For the third straight year, the city’s charter sector has made it easier to apply to charter schools.
This year, 110 of the city’s 136 charter schools will be allowing students to use a digital version of the common application to apply to multiple schools by their April deadlines. Charter schools are not allowed to close applications before April 1.
Until two years ago, families applying to charters schools had to fill out individual applications for each school or network of schools they wanted to attend. In 2010, the city debuted a common application system on paper by which students could apply to multiple schools using a single application. Last year, city’s main charter advocacy organization, the Charter Center, devised the Common Online Charter Application to give students access to the common application online for 20 pilot schools.
The push to streamline the charter school application process counters criticism that some schools’ applications are time-consuming, complicated, and too onerous for some families. The common application may also help schools draw more applicants and maintain longer waiting lists — one figure the charter sector points to as evidence the public wants more charter schools.
The online application asks students for their names, addresses, current school, and other the basic information needed to enter the lotteries that take place when schools receive more applicants than they have seats to fill. Many of the schools also have their own applications.
This year, the online forms will be available in Spanish, Haitian Creole and French for the first time.
Two notable networks that aren’t on the list are the Success Academy Charter Network and KIPP, but a spokesperson for the Charter Center said Success would be joining the list.
The list of schools participating:
Academy of the City Charter School Achievement First Apollo Elementary School Achievement First Brownsville Elementary School Achievement First Bushwick Elementary School Achievement First Crown Heights Elementary School Achievement First East New York Elementary School Achievement First Endeavor Elementary School Achievement First Endeavor Middle School Amber Charter School Bedford Stuyvesant Collegiate Charter School Bedford Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School Beginning with Children Charter School Beginning with Children II Charter School Bronx Academy of Promise Charter School Bronx Charter School for Excellence Bronx Charter School for the Arts Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls Charter School Bronx Preparatory Charter School Brooklyn Ascend Charter School Brooklyn Dreams Charter School Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School Brooklyn Prospect Charter School Brooklyn Scholars Charter School Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School Broome Street Academy Charter High School Brownsville Ascend Charter School Brownsville Collegiate Charter School Bushwick Ascend Charter School Canarsie Ascend Charter School Carl C. Icahn Charter School 1 Carl C. Icahn Charter School 3 Carl C. Icahn Charter School 4 Carl C. Icahn Charter School 5 Carl C. Icahn Charter School 6 Central Queens Academy Charter School Children’s Aid College PrepCommunity Partnership Charter School Community Roots Charter School Coney Island Preparatory Public Charter School Democracy Prep Charter High School Democracy Prep Charter Middle School Democracy Prep Harlem Middle School Democracy Prep III Middle School DREAM Charter School East Harlem Scholars Academy Excellence Boys Charter School Excellence Girls Charter School Fahari Academy Charter School Future Leaders Institute Charter School Girls Prep Bronx (Public Prep Schools) Girls Prep Lower East Side (Public Prep Schools) Grand Concourse Academy Charter School Green Dot New York Charter School Growing Up Green Charter School Harlem Link Charter School Harlem Prep Elementary School Hyde Leadership Charter School (Bronx) Hyde Leadership Charter School (Brooklyn) Icahn Charter School 2 Imagine Me Leadership Charter School Innovate Manhattan Charter School Invictus Preparatory Charter School Inwood Academy for Leadership Charter School John V. Lindsay Wildcat Charter School John W. Lavelle Preparatory Charter School Kings Collegiate Charter School La Cima Charter School Launch Expeditionary Learning Charter School Leadership Prep #4 Charter School Leadership Prep Bedford Stuyvesant Charter School Leadership Prep Brownsville Charter School Leadership Prep Ocean Hill Charter School Lefferts Gardens Charter School Manhattan Charter School Manhattan Charter School II Merrick Academy Charter School Metropolitan Lighthouse Charter School Mott Hall Charter School New Dawn Charter High School New Heights Academy Charter School New Hope Academy Charter School New World Preparatory Charter School New York City Montessori Charter School Ocean Hill Collegiate Charter School Opportunity Charter School Our World Neighborhood Charter School PAVE Academy Charter School Riverton Street Charter School Rochdale Early Advantage Charter School Sisulu-Walker Charter School of Harlem South Bronx Classical Charter School St Hope Leadership Academy Staten Island Community Charter School Summit Academy Charter School Teaching Firms of America-Professional Preparatory Charter School The Bronx Charter School for Better Learning The Bronx Charter School for Children The Brooklyn Charter School The Cultural Arts Academy at Spring Creek Charter School The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School The Ethical Community Charter School The Neighborhood Charter School of Harlem The Renaissance Charter High School for Innovation The Renaissance Charter School The UFT Charter School Urban Dove VOICE Charter School Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School