Enrollment and Lottery Policy for the 25/26 School Year

Purpose

Pecos Cyber Academy (“PCA”) is committed to maximizing open enrollment for students in grades K-12, within its annually set enrollment limits and 25/26projected grade levels served. Such limits help ensure that students are provided with quality instruction and support, including an effective student/teacher ratio.

Each year the school will conduct an open application period. After accounting for returning students and their eligible siblings, if the number of enrollment applications completed during the annual open application period exceeds the available slots, PCA will ensure applicants have an equal chance of admission through means of a publicly held random lottery selection process. The lottery will be open to the public, however attendance is not required. PCA will post the date, time and location of the lottery on its website Enrollment page.

Nondiscrimination Assurances

PCA does not discriminate against any person on the basis of ethnic group identification, race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, physical or mental disability, athletic performance, language proficiency in English or another language, prior academic achievement, or age in the admission to, participation in, or receipt of any educational services or activities.

Open Application Period

PCA will open up begin accepting applications for the 25/26 lottery on January 13, 2025. During this period, applicants who are interested in enrolling must begin by completing the online registration form LOCATED HERE.

Enrollment Preferences

As provided in N.M. Stat. Ann §22-8B-4.1(B), PCA shall give enrollment preference to:

1. Students who have been admitted to the school through an appropriate admission process and who remain in attendance through subsequent grades; and

2. Siblings of students already admitted to or attending PCA.

Sibling preference in the lottery process will help committed families handle the logistics of successful participation in the virtual school.

1 This statement is in accordance with the provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Educational Amendment of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and state regulations as applicable.

Waitlist

PCA will continue to accept applications after the open application period however, these students will be placed on a waitlist determined by the automatic recorded time/date stamp recorded at the time of the application submission. These students will be allowed to enroll based on the availability of space in their grade cluster and their place on the waiting list. If the school is not oversubscribed by the end of the open application period, no lottery will be held and PCA will continue to accept applications and admit eligible students in the order in which enrollment applications are received and based on availability in their respective grade clusters.

Lottery Procedure

Upon accounting for returning students and their eligible siblings, if the number of lottery eligible students exceed the school’s enrollment capacity, a random lottery will be conducted in accordance with this policy.

The lottery may or may not be conducted in grade clusters.

The grade order in which the lottery is drawn, and the total number of students selected may vary each year depending on the number of students who receive an enrollment preference.

The lottery will be open to the public, but attendance is not required.

If a random number lottery is needed, PCA will post the date, time and location of the lottery on its website Enrollment page.

When all slots are filled via the lottery, students not selected will be placed on a waiting list in the order of their lottery number and made an offer to enroll in descending order as space becomes available.

The waiting list is for one school year only and will not carry over from school year to school year.

EXISTING STUDENTS DO NOT NEED TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION.

Randomization of Lottery

In order to ensure a random lottery without the possibility of human bias and error, PCA will use an electronically generated random number lottery to determine who can attend. The program will randomly select a student name from the pool of enrollment applicants for a specific grade cluster until the number of available slots are filled, or the pool of enrollment applications is exhausted.

Student Selection Process

Students selected in the lottery will be provided an offer of enrollment. The offer of enrollment must be accepted within a specified period or the student will forfeit his/her space to the next student on the waiting list. After an offer of enrollment has been accepted, students will have a designated period of time to complete all enrollment requirements or forfeit their space to the next student on the waiting list.