RÍO GALLINAS SCHOOL
ENROLLMENT LOTTERY POLICY
Each year the director, working with the staff, will determine the number of students to be accepted for each grade level combination. In accordance with statute (22-8B-4.1 NMSA 1978), applicants will be offered enrollment by lottery, except that preferential enrollment will be given to pupils returning to the charter school from the immediate 
previous year and to siblings of pupils already enrolled in the school, if such students have applied prior to the holding of the lottery. (To apply, a returning student’s parent need only affirm the intent to attend.)
A lottery will be held during the month of March. During the preceding three weeks, the school will advertise widely, giving full information about the lottery and how to apply, in such places as the local newspaper, the radio, the school website, the library, local grocery stores. In addition, the school will hold one publicly advertised enrollment information meeting at the school site during the week before the lottery. Records of advertisement, fliers, and articles will be kept on file at the school.
Families interested in their child or children attending Río Gallinas School will fill out a lottery application for each child. The application will indicate the name, grade level of the applicant, and mailing address, and optionally email and phone.
Upon the announced date of the lottery, all applications that have been received will be placed onto an entry list in an order determined by lot. This lottery process will be witnessed by the Director and one member of the Governing Council and shall be carried out in a manner to avoid the possibility of favoritism.
Vacancies in each grade level combination will be filled by offering enrollment to students in the order of their placement on the list. Within two days after the lottery, applicants will be offered enrollment, with a deadline for acceptance, or notified of their location (within grade combination) on the list. As offerees reject enrollment, or fail to reply by the deadline, additional offers of enrollment will be made from the list in order of placement.
Applications arriving after a lottery will be saved for the next lottery to be held during the year.
If at any time after the lottery there are no students on the entry list to fill the vacancies in certain grade combinations, then a lottery may be held for those grade combinations. If there are too few saved applications, the school will advertise for applications. The resulting applicants will be placed at the end of the entry list in an order determined by lot, and the vacancies filled from the list.
In order that Río Gallinas School treat the winners and losers of the lottery with equal consideration and respect, the director will develop appropriate deadlines for response to offers of enrollment and rules for initial attendance, which, if not met, will result in the offer of enrollment being withdrawn and given to the next waiting applicant. The communication offering enrollment shall clearly state this deadline and attendance requirement.
From time to time during the year, the director will review the enrollment numbers with the staff to determine if the enrollment needs of the grade combinations have changed. This review may determine vacancies to be handled as above.
The entry list shall be discarded prior to the March lottery. If still interested, applicants on that list must reapply for the following school year, and shall be given no preference.
Students entering grades Kindergarten-8th grade are eligible for Río Gallinas School.
Río Gallinas School will not discriminate based on ethnicity, religion, gender, economic status, disabilities, and limiting conditions. Río Gallinas School will not charge tuition or have admission requirements, except as otherwise provided in the Public School Code.
Approved by Río Gallinas School Governing Council 28 September 2011