Policy Number: 3110
Dated: 03/29/2022
Updated: May 16th, 2023
Enrollment Policy
Table of Contents
Purpose
American Leadership Academy has been granted by the State Charter School Board a fixed number intended for student enrollment, with enrollment being open to all residents of the state. American Leadership Academy complies with all federal and state admission policies and will not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, age, gender, disability, or any other specification protected by law.
Open Enrollment
Applications for new students are accepted during the designated open enrollment period each January through March for the following school year. Following the open enrollment period, a determination is made as to whether the number of eligible applicants exceeds the number of available spaces for each class.
All parents wishing to enroll new students in American Leadership Academy must first submit an application. Open enrollment is for all families with new students.
Submission of the application does not guarantee enrollment. When the capacity for any grade level has been reached, enrollment will be held in accordance with state and federal law. The law calls for a lottery/waitlist when student enrollment population has reached the state allotted cap.
Lottery/Waitlist Selection
As required by law, a public lottery procedure will be initiated when the number of eligible applicants exceeds the capacity of a class or grade level. A lottery is a random selection process by which ALA admits applicants which will determine their placement on a waitlist for open seats. Utah law allows ALA to prioritize the enrollment of certain students as indicated within this policy. Students who enter the lottery, but do not gain admission, or who later apply for admission for grade levels in which there is no room, will be maintained on a waitlist.
It is important to note that positions of names on a waitlist are not static because enrollment preferences change. There are many scenarios in which the enrollment preference of a student on the waitlist may change. For example, once the sibling of a student on the waitlist begins attending the charter school—they would move ahead of students who do not have a sibling preference.
Post Open Enrollment
Admission applications received after the open enrollment period will not be eligible for the open enrollment lottery. Instead, these applications will be processed on a first-come, first-serve basis behind applications received during the open enrollment period and behind students with priority enrollment, such as returning students.
First-come, first-serve is defined as a process after the open enrollment period whereby admission applications are processed in order by the date and time they are received and by any priority enrollment preference. Parents whose students are admitted during this process, including those on the wait list, will receive a notice of an offer of admission. Offers of admission must be accepted within the timeline specified in the offer.
Preferential Enrollment
Preferential enrollment may be given to:
1. A child or grandchild of a member of the school governing board or of a founding board member;
2. A sibling of a student who is currently enrolled in the school;
3. A child of an employee of the school; or
4. A student who resides within a two-mile radius of the school.
Required Application Information
- School district of residence
- Prior speech and\or language services
- SPED\IEP\504 history
- Expulsion\suspension history
- Transcript
- Attendance report
- Behavior report
Required Registration Information
- Emergency contact
- Ethnicity\Race
- Home language\ESL\bilingual education
- Medical information\history including visual or hearing impairments, ADD/ADHD, etc.
- Foster child\ward of state
- Refugee status
- Media consent and release
- School directory disclosure
Required Documents
- A certified copy of the student’s birth certificate. In the absence of a birth certificate other sufficient and reliable documentation proving the student’s identity and age must be provided to the school along with a signed and notarized affidavit explaining why a birth certificate cannot be provided.
- Copy of latest IEP or 504 (if applicable).
- A complete and updated immunization record or exemption form.
Applications, along with all required enrollment information and required documents, must be submitted before a student will be considered for enrollment.
All submitted applications must also include a five dollar ($5.00) processing fee.
Age Requirements for Kindergarten Applicants
Any student enrolling in Kindergarten must be five (5) years old on or before September 1 for the school year they wish to start kindergarten.
Placement Assessments
There may be times when a new student offered enrollment will need to be scheduled for a readiness placement assessment to determine which grade level the student would be best served. The student’s grade placement may differ from the application, based on the results of the readiness assessment. Final acceptance is contingent on capacity in the grade level at which a student tests and we cannot guarantee that we will have sufficient capacity to place a student until after he or she has been tested. Parents will be notified of the results and final grade placement.
Foreign Exchange Students
A foreign exchange student must live in the state of Utah and be an approved foreign exchange student by the Utah State Board of Education. Tuition must be paid unless the foreign exchange program and the student satisfy the requirements of UTAH CODE 53G-6-707 and UTAH CODE R277-612.
Acceptance & Rejections of Applications
Criteria for the acceptance or rejection of enrollment applications include the following:
1. The capacity of a grade level.
2. For the secondary school, the capacity of a comprehensive program.
3. The ability to maintain a heterogeneous student population.
4. Maintenance of reduced class size where federal or state money is used to reduce class size for the purpose of improving student achievement, or when using school land trust money to reduce class size.
5. Not offering, or having capacity in an elementary or secondary special education class or other special program the student requires.
6. The willingness of a prospective student to comply with school policies.
7. Serious infractions of law or school rules, chronic misbehavior which is likely to endanger persons, property, cause serious disruptions in the school, or place unreasonable burdens on the school staff.
8. Parent Falsifying application information.
Criteria for the acceptance or rejection of enrollment applications may not include the following:
1. Previous academic achievement.
2. Athletic or other extracurricular ability.
3. Special education services for which space is available.
4. The student’s race, color, religion, gender, national origin, disability, or any other classification protected by law.
Transportation
The custodial parent(s)/legal guardian(s) of students enrolled at ALA under these enrollment procedures are responsible to provide transportation or otherwise assure that the student gets safely to and from school.
Expelled Students
ALA does not admit students who were expelled from other schools or are in the process of being expelled unless granted an exception by the Board of Trustees.
Annual Registration
The parent of an ALA student returning for the next school year must complete an online intent to re-enroll registration process. The annual online process will include the following:
1. Parents must review, verify, and if necessary update their contact information;
2. Parents must review, verify, and if necessary update student information as requested;
3. Parents and students must review and agree to school policies and procedures; and
4. Parents may be requested to provide additional information to facilitate enrollment and participation in the next school year.
Custody
Parents generally have custody rights over their minor students. Custody includes physical custody and legal custody. Physical custody refers to the number of nights a child spends at each parent’s home, and legal custody means the right to make important decisions about the child. In cases of divorce, Utah recognizes several custody arrangements, including sole legal and sole physical, joint legal and joint physical, joint legal and sole physical, and split custody. The divorce decree or other order of the court typically sets forth the custody arrangement for the minor children and may need to be consulted to determine the rights of each parent when disagreements related to enrollment arise between them.
1. Utah law requires a divorce decree or other order granting joint legal or joint physical custody to include a parenting plan that sets forth the decision-making authority of each parent regarding the child’s education. The parenting plan includes an education plan that designates (1) the home residence of the child for purposes of identifying the school in which the child will be enrolled, (2) the parent that has authority to make education decisions for the child if the parents cannot agree, and (3) whether one or both parents may have access to the child during school and authority to check the child out of school. When parents disagree on enrollment decisions for their child, the education plan should be consulted and followed.
2. Unless otherwise set forth by court order, in cases where parents disagree on enrollment decisions of their child and no education plan is provided to the school, the parent having the child the majority of the time as set forth by court order is designated the custodial parent for purposes of enrollment.
In certain situations where parental rights have been terminated or suspended, a court may appoint a legal guardian(s) in the best interests of the minor student. In that event, the legal guardian(s) is given the custody rights over the minor student.
In limited situations as specifically provided by Utah law and this policy, a person who has legal custody over a minor student may issue a Power of Attorney to a responsible adult. In that event, the responsible adult is given the custody rights over the minor student.
References
R277-472
R277-612