Enrollment Policy

Any child who is qualified under the laws of this State for admission to a public school is qualified for admission to this charter school, provided age and grade requirements are met.

Admission shall not be determined according to the school attendance area in which a student resides.

Henderson Collegiate shall not discriminate against any student for admission or otherwise on the basis of race, creed, ethnicity, national origin, gender, ancestry, religion, or disability, nor shall admission of students be determined on the basis of intellectual ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, or athletic ability. Every effort will be made to recruit students from all sections of the community to ensure proportionate representation of all segments of the population.

Any student may express his/her intent to enroll by completing the application. The student also has his/her parent or guardian sign this Promise. This form specifies that the student, parents, and teachers will all have the desire, discipline and dedication to do everything in their power to support student education. The Henderson Collegiate framework encourages and motivates students and their families to view an intense academic commitment as the key to future success.

Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the Board of Directors of Henderson Collegiate may refuse to admit any student who is suspended or expelled from a public school under G.S. 115C-391 until the period of suspension or expulsion has expired. [G.S. 115C-238.29F(7)]

Admission to Henderson Collegiate will follow the guidelines established in G.S. 115C-238.29F(g) for siblings, and for the children of education staff and initial directors.

In the event that the student applications exceed available spaces, Henderson Collegiate is dedicated to providing a fair and unbiased system for assigning student admissions to the school. The process will be public, and assure that no bias or preferences be allowed to influence the selection.

During the first year of operation, the children of the school’s principal, teachers, and teaching assistants may be given priority enrollment. In addition, and only for the first year of operation, the charter school may give enrollment priority to children of the initial members of the charter school’s board of directors, so long as these children are limited to no more than ten (10) percent of the school’s total enrollment or to 20 students, whichever is less.

For enrollment in the second and succeeding years of operation, available openings will be determined in the following manner each spring:

1. Currently enrolled students will be given first priority for openings the following year.
2. Second priority will be given to the children and grandchildren of eligible school employees, as designated above.
3. Third priority will be given to siblings of currently enrolled students and of alumni who graduated from Henderson Collegiate High School.*

In all cases, parents will be asked to sign a form committing to attendance for the upcoming school year.

After openings have been assigned to current students, eligible employees, and siblings of current students, the remaining spaces will be made available to the public for all other applicants as provided herein.

*In the event that there are more siblings than openings in any given grade, a separate priority lottery will be held to determine enrollment for that grade.

The Open Enrollment Period is the time during which applications will be accepted for student admission for the following school year. The beginning of the Open Enrollment Period will be the 5th day of school in December, and the end of open enrollment will be the first Tuesday in March. Applications will be made available through a link on the school’s website, and the public will be notified through advertisements of how to access the application system in SchoolMint. All applications will be received digitally through SchoolMint, a digital enrollment platform. Every application received will receive a time stamp from the system that includes the date and time of receipt of the completed application, during and after the Open Enrollment Period.

At the end of the Open Enrollment Period, if the number of applicants is equal to or less than the number of openings available, then all applicants will be enrolled. In the case that there are less applicants in a grade level during the Open Enrollment Period than there are openings available, then additional students will be accepted on a first-come first-served basis until the grade capacity is full.

If there are more applicants during the Open Enrollment Period than openings in any grade level, a public lottery will be held for all affected grades. Notice of the time, place and location of the lottery must be sent by regular mail to the parent or guardian of each applicant at least ten (10) days prior to the lottery. The lottery process will also determine each year's initial waiting list.

The parents or guardians of the children chosen by lottery for admission to the school will be notified by mail of the results of the lottery (referred to herein as “notice of acceptance”). The parent or guardian of each child chosen for admission must contact the school administration or board and confirm their child’s enrollment in the school in writing within fourteen (14) days of their receipt of notice of acceptance.

Failure to acknowledge acceptance and confirm enrollment will result in loss of admission and the child’s name will be placed at the end of the waiting list for the appropriate grade level. All parent and guardians will be notified of these requirements in the notice of acceptance.

Parents or guardians of the children placed on the waiting list will also be notified by mail of their number on the waiting list. In the event that a child withdraws their application after the lottery or withdraws from the school at any time, the child with the first name on the waiting list for that grade will be contacted by mail of their acceptance to the school.

In accordance with North Carolina law, new applicants, even those who have held a place on the waiting list throughout the year, must reapply during the Open Enrollment Period to be placed in the lottery.

To be included in the spring lottery, a separate application will need to submitted for each child, even if the child was on the current year's waiting list.

1. The lottery will take place at a public meeting designated by a senior administrator at the school.
2. Applications will be sorted by grade level and checked for accuracy within the SchoolMint application.
3. Prior to the start of the lottery, SchoolMint will assign each application received during the Open Enrollment Period a random number. School staff will write students’ names and their assigned number onto a lottery ticket that students and their families may reference during the public lottery.
4. Once the lottery commences, the senior administrator will explain how SchoolMint assigned numbers and how the lottery process works. The senior administrator will then initiate the random number assignment process in SchoolMint so that each application received during the Open Enrollment Period will receive an order number that shows their order of acceptance or entry into the school.
5. For each grade level, the numbers that correspond with the number of openings for that grade level will be accepted into the school (e.g. if a grade level has five openings, then those applicants who receive order numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, will be accepted), while the applicants with the remaining numbers will be placed on a waiting list in the order assigned to them through SchoolMint.
6. After the lottery has taken place, all applications received after the end of the Open Enrollment Period will be automatically assigned an order number starting at the end of the waiting list generated by the lottery. These numbers will be assigned in the order in which these applications were received chronologically.
7. The same process will be repeated for each grade level.

Since families may express an interest in enrolling their children at Henderson Collegiate at times other than during the spring Open Enrollment Period, this procedure for accepting names throughout the year will be followed:

1. Parents or guardians interested in enrolling their child at any other time of the year will be asked to submit an application for each child. The application will be stamped as to date and time of receipt by the school.
2. Names will be added to the waiting list for each grade in the order in which they are received.
3. If openings become available, they will be offered to applicants in accordance with their position on the waiting list. Prioritization will be given as allowed in G.S. 115C-238.29F(g).
4. This waiting list for the current year becomes null and void on the day following the spring lottery for the following school year. Beginning the day following the spring lottery, no new students will be accepted for the current year.

For both new and returning students, the enrollment process is not complete until the student has attended and been served by Henderson Collegiate at the outset of each new academic year.

In choosing Henderson Collegiate for their child, families are expected to adhere to the calendar determined annually by the School Leader and the Board of Directors, and to bring their child to school on the days school is in session, as promised in the Henderson Collegiate Commitment to Excellence. However, the Board recognizes that individual circumstances may arise that make accommodation to the calendar difficult or impossible for some families.

Attendance at the beginning of the school year is extremely important. The curriculum utilized by the school is based on an ordered sequence and acquired knowledge. Missing any part of this sequence may interfere with the educational progress we hope to achieve with each child. In addition, like all other public schools in North Carolina, funding for the entire year is determined by enrollment in the early days of the school year.

Our annual budget is based on the assumption of full enrollment from the first day of school. Parents will be informed of this policy in writing prior to the start of each school year.

*Excused Absences

1. Illness or injury
2. Quarantine
3. Death in the immediate family
4. Medical or dental appointments
5. Court or administrative proceedings
6. Religious holidays or observances
7. Valid educational opportunity with approval prior to the absence

An additional note: The NCDPI has made it clear that #7 is not an acceptable excused absence until after the child has attended school and been enrolled.