School made a huge mistake: friend's children not included in lottery!

[Anonymous]

My friend's two children were not included in the lottery of a very popular charter school. The school admits that they received the applications but inadvertently neglected to include the names in the lottery. Has this happened to anyone? Does anyone know the protocol for how this is handled in these very rare cases?

Insight/advice is welcome

[Anonymous]

Here is my recommendation for the school:
Assume that there were 252 applicants for the class that child #1 should have been in - 253 if they had included the applicant.
Put numbers 1-253 into a hat. Pull out a numer. This is the child's spot. If the child would have been accepted, they get moved to the #1 spot on the waitlist. If they are on the waitlist - they get added to the spot of the # and the rest of the children are adjusted by 1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is my recommendation for the school:
Assume that there were 252 applicants for the class that child #1 should have been in - 253 if they had included the applicant.
Put numbers 1-253 into a hat. Pull out a numer. This is the child's spot. If the child would have been accepted, they get moved to the #1 spot on the waitlist. If they are on the waitlist - they get added to the spot of the # and the rest of the children are adjusted by 1.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is my recommendation for the school:
Assume that there were 252 applicants for the class that child #1 should have been in - 253 if they had included the applicant.
Put numbers 1-253 into a hat. Pull out a numer. This is the child's spot. If the child would have been accepted, they get moved to the #1 spot on the waitlist. If they are on the waitlist - they get added to the spot of the # and the rest of the children are adjusted by 1.

This happened last year at a charter school I know of, and this is what they chose to do. They informed the PCSB, and got confirmation it was an acceptable solution. Good call, PP.

[Anonymous]

thats part of the lottery, you may or may not get put in for the draw its like the power pall

[Anonymous]

I am curious what the school did to rectify the situation. Have they made any decisions?
I have a friend who is in the same boat.

[Anonymous]

The situation is rectifiable, as the previous posters have indicated. Schools are managing lots and lots of applications and as much as they try to ensure lotteries are smooth there's always room for error. Ask the school to run an individual lottery and ask to be present if you have any doubts about validity. You'll still have the same chance you would've gotten otherwise.

[Anonymous]

in my friend's situation, the school rectified the child that was left out, but what about the sibling?
what should be done for that child? thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:in my friend's situation, the school rectified the child that was left out, but what about the sibling?
what should be done for that child? thanks!

Not really sure what you're asking. If both kids were left out, then two lotteries should be conducted the way the previous post described it. If there were 235 name in Child 1's grade level lottery, then number 234 sls of paper and pull one. Do exactly the same for Child 2, using the number for that grade level.

[Anonymous]

sorry, i should have been more specific. child #2 (sibling) was included in the lottery but was very far back on the wait list
when their grade was drawn.
child #1 that was left out was put first on the wait list and since has been admitted. since child #1 was admitted,
where should the sibling fall on their wait list? there are a handful of siblings that were put on the wait list when their
siblings were drawn in the lottery. since child #1 was never in the lottery, the sibling (child #2) had no chance of getting
a better spot on the wait list. should child #2 (sibling) go before or after the other priority siblings that were placed on the list the
night of the lottery?

[Anonymous]

this siblings of newly admitted is a tricky thing in lotteries.

I like the way that Cap City does it. Once you turn in enrollment paperwork for the admitted student, the sibling moves to the top of the list. Then, the sibling preference lottery is for folks who have already made some effort to attend the school. The siblings get to the top of the list in the order that enrollment paperwork is turned in.

The way that I think Wash Latin does it, the newly admitted student's sibling is offered a place the same night of the lottery, feels more problematic to me. It really then matters what order you conduct the classes. If you pull the 5th grade first, with an older 8th grade sibling, the 8th grader could get a slot. If you pull 8th grade first, where there are very few slots, unlikely the 8th grader will get picked at all, and the slots are gone by the time 5th grade is pulled.

The Cap City way makes it very likely that the sibling of the newly admitted student will have to wait a full year before attending. Wash Latin makes it more likely that sibling get in the same year.

[Anonymous]

this school admits siblings the same night of the lottery if there is space. if not then the siblings start to compose the wait list.
what has happened, eight siblings were placed on the wait list because their sibling was picked in other grades. the sibling (child #2) i am referring
to was placed on the wait list after these children. if child #1 had actually been in the lottery, then child #2 might have been placed on the wait list
before or in the midst of where the other siblings were, depending on when child #1 would have been drawn. that could not have happened because child
#1's name was not in the lottery. child #1 has now been admitted, so how do you remedy the disservice to the sibling (child #2)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this school admits siblings the same night of the lottery if there is space. if not then the siblings start to compose the wait list.
what has happened, eight siblings were placed on the wait list because their sibling was picked in other grades. the sibling (child #2) i am referring
to was placed on the wait list after these children. if child #1 had actually been in the lottery, then child #2 might have been placed on the wait list
before or in the midst of where the other siblings were, depending on when child #1 would have been drawn. that could not have happened because child
#1's name was not in the lottery. child #1 has now been admitted, so how do you remedy the disservice to the sibling (child #2)?

Did child #1 jump the waitlist? If yes - there is no disservice to child #2 - but to all of the children who are on the waitlist of child #1's grade.

[Anonymous]

child #1 did jump to #1 on the wait list because he/she was not included in the lottery.
this was how the school chose to rectify the situation instead of redoing the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Did child number 1 jump to #1 because they did a lottery just for them, or did they give them the #1 slot without drawing any numbers as recompense.

If it's the former then they should put the sibling where they would have fallen -- e.g. if they number they drew in the "mini lottery" was #4, and then sibling should be placed after the siblings of any kids drawn in older grades (if they do it top down like most schools), and any siblings of kids 1-3 in their grade, and before the rest.

If they were given the #1 slot as recompense, they should be aware that they are incredibly lucky to have been given such a generous gift and accept the bottom slot on the waiting list for sibling.

Putting 234 slips in a hat is ridiculous, there's plenty of free websites that will randomly generate a number between 1 and 234 or whatever.