PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It’s an anxious week for many students and parents in the Philadelphia School District, as they consider their options following the school selection lottery.
Last week, the district released the results of its lottery. Parents found out whether their children were accepted or waitlisted for special admission magnets or schools outside of their home catchment.
Rachel Cama of West Oak Lane applied to three special admission middle schools for her fourth-grade son. He’s No. 7 on the waitlist for his top choice, but Cama said some people have numbers in the two-hundreds.
“Once I heard what other people’s positions were on these waitlists, I was like, OK, so there are some people that are just not going to get seats at all,” she said.
Parents have until 5 p.m. Friday to accept an offered placement or roll the dice on the waitlist.
“We’re going to try to see if he’ll move up on that list,” said Cama. “With No. 7, we’re hoping that he will.”
The district revamped the process three years ago to improve equity, giving preference to qualified students from underrepresented ZIP codes to attend the Academy at Palumbo, Carver, Central and Masterman. Cama doesn’t mind that, but she does question why the district isn’t able to provide opportunities for qualified students at their catchment schools.
“He’s a little bit bored at his catchment school and I kind of wish the catchment school could do a little bit more on that, but I wanted to make sure he at least had the opportunity to go through the process,” she added.
“Why is there such an overwhelming amount of qualified applicants, and what can be done about that?”