leaders that all OEI schools must keep using Enroll Indy.
Chalkbeat Indiana reporter Aleksandra Appleton contributed to this article.
MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.
