Admissions to PIACS

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• General Information
• Procedures
• Guidelines
• Timeline
• Waiting List
• Online Application

General Information

1. Applications are accepted from residents of the municipalities within the Princeton Regional, South Brunswick, and West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional school districts during "application periods" (click here for dates).

Princeton International Academy Charter School is a public and free school. There are no entrance exams, interviews, fees or other barriers for admission. PIACS does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender or national origin.

2. By state regulations, Kindergarten applicants must reach the age of five in the school year by October 1 or a date later than October 1 that is established by the district board of education in which the student resides.

3. Applications should be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on the "end date" of an application period. Depending on the number of applications received by the deadline in relation to the number of places available, applicants will either be accepted or placed into lottery.

In the event of a lottery, applicants will receive a letter about their status following the lottery held on the "lottery date." The students with the first xx lottery numbers will receive letters of admissions following the lottery. All others will receive a letter informing them to view the updated waitlists online.

4. Siblings of admitted in-region students will receive preference on the waitlist for their particular grade. At any time when an in-region student was admitted, his/her sibling on a waitlist would be raised to the top to be part of the "class sibling list." The class sibling list is based on the order in which their sibling was admitted to PIACS.

5. Upon acceptance of application, parents/guardians will need to return a enrollment and consent form to the PIACS admissions office along with 1) utility bill, 2) property tax bill (or lease if renting), and 3) birth certificate by a certain date (see Timeline).

6. Upon enrollment, parents/guardians would need to submit any withdrawal requests in writing. Written withdrawal requests may be emailed to info@piacs.org or faxed to 800.269.8546. Please note that enrollments and withdrawals are processed periodically by the NJ Department of Education. Therefore, there may be a period of a few weeks between when your enrollment or withdrawal has been submitted and when the DoE processes it.

Procedures

1. New applicants are required to fill out an application form during an application period.

2. Siblings not currently on the waitlist are required to fill out an application as well.

3. Application status will be available on our website.

Guidelines

YOUR CHILD MUST BE REGISTERED AT your local public school district in order to be "transferred" to PIACS. If your child is not currently attending a local public school, please contact your public school district to register your child there as early as possible by no later than the end of May.

The term "region" refers to the area served by the Princeton Regional, South Brunswick, and West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School Districts.

The term "in-region students" refers to the students who have registered at the three public school districts (no later than the end of May of the applying year).

The term "out-of-region students" refers to the students who are not "in-region students."

Step 1 - Apply.

To apply for admissions to PIACS fill out the application form electronically or download the pdf file and fax to 800.269.8546 during an application period (see Timeline).

The online application form is preferred. Upon submission, a unique lottery ID will be created for each student.

If you have to fax the file, we will enter your information into the online application form and notify you of your lottery ID. You may also drop offf the application form at any of the information sessions (see Schedule).

Step 2 - Lottery.

Admissions applications for in-region students must be received by 11:59 p.m. on the end date of an application period.

The subsequent application periods will be created until all seats are filled.

If in any application period, there are more applications for a grade than spaces available, a public lottery will be held and a waiting list created for that grade.

All applications for in-region students received by the end data of an application period will be considered equally for the lottery to be held on the subsequent lottery date.

Out-of-region students may apply during any application period but will only be placed on the out-of-region waiting list through lotteries until May 2012. If at that time there are still openings, out-of-region applicants will be accepted according to the waiting list.

Step 3 - Enrollment.

After each lottery, all admitted students will be notified during that week and given a deadline to accept the admission and to register in-person, by email, by fax, or by regular mail. The number of days given to make the enrollment decision is subject to change should there be a need to accelerate the enrollment pace due to regulation requirements (most likely during the very first year of the school)

During the enrollment, parents and guardians will verify and sign the enrollment forms and provide copies of parents’ lease or most recent property tax bill and recent utility bill, as evidence of student residency. The birth certificate will also be needed.

Timeline

Waiting List

Public lotteries are conducted at 9:30 p.m. on every Monday inside the Princeton Hyatt Regency following the "End Date" of an application period to append to the waiting lists. Siblings of applicants whose applications for other grades have already been accepted will participate in the lotteries but will be placed at the top of the waiting list.