School District of Philadelphia announces new school selection process. Here’s what you need to know

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Students who want to attend schools outside of their neighborhood could have a chance to make their scholastic dreams come true, as the School District of Philadelphia announced an updated selection system to provide a more streamlined application process.

Beginning Sept. 13, students in pre-kindergarten through 11th grade will have the opportunity to apply to any district school with available space outside of their neighborhood or catchment area for the 2025–2026 school year. The district said it updated its Find Your Fit school selection process after parents provided feedback about last year’s process.

“During the 2023–24 school year, we continued to receive input from students and families regarding improvements to the school selection process,” said Tony B. Watlington Sr., superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, who claims the new technology will make it easier for families. “I’m happy to announce that with a new technology provider, we have launched a more user-friendly school search tool that provides comprehensive information about each school and we have made changes that will allow applicants to better account for their preference, provide more students with an initial offer, facilitate more acceptances in a shorter amount of time and reduce the time it will take to fill open seats across our schools.”

The new tool, Explore, launched Aug. 5 and is deemed to be a user-friendly search tool that will  provide comprehensive information about each school, so parents can have all of the facts and information before making a selection.

The district also hopes to ease fears about any preferential treatment during the process. “In previous years, eligibility and seats available were considered almost exclusively,” the district wrote in a release. “This new system uses a Nobel Prize–winning algorithm that is designed to generate the best offer based on both an applicant’s eligibility and their preference based on how they ranked their school choices.”

How the new school selection process works

Each student can rank their top five school or program choices and may receive up to one offer during the initial response phase. Offers will be made based on the order in which an applicant ranked five schools, the applicant’s eligibility and seats available at the school or program. Students will remain on the waitlist for higher-ranked schools in which they did not receive an offer.

For example, if a student ranked five schools and received an offer to their third ranked school, they would remain on the waitlist for their first and second ranked schools. They would also lose their seat at their fourth and fifth ranked schools. If a student subsequently receives a waitlist offer for their second choice, they can accept that offer, which would automatically decline the original offer at their third choice but allow them to remain on the waitlist for their first choice. They could later accept a seat at their first choice, if offered.

The district will make the online application available in multiple languages and will prioritize applications from qualified applicants who live in specific zip codes that have the lowest representation of students accepting offers over the last four years.

In 2023, the district requested an independent audit of the selection process for the 2022–2023 school year by Accenture. Based on the recommendations, the district kept some policies in the process but also made the necessary changes.

The Find Your Fit school selection process for the 2025–2026 school year opens Sept. 13, 2024 at 4:00 pm and closes Oct. 23, 2024 at 11:59 pm. To apply, a child must meet the qualifications and parents must register in the selection portal.