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Enrollment Policies and Process

Enrollment and Admission Process

What are the deadlines for the 2024-2025 school year that I should be aware of?

  • Application opens on October 1st.
  • February 15th is the first priority application deadline for the lottery.
  • February 16th is when the lottery will take place for students whose applications have been received.
  • The lottery results will be notified to families by Monday, March 4th, via call, email, or letter.
  • Families must confirm by Monday, April 1st, to give other families on the waitlist the opportunity to be accepted.

Important dates

  • October 1st
    Priority application opens for the upcoming school year. Apply online or call the school's office to arrange a time to visit.
  • February 16th
    Lottery to select new scholars. If we have more applications than available seats, scholars are placed on a waitlist.
  • March 4th – March 31st
    All applicants receive acceptance and wait-listed notices. Families have 14 business days to confirm enrollment for the upcoming school year.
  • Late Spring/Summer
    Applications are still accepted, and families are placed on a waitlist in the order they were received. Waitlisted applicants will be contacted as seats become available. Families who are on the waitlist enroll on a first-come, first-serve basis.

What is the open lottery process?

In the event that we receive more applicants than the seats available, Hiawatha is required to conduct a lottery.

  • In the event that it is needed, the lottery will take place on February 16th.
  • Families will be notified of their enrollment status after March 4th.
  • All new applications will be entered into the lottery. Enrollment will be determined based on the order selected from the lottery.

What is the order of enrollment preferences?

  1. Currently enrolled students: Receive primary enrollment preference and will not be entered into the lottery.
  2. Siblings or foster siblings of currently enrolled students: Siblings of currently enrolled students have preference before children of staff and general lottery applicants.
  3. Children of staff: Children of staff receive preference before general lottery applicants.
  4. General Lottery Enrollment: New student applications will be accepted on a rolling basis as long as spots remain open.

Order of admission preference

  • Currently enrolled students: Receive primary enrollment preference.
  • Siblings or foster siblings of currently enrolled students: Siblings of currently enrolled students have preference before children of staff and general lottery applicants. In the event of more siblings than spots available, a sibling lottery is held, and a sibling waiting list is established.
  • Children of staff: Children of staff receive preference before the prior year's waiting list for students and general lottery applicants. In the event of more children of staff applicants than spots available, a staff-children lottery is held, and a staff-children waiting list is established.
  • General Lottery Enrollment: In the event that there are more new applicants than spots available, a lottery will be conducted. New student applications must be submitted by February 15th to be considered for the general lottery. The lottery is conducted from highest grade to lowest grade to fill all available enrollment spots. The lottery is also continued in order to assign waitlist positions based on the order selected.
  • Siblings of enrolled students from the general lottery: In the event that a family has multiple siblings applying for more than one grade, sibling preference will apply as soon as enrollment is determined in the lottery grade. In the event a sibling waiting list exists, the sibling of the general lottery enrolled student will be added to the sibling waitlist based on the order selected.

  • Applications received after the February 15th deadline: Applications received after the February 15th deadline will be placed on the general waitlist on a first-come, first-served basis following the lottery process.

**In rare circumstances with board approval, the executive director has the authority to exceed enrollment capacity on a case-by-case basis.

Waitlist preference

Applications received after the February 15th deadline will be placed on the waitlist on a first come, first serve basis following the lottery process.

Completing enrollment

In order to confirm enrollment at Hiawatha Academies, guardians fill out the confirmation form electronically.

Commitments to Excellence contracts

At the time of enrollment, families who join Hiawatha Academies are asked to sign a Commitment to Excellence Contract for their chosen campus.

Though each school has its own Commitment to Excellence, the goal for each is the same: to outline expectations for parents/guardians and scholars in order to achieve our shared mission of nurturing scholars empowered with the knowledge, character, and leadership skills to graduate from college and serve the common good.

Providing Hiawatha Academies with student household information

Guardians are required to provide us with all their children's and household information pertaining to Hiawatha's policy and legal requirements. You can view the parent portal process called online registration online registration here.

Early Kindergarten Admission Eligibility

How old should my student be to be eligible for early kindergarten admission?

New Kindergarten applications must be of age 5 on or before September 1st. Applicants who turn age 5 between September 2nd and October 31st must undergo early childhood readiness testing and classroom observation to determine the child’s ability to meet kindergarten grade expectations.

What is the early kindergarten admissions process?

This is a process we follow when a child is under the age of admission for kindergarten, as per Hiawatha’s board policy. Only children who turn 5 years old between September 2 and October 31 of the application year and complete the early childhood screening tests to determine the child’s ability to meet kindergarten grade expectations prior to starting school will be considered for early Kindergarten admission.

What are my next steps for early childhood testing if my child turns 5 between September 2nd and October 31st?

While applying for our school:

  1. Indicate in the Hiawatha Academies application that the child turns five between September 2 and October 31. 
  2. Priority: Applications for early kindergarten admission will only be considered after Hiawatha’s general lottery and if seat is available. 

If there is an open seat, our recruitment team will contact you to complete the following required steps to be completed by May 28th.

  1. Step1: Schedule an appointment online or call 612-668-3715 to complete the Early Childhood Screening
  2. Step 2: Email a copy of the screening results to [email protected]
  3. Step 3: Schedule a classroom observation on April 28th or May 28th at 8:00 am at Hiawatha Leadership Academy - Northrop 1611, East 46th street, Minneapolis, MN 55407 (please arrive a few minutes early) by calling 612-455-4044.
  4. Step 4: Your child will go through a classroom observation and results will be reviewed by school leaders.
The screenings and observations are conducted to ensure that your child is ready and able to succeed in Kindergarten. If the child passes the four developmental screens and classroom observation, the child will be enrolled in Kindergarten at Hiawatha Academies.
 

*In 2018 Hiawatha Academies began a partnership with Minneapolis’s Early Childhood Screening program, whose aim it is to provide a universal early childhood screen to all children in Minneapolis. The screen evaluates a student’s readiness for kindergarten, in addition to health and development that could impact a child’s learning. The screening is provided free of charge, regardless of the school the student plans to attend.

After my child is admitted to Hiawatha Academies

When is the first day of school?

Hiawatha Academies' first day of school is 3rd week of August. You will receive exact dates and information during the enrollment confirmation process.

Admittance during the school year

In the event that a spot is open after the first day of school but before the last day of school, and there is a child on a waitlist waiting to fill that spot, rolling enrollment will be limited to the following window, and during this window will always be on a “top of the waiting list first” basis. The window is from the first day of school to March 1st.

During the enrollment window, if a kindergarten applicant is selected off the waiting list to fill an available spot, the child must have attended another school or program that is subject to compulsory attendance during the school year.