Will waitlists move drastically now?

[Anonymous]

With May 1 almost over, do we expect to see waitlist movement at a faster pace now?

We went from single digits to double digits for PK3. It’d be nice to start to see that number possibly start to drop and not continue to rise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With May 1 almost over, do we expect to see waitlist movement at a faster pace now?

We went from single digits to double digits for PK3. It’d be nice to start to see that number possibly start to drop and not continue to rise.

In a week they might move. What happens now is, tomorrow or the next day (ideally) the school staff processes enrollment papers and sees where they stand for each grade. Then they decide how many offers to make. Then people offered have a week to make their decision. So like next Monday you may see movement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With May 1 almost over, do we expect to see waitlist movement at a faster pace now?

We went from single digits to double digits for PK3. It’d be nice to start to see that number possibly start to drop and not continue to rise.

In a week they might move. What happens now is, tomorrow or the next day (ideally) the school staff processes enrollment papers and sees where they stand for each grade. Then they decide how many offers to make. Then people offered have a week to make their decision. So like next Monday you may see movement.

I assume the school has been enrolling as they can since we’ve seen the number go from 4 to 14.

I was hopeful. Not so much now.

[Anonymous]

I another thread, someone said that schools see when someone that can enroll in their school (has been offered a spot or was already enrolled the prior year) enrolls elsewhere. So, I would expect movement I guess only if everyone waited until the last day to put in paperwork.

[Anonymous]

Be aware that some schools are really slow to go to the waitlist even as they realize they’ll probably have spots to fill. There’s discretion and not every admin approaches this process the same way.

[Anonymous]

The principal at our old school gave me a pretty good window into this. Basically, the registrar processes enrollment paperwork as it comes in, ideally before the deadline but a lot of it does come in on May 1 or April 30. So there's a day or two while that's happening. Then, the registrar generates a report of how many kids they have enrolled for each grade level, and sits down with the principal and whatever APs and such. Looking at this data, they decide what their goals are and how many offers to make. It's at this point that they may realize they need to offer an additional classroom, or have one less classroom, whatever the case may be. So according to those decisions, they make some offers. The offers usually have a 1-week reply deadline. So, you probably won't see much movement this week, but next week you will.

All of this said, it really just depends on the school and how they do it.

[Anonymous]

So even though a waitlist number, say 8, there could be 20 spots available and the school leadership is waiting to assess the data?

The 8 isn’t because it’s at capacity?

Or maybe it’s both?

[Anonymous]

Also, lots of schools don't require re-enrollment paperwork until June, so they may not have a good count of kids leaving (and actual open spots) until then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So even though a waitlist number, say 8, there could be 20 spots available and the school leadership is waiting to assess the data?

The 8 isn’t because it’s at capacity?

Or maybe it’s both?

The 8 is because a lot of people initially matched so it *was* at capacity, but now it's not. They don't really know until May 1 because people tend to bring in their paperwork pretty late.

The "capacity" can change based on demand and decision-making. They might have been planning on 3 classes for a certain grade but now see that they need to offer 4. Or that they don't have enough for 3 and want to cut back to 2, so they won't make any offers. It really just depends on the circumstances as schools try to right-size each grade to fill a certain number of classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So even though a waitlist number, say 8, there could be 20 spots available and the school leadership is waiting to assess the data?

The 8 isn’t because it’s at capacity?

Or maybe it’s both?

The 8 is because a lot of people initially matched so it *was* at capacity, but now it's not. They don't really know until May 1 because people tend to bring in their paperwork pretty late.

The "capacity" can change based on demand and decision-making. They might have been planning on 3 classes for a certain grade but now see that they need to offer 4. Or that they don't have enough for 3 and want to cut back to 2, so they won't make any offers. It really just depends on the circumstances as schools try to right-size each grade to fill a certain number of classrooms.

OP here. This helps. Makes me feel slightly better that maybe 14 will get an offer if they decide to add an additional classroom.

Won’t hold my breath but it’ll surely be a nice surprise.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone seen a significant jump they'd like to share?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone seen a significant jump they'd like to share?

Hyde Addison PK4

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone seen a significant jump they'd like to share?

Hyde Addison PK4

Oops, I mean Hyde Addison K

[Anonymous]

This is my fifth year doing the lottery and just want to reassure people that it's very normal for lists to not move AT ALL right after the deadline, and then to move very quickly starting in mid-May. Then there will be another slow down in June/July when lists might move slowly but also might just sit still for weeks at a time, and another big burst of movement in August.

At most school's, enrollment is handled by one person who has a full-time administrative job that involves other tasks. This person will often be very busy right now processing re-enrollment paperwork that came in last minute from current students. They also get very busy with school admin in June as school is ending, and then they will get time off in July. No school has someone sitting at a computer looking at waitlists and contacting families daily. It comes in fits and starts.

The waitlist offers we have received have come in mid-to-late May (from a list that jumped 14 spaces in a single day, likely the day they finally decided how many spots they had available), in August (lists where we were single digits), and then a TON in September, when lists move very rapidly because so few families are ready or willing to move kids once school has started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is my fifth year doing the lottery and just want to reassure people that it's very normal for lists to not move AT ALL right after the deadline, and then to move very quickly starting in mid-May. Then there will be another slow down in June/July when lists might move slowly but also might just sit still for weeks at a time, and another big burst of movement in August.

At most school's, enrollment is handled by one person who has a full-time administrative job that involves other tasks. This person will often be very busy right now processing re-enrollment paperwork that came in last minute from current students. They also get very busy with school admin in June as school is ending, and then they will get time off in July. No school has someone sitting at a computer looking at waitlists and contacting families daily. It comes in fits and starts.

The waitlist offers we have received have come in mid-to-late May (from a list that jumped 14 spaces in a single day, likely the day they finally decided how many spots they had available), in August (lists where we were single digits), and then a TON in September, when lists move very rapidly because so few families are ready or willing to move kids once school has started.

OP here. I agree with this take as this is our third lottery. But this one feels different. Feels like this school in particular (since the list has been moving a lot in the wrong direction) has been processing enrollments fast.

What will likely cause it to change later, to your point, are the schools that are slower that “take” kids who enrolled for the school we want to get into. That’s our only hope to see movement is people enrolled to get a school but are hoping they get off a waitlist somewhere else.