Enrollment/Lottery Guidelines

HHA Enrollment Policies

Hampstead Hill Academy (HHA) is a public charter school serving students from Pre-K through 8th grade. Converted from an existing neighborhood school, HHA serve students living in its attendance area from Broadway (west) to Haven (east) and Eastern (north) to Boston (south). All students in grades K-8 living in HHA’s attendance area are permitted admission to the school.

Pre-K is a separate program with its own set of admission criteria and will not be fully addressed by these lottery guidelines. However, a current Pre-K waiting list will be maintained in the school’s main office through September 30th of each year. The waiting list is only valid until September 30th. October 1st begins the pre-registration process for the lottery for the next school year. Also, please note that HHA Pre-K students are not automatically admitted to Kindergarten at HHA.

Lottery Guidelines

According to Maryland Charter School Legislation (Statute § 9-102(1-13)), enrollment in public charter schools is open to all students on a space available basis and admits students on a lottery basis if more students apply than can be accommodated. As a conversion school that serves an attendance area, HHA’s lottery procedures apply to:

Any K-8 vacancies that exist after all in-zone K-8 students are served; and

Lottery participation is open to all students who are residents of Baltimore City. Lottery participation is also open to non-resident students who pay tuition at the rate established by BCPSS – though available slots are allotted to Baltimore City students first. A public charter school may not limit enrollment based on student’s race, color, religion, national origin, language spoken, intellectual or athletic performance.

Enrollment/Lottery Process

HHA will determine the enrollment period and make public announcement of enrollment deadlines through the school newsletter, website, community bulletin and/or e-mail. Evidence of the school’s public announcements will be documented and maintained at the school.
The HHA lottery will include all completed pre-registration applications for enrollment received by the published date of the public lottery.
HHA will make available at the public lottery the projected number of vacancies at various grade/multi-grade levels. Students at HHA are homogeneously grouped by skill level and not strictly by grade. Therefore, vacancy projections may be made for multi-grade groupings (ie. 3 slots are available for grades 1-2, etc.). As a point of reference, there are usually two to six lottery spaces available in grades K-3. Lottery spaces are very rare in grades 4-8 due to the fact that the overwhelmingly majority of students stay at our school through 8th grade.
The lottery is a system of random selection of pre-registration applications that identifies students for enrollment and generates the school’s official waiting list. During the lottery process, all completed and accepted pre-registration applications submitted during the enrollment period are publicly drawn in random order until capacity is reached in that grade or multi-grade grouping.

The remaining pre-registration applications for that grade or multi-grade level will be drawn and placed on the waiting list in the order they are drawn. In the event one sibling is chosen through the lottery, the remaining sibling(s), if not chosen, will receive a preference on the waiting list by being moved to the top of the waiting list. In the event there are multiple families with sibling(s) on the same waiting list, they will remain in the order in which they were drawn. The lottery drawing will be held at a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) meeting. The date of this meeting will be set district-wide, usually in January or February.
The waiting list ranks applications by the order they were drawn in the lottery and by grade or multi-grade grouping. Pre-registration applications received at HHA after the public lottery is held will be added to the waiting list in the order they are received. As spaces become available at the school, they are offered to the applicants in the order of placement on the waiting list. A current waiting list will be maintained in the school’s main office through September 30th of each year.
The waiting list is only valid until September 30th. October 1st begins the pre-registration process for the lottery for the next school year.

Kindergarten Early Admission Waiver

Parents whose children turn 5 between September 2nd and September 15th of the school year may request an early admission waiver by completing an Early Admission Packet. Early entrance into kindergarten is intended for children with exceptional ability who are capable of working in a classroom setting with children who are at least one year older. Early Admission Packets will be available at school starting Monday, March 15th.

Preference for Siblings

Enrollment preference is granted for students entering kindergarten who have a sibling(s) in upper grades already enrolled at HHA. These students will be given the first available slots in Kindergarten after in-zone students are served and before students are admitted to HHA via the lottery.

Retention Clause

If a student is chosen for a grade or multi-grade slot and is then retained at their sending school or if the information provided on the enrollment form about the student’s grade level is found to be inaccurate, the offer of admissions will be rescinded and the student will go to the end of the waiting list for the newly identified grade level.

Preference for Employees

Employees and administrators of HHA and HHA’s operator – the Baltimore Curriculum Project – are given preference. Such applicants will be given priority for vacancies after any slots going to in-zone students and kindergarten siblings of current students and before students are admitted to HHA via the lottery.