Welcome to the Empower Charter School Family! Enrolling is easy, just fill out the enrollment form here.
Step 1- Complete enrollment form between Jan 1, 2014 and April 30, 2014. (Located here.)
Step 2- If any grade level receives more applications than we have space for, Empower will hold a public random drawing to determine admission for the impacted grade level. More information is below relating to the details of the public random drawing.
Step 3- In May, we will contact you to let you know your child’s admission status. All children are admitted as space allows.
Step 4- We will contact you with dates and times of the annual orientation session, which every parent/guardian is required to attend. We will have a variety of dates/times available to accommodate a wide variety of schedules. The purpose of this session is to provide opportunities for families to ask questions and become familiar with the school facility and community.
Step 5- After admission, a parent or guardian must complete and/or provide all documents required for enrollment in a public school including but not limited to immunization records, proof of residency, birth certificate, release of records, emergency medical information form, and a home language survey.
Step 6- After admission, for parents enrolling their child in the dual-language immersion program, the school will conduct an interview with student and parent. For students enrolling as Spanish speakers, a simple assessment may be given to determine their language proficiency. This meeting will explain what to expect from a child learning in two languages and will provide strategies to support the child. Many different appointment times will be offered to accommodate a wide range of schedules.
Step 7- After admission, the student and the parents must sign statements indicating that they are familiar with and agree to abide by all policies and procedures set forth in the Parent and Student Handbooks.
Details Regarding the Public Random Drawing
Preferences
Admission preferences in the case of a public random drawing shall be given to the following students in the following order:
1. Residents within the boundaries of San Diego Unified School District
- Siblings of current students
- Children of founding members or founding trustees of the Charter School (not to exceed 10% of total enrollment)
- Children of current full-time staff members
- To maintain and strengthen the dual immersion model, Spanish-speaking students will be recruited and will be given preferential admission up to 50% of the positions available in each grade.
- All other in-district students
2. Residents outside the boundaries of San Diego Unified School District
- Siblings of current students
- Children of founding members or founding trustees of the Charter School (not to exceed 10% of total enrollment)
- Children of current full-time staff members
- To maintain and strengthen the dual immersion model, Spanish-speaking students will be recruited and will be given preferential admission up to 50% of the positions available in each grade.
- All other out-of-district students
3. All other students as permitted by law
Rules and Procedures for Public Random Lottery
• All interested parties will know, prior to the holding of the lottery, how many openings are available in the school for each Spanish pathway and in the different grades served by the school.
• The lottery will take place on the school’s campus in a facility large enough to allow all interested parties to observe the drawing, or at another public venue near the school large enough to accommodate all interested parties.
• Interested parties will complete an enrollment form during the Open Enrollment Period from Jan 1st-April 30th in order to participate in the lottery, if one is needed.
• The lottery will take place on a weekday evening or other time when most interested parties are available, within 30 days of closing the open enrollment period.
• The lottery shall draw names from pools of ballots differentiated by grade level and Spanish pathway desired.
• Applicants will be admitted in the order their names are drawn at random.
• Grade level vacancies are filled in priority order.
• Once capacity has been reach for a grade, the names are placed on a waiting list in the order in which they were drawn.
• An adult citizen of good standing, not otherwise employed by the School, will testify in writing, under penalty of perjury, that he or she personally witnessed the lottery pursuant to the above, and that it was random, public and fairly executed as described above. This documentation will be on file in the ECS main office and available upon request.
• All applicants who are admitted to the school will receive notification in writing by U.S. mail and will receive five business days to respond to the Office Manager either in writing, in person or by phone, fax or e-mail of their intention to accept or decline the offer for enrollment. If there is no response after five business days, a phone call will be made to the prospective applicant on two separate occasions and then the vacancies will be considered declined and the application will be withdrawn and will be offered to the next student on the waiting list.
• Vacancies that become available during the school year will be filled in order from the numbered applicants on the waiting list. In the event there are no applicants on the waiting list, new students may apply to enter the school. The parent/guardian of a new student after the school year has started will be required to attend one orientation/informational meeting with the Executive Director or another designated staff member to ensure communication of the school’s mission, educational program, and requirements.
• All waiting lists extinguish annually at the end of the School’s formal academic year, or as otherwise determined by the ECS Board of Trustees.