School Choice Window Now Open at Broward County Public Schools

Old Davie Schoolhouse. Photo by Adam Baron.

By: Sharon Aron Baron

Broward County Public Schools has opened the School Choice application window where parents can apply online for general reassignments, Magnet, and Nova Schools for the 2016/2017 school year.

Starting on December 1 through February 8, parents are able to explore all of the district’s School Choice options available where they can choose from a list of all available schools.  

For Woodlands residents, the assigned schools are:  Pinewood Elementary, Silver Lakes Middle, and Boyd Anderson High School.  

According to Patrick Sipple, Director of Demographics & Student Assignments, parents can choose schools that are not on the list as well.  If you don’t see the school you are interested in, you can apply anyway and send along a reason. He suggests parents read the policy and see if they have a hardship reason, as they are updated each year.

“We encourage people to supply a reason that they need to go to that school, so that if it is a hardship, we could see if it falls under policy 5000.4.1,” he said.

But applying for a school that’s not on the list may be an even longer wait for parents, even as long as the tenth day of the school year said Sipple. “We never know. Later in the summer a seat may become available, but they won’t be notified in March, they will just be in a wait pool status.”

He said that for a number of reasons the capacity could change at the beginning of the school year and seats could free up.  This way, they would already have someone in the wait pool if that were the scenario.

Parents can apply for Broward County School Choice online or on paper, but applying online is the most efficient.  “It goes right into our system and it’s smoother for us to process, as well as user friendly for parents,” said Sipple. Once the application is processed it can be tracked by a number online, but acceptances won’t be available until mid-March.

For those that are reassigning using Part A only, those can be processed online, however, if you are using Part B, you must fill out the application and mail it along with supporting documentation.

Not sure which one to apply to?  Broward County is a 100 percent school choice district and parents can apply for all three.

To apply, go to Reassignments Magnet or Nova Schools.  Applications must be in by February 8, 2017.  Applications are not on a first-come first-serve basis. 

Whether you apply December 1 or February 7, you still have the same chance of getting accepted into an available school and if there are more applications than seats, it will go into a lottery.   Keep in mind that Magnet and Nova schools provide bus service, reassignments do not.