Admissions
Information regarding Westlake Academy Waiting List:
If you have a member of your family on the current Waiting List to enter Westlake Academy. This letter is to inform you that there have been recent developments that you need to be aware of regarding the Admissions Process for students who do not live in Westlake or who are not siblings of enrolled students.
Under the terms of Westlake Academy's charter with the State Board of Education, the Academy was required to submit a charter renewal application in 2006. The renewal process is quite lengthy and the final charter renewal was not approved until late 2007.
The charter renewal application included a request for information about Westlake Academy's admission policy. The Texas Education Agency refused to approve the admission policy originally submitted with the Academy's charter renewal application.
Eventually, after consulting with Westlake Academy administration and the Board of Trustees, the Texas Education Agency agreed to approve a revised admission policy, which varies from the policy that was part of the Academy's original charter. By law, Westlake Academy must follow the admission policy approved by the Texas Education Agency.
What is the admission policy?
A lottery will be held in February to determine the in-coming Kindergarten class and the order for the waiting list for all other grades for the school year. If the number of eligible applicants does not exceed the number of vacancies for any class, then all applicants who timely applied will be offered admission. If there are more eligible applicants than available spaces in a class, then a lottery will be held for that class and a name will be drawn for each vacancy that exists for the school year. Each applicant whose name is drawn will be offered admission. The remaining names will then be drawn and placed on a waiting list in the order they were drawn. The waiting list will no longer be carried over from one year to the next. An eligible applicant on the waiting list, who is not offered admission during the school year, will have to re-apply for the next school year to be considered for admission.
Why does the admission policy have to include a lottery?
Open-enrollment charter schools in Texas are governed by state law as well as federal law. State law requires compliance with deferral law and federal law requires a lottery.
What does the law say about open-enrollment charter school admission policies?
The regulations adopted by the State Board of Education state that “students who reside outside the geographic boundaries stated in the open-enrollment charter shall not be admitted to the charter school until all eligible applicants who reside within the boundaries and have submitted a timely application have been enrolled. Then, if the open-enrollment charter so provides, the charter holder may admit transfer students to the charter school in accordance with the terms of the open-enrollment charter. The geographic boundaries stated in the Westlake Academy charter are the boundaries for the Town of Westlake. The charter allows the Academy to accept transfer students from the following school districts: Argyle ISD, Arlington ISD, Azle ISD, Birdville ISD, Boyd ISD, Carroll ISD, Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, Coppell ISD, Decatur ISD, Denton ISD, Duncanville ISD, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD, Fort Worth ISD, Frisco ISD, Garland ISD, Grand Prairie ISD, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, Highland Park ISD, Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD, Irving ISD, Keller ISD, Krum ISD, Lake Dallas ISD, Lewisville ISD, Little Elm ISD, McKinney ISD, Northwest ISD, Paradise ISD, Ponder ISD, Springtown ISD, and Weatherford ISD. Federal guidance states that a charter school must use a lottery if more students apply for admission to the charter school than can be admitted. A charter school with fewer applicants than spaces available does not need to conduct a lottery.
How do I reapply?
All existing applicants on the waiting list who had an application in before December 1st and still want to be considered for enrollment for the following school year MUST complete a new application and submit it to the school by January 31.
Applications for participation in the lottery are accepted from December 1st through January 31st each year. We accept applications for students who are entering Kindergarten through Grade 11 only. Your child must be 5 years of age by September 1st to enroll in Kindergarten. If you complete an application after the deadline of January 31st, you will be placed at the bottom of the waiting list that is established for your child's grade in February.
To complete the application form online follow this link:
Student Lottery Application for the 2012-13 school year
When is the lottery draw?
The exact date has not been defined yet but will be near the end of February. When the date has been finalized it will be posted on our web page.
Any question you might have can be addressed to the school office at: info@westlakeacademy.org