Section 100.1207 - Student Admission(a) Application deadline. For admission to a charter school, a charter holder shall: (1) require the applicant to complete and submit a common application form prescribed by the commissioner of education, referred to as the Texas Charter School Admission Application, beginning in the 2020-2021 school year. The application must be submitted not later than a reasonable deadline the charter holder establishes. (A) The common application form shall be posted on the Texas Education Agency (TEA) website, and the form and all associated fields shall be posted on each open-enrollment charter school's website to be used by an applicant for admission to an open-enrollment charter school campus.(B) The common application form and the student admission and enrollment policy under subsection (d) or (e) of this section, including the policies and procedures for admission, lotteries, enrollment, student waitlists, withdrawals, reenrollment, and transfers, shall be publicly accessible and easily available on the charter school's website. A charter school must make available the common application form and may not require the use of an account, email, password, or other condition as the sole means to access the information or the common application form. A charter school may also print copies of the common application form and make them available for use during the admission process.(C) An open-enrollment charter school may not alter the form, unless to signify specific criteria that may not apply to their campus as permitted by TEA, and may not add any additional criteria, questions, statements, advertisements, or solicitations or require any conditions for a person to access the form. An open-enrollment charter school may not sell, provide, or ask an applicant to agree to share or have the charter school share any student information provided in the application to any person or entity other than TEA;(2) on receipt of more acceptable applications for admission under this section than available positions in the school:(A) except as permitted by subsection (b) of this section, fill the available positions by lottery; or(B) subject to subsection (d) of this section, fill the available positions in accordance with the open-enrollment charter school's approved student admission and enrollment policy; and(3) create and manage a waitlist, as described in subsection (e) of this section, for applicants who are not admitted after all available positions in the charter school have been filled.(b) Lottery exemption. The charter holder may exempt students from the lottery required by subsection (d) of this section to the extent this is consistent with the definition of a "public charter school" under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as reauthorized under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), as interpreted by the United States Department of Education (USDE), including but not limited to, siblings of students already admitted to or attending the same charter school; children of a charter school's founders, teachers and staff, and children of employees in a work-site charter school (so long as the total number of students allowed under this exemption does not exceed 10% of the school's total enrollment).(c) Newspaper publication. To the extent this is consistent with the definition of a "public charter school" under ESEA as reauthorized under ESSA, as interpreted by the USDE, a charter holder may fill applications for admission under subsection (a)(1) of this section only if it published a notice of the opportunity to apply for admission to the charter school. At a minimum, a notice published under this subsection must: (1) state the application deadline; and(2) be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the community in which the school is located not later than the seventh day before the application deadline. For purposes of this chapter, a newspaper of general circulation is defined as one that has more than a minimum number of subscribers among a particular geographic region, which has a diverse subscribership, and that publishes some news items of general interest to the community.(d) Student admission and enrollment. Except as provided by this section, the governing body of the charter holder must adopt a student admission and enrollment policy that: (1) unless as provided in subsection (f) of this section, prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex; national origin; ethnicity; religion; disability; academic, artistic, or athletic ability; or the district the child would otherwise attend under state law;(2) specifies any type of non-discriminatory enrollment criteria to be used at each charter school operated by the charter holder. Such non-discriminatory enrollment criteria may make the student ineligible for enrollment based on a history of a criminal offense, a juvenile court adjudication, or discipline problems under Texas Education Code (TEC), Chapter 37, Subchapter A, documented as provided by local policy; and(3) specifies whether students will be admitted to the charter school campus by lottery or on a first come, first served basis if the application is published in a newspaper of general circulation in the community in which the school is located not later than the seventh day before the application deadline, as described in TEC, §12.117.(e) Waitlist. Charter holders required to create and maintain a waitlist as a result of receiving more acceptable applications for admission than available positions at the school shall manage and update the student waitlist. (1) Each school year, the following information must be maintained at the campus level for reporting to TEA no later than the last Friday in October of each school year: (A) the total number of students on the waitlist;(B) the number of students on the waitlist disaggregated by grade level;(C) the number of students enrolled;(D) the enrollment capacity; and(E) information necessary to identify each student, as specified in TEC, §12.1174 (Enrollment and Waiting List Report).(2) The waitlist of each charter school campus shall be managed according to that charter holder's policy, which must include the following criteria. (A) The names of eligible students with completed applications who apply and are not admitted shall be added to the end of the waitlist in the order in which the applications are received.(B) As spaces become available at the charter school campus during the school year, the school must consult its campus waitlist and select a new student for enrollment in the order that students appear on the list.(C) The charter school shall review each campus waitlist no less than every 60 days and eliminate duplicate entries and the names of students who have been admitted to the charter school.(3) An open-enrollment charter school may not sell, provide, or ask a student to agree to share any student information on the waitlist with any person or entity other than TEA.(f) Student admission and enrollment at charter schools specializing in performing arts. In accordance with TEC, §12.111 and §12.1171, a charter school specializing in performing arts, as defined in this subsection, may adopt a student admission and enrollment policy that complies with this subsection in lieu of compliance with subsections (a)-(d) of this section. (1) A charter school specializing in performing arts as used in this subsection means a school whose open-enrollment charter includes an educational program that, in addition to the required academic curriculum, has an emphasis in one or more of the performing arts, which include music, theatre, and dance. A program with an emphasis in the performing arts may include the following components: (A) a core academic curriculum that is integrated with performing arts instruction;(B) a wider array of performing arts courses than are typically offered at public schools;(C) frequent opportunities for students to demonstrate their artistic talents;(D) cooperative programs with other organizations or individuals in the performing arts community; or(E) other innovative methods for offering performing arts learning opportunities.(2) To the extent this is consistent with the definition of a "public charter school" as defined in ESEA as reauthorized under ESSA, as interpreted by the USDE, the governing body of a charter holder that operates a charter school specializing in performing arts must require the applicant to complete and submit a common admission application form as described in subsection (a)(1) of this section and may adopt an admission policy that requires a student to demonstrate an interest or ability in the performing arts or to audition for admission to the school.(3) The governing body of a charter holder that operates a charter school specializing in performing arts must adopt a student admission and enrollment policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, national origin, ethnicity, religion, disability, academic or athletic ability, or the district the child would otherwise attend under state law.(4) The governing body of a charter holder that operates a charter school specializing in performing arts must adopt a student admission and enrollment policy that specifies any type of non-discriminatory enrollment criteria to be used at the charter school. Such non-discriminatory enrollment criteria may make the student ineligible for enrollment based on a history of a criminal offense, a juvenile court adjudication, or discipline problems under TEC, Chapter 37, Subchapter A, documented as provided by local policy.(g) Maximum enrollment. Total enrollment shall not exceed the maximum number of students approved in the open-enrollment charter. A charter school may establish a primary and secondary boundary. Students who reside outside the primary geographic boundary stated in the open-enrollment charter shall not be admitted to the charter school until all eligible applicants that reside within the primary boundary and have submitted a timely application have been enrolled. Then, if the open-enrollment charter so provides for a secondary boundary, the charter holder may admit students who reside within the secondary boundary to the charter school in accordance with the terms of the open-enrollment charter.19 Tex. Admin. Code § 100.1207
The provisions of this §100.1207 adopted to be effective April 18, 2002, 27 TexReg 3110; amended to be effective April 6, 2005, 30 TexReg 1911; amended to be effective November 9, 2006, 31 TexReg 9031; amended to be effective September 18, 2014, 39 TexReg 7295; Amended by Texas Register, Volume 49, Number 39, September 27, 2024, TexReg 7893, eff. 10/2/2024