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High School Choice Information: Selection, Lottery and Placement Process
 

The Syracuse City School District is excited to announce that we received a tremendous response to and interest in our High School Choice Program for the 2017-2018 school year. This process included the submission of an online application to one or more of the specialized high schools or schools with career technical or specialized programs listed below, an interview and a lottery, which was conducted using the Smartchoice Online Lottery System:

• Construction Technology Program at Nottingham (Construction Technology)
• Henninger Health Careers Program (Health Careers)
• International Baccalaureate Program at Corcoran (IB)
• Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central (ITC)
• Nottingham Natural Resources – STEM Program
• Pathways in Technology Early College High School Program at ITC (P-TECH at ITC)
• Pathways in Technology Early College High School Program at Henninger (P-TECH at Henninger)
• Public Service Leadership Academy at Fowler (PSLA)
• Urban Teacher Prep Program at Corcoran
• Welding Program at Corcoran

Selection and Lottery Criteria

Each school and/or specialized program appointed an Interview Committee or Designee who was responsible for conducting a face-to-face or phone interview with each student who submitted an online application.  Students who participated in the interview process and demonstrated a strong interest in the program or CTE focus areas were recommended by the schools to include in the high school choice lottery for the respective school or specialized program.

The lotteries were conducted using the Smartchoice Online Lottery System. This online lottery system allows the district to implement and ensure a fair and equitable selection and placement process.  Students who are selected by the Interview Committee were deemed eligible to enter in to the school or program specific lottery and then randomly selected for placement by the system.  The system automatically ranked each student by giving them a numbr on the accepted list or the waitlist.  This number is based on the total number of seats available in each school or specialized program. Students who are waitlisted by the system will be contacted by the Department of Registration when a seat becomes available at the school or specialized program of choice.

Important Note: Students must be selected by the Interview Committee to be entered in to the lottery.  Student entrance in to the lottery pool or ranking in the lottery is not based on the date or time an application is submitted during the High School Choice open enrollment process.  This is a randomized selection and ranking process. 

Notification of Selection, Confirmation of Placement and Acceptance
Students who were accepted into their school or specialized program of choice or waitlisted received notification through the Smartchoice Online Email Notification System. Students who were denied because they did not: (1) meet the criteria or demonstrate strong interest in the program or one or more of the CTE focus areas or (2) respond to a request for an interview received a letter of notification via the USPS mail system. 

Students who were accepted into their program or school of choice are required to confirm or declne their seat by submitting an email to confirmaccept@scsd.us or call the Student Registration Center on or before June 15, 2017.  If the Registration Center does not receive a confirmation email or call, the district will automatically assign the student to the first school of choice. Students who have been accepted into more than one program are required to communicate their preference to Student Registration on or before June 15, 2017.  If we do not receieve correspondence, we will assign the student to their first choice and decline the other seats.

NOTE FOR STUDENTS NOT ACCEPTED via High School Choice:  Students who were not accepted in to their school or program of choice are
required to attend their feeder high school in September. If the student submitted an eligible High School Transfer request they will receive a notifcation of acceptance or waitlist via the Smartchoice Online Notification System.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS WHO ATTEND FRAZER, WSA or GRANT (residing in the Fowler quadrant only)
Frazer, Westside Academy at Blodgett and a portion of the 8^th graders who attend Grant Middle School, but reside in the Fowler quadrant, do not have a feeder high school. Therefore, these students were required to participate in the High School Choice or Transfer process.  If the student did not submit an online application or is not accepted through the process, the district will assign them to one of the comprehensive high schools.  The parent or guardian will be notified in writing of this assignment.

HIGH SCHOOL TRANSFERS
High School Transfers are processed via the Smartchoice Online System.  Students who submitted a transfer application during the transfer period and meet one or more of the following criteria are entered into the lottery:

1. Request a Home School/Join Sibling Transfer – a transfer to their child’s home school (the school to which a student is assigned based on the physical address listed in eSchool), where a sibling (brother or sister residing in the same household) is enrolled and will remain for at least a year .
2. Request a Join Sibling Only Transfer  - a transfer to join a sibling (brother or sister residing in the same household) who is enrolled in the school and will remain for at least one year.
3. Request a Home School Only Transfer – a transfer to their child’s home school (the school to which a student is assigned based on the physical address listed in eSchool).

Students who are entered into the lottery, but not accepted via the randomized lottery process are  automatically waitlisted. The Department of Student Registration will contact the parent or guardian when a seats becomes availabe at the school of choice.

We wish all of our students a successful school year.