Launched in 2011-12, SchoolChoice ensures equity, consistency, and simplicity in school enrollment. Prior to SchoolChoice, DPS families who wanted to apply to schools other than their automatically assigned boundary school had to complete different applications on different timelines for different schools.

About Round 1

Jan. 15 at 10 a.m. to Feb. 18 at 4 p.m.

Round 1 is the most important time of year for SchoolChoice, as it's when the majority of transition-grade students (incoming kindergarten, sixth- and ninth-grade students) receive their school assignments for the following academic year. All incoming ECE-3 students, as well as incoming students who reside in an enrollment zone, must complete a SchoolChoice application. However, any DPS student who wants to attend a school other than their automatically assigned neighborhood school can participate in Round 1.

Families submit one SchoolChoice form per student, on which they rank their student’s preferred schools. The Round 1 window for 2025-26 was Jan. 15 through Feb. 18, 2025. We strongly encourage families to participate in the first round of SchoolChoice for the best change of getting matched to their preferred school. However, those who missed Round 1 or would like to re-explore their options, or are new to DPS for the following school year, can participate in Round 2.

How the Lottery Process Works

At the end of Round 1, when all applications have been submitted, the Choice algorithm will randomly assign all participating students a lottery number between 1 and 1,000,000. Students are also assigned a priority level for each of the schools they selected based on pre-determined priority categories published by each school.

The algorithm will then rank and stack students within each priority category based on their randomly assigned lottery number, which produces an ordered list of students for every grade at every school. The system then allocates seats to students based on the order in which they fall on this list and assigns waitlist numbers to all students who do not obtain a seat in order of how they were ranked and stacked.

Waitlist Information

Families can view their waitlist positions by logging in to their SchoolChoice account.

Waitlists are dynamic, meaning a student's position on a waitlist can move up or down based on the actions and priorities of all other applicants, both from Round 1 and Round 2. For kindergarten through 12th grade, waitlists remain active through September. Waitlist for ECE continue until April.

Families who are offered and accept a seat from the waitlist at a higher preference school will have any school choices below withdrawn.

Learn more about how waitlists work.