By law, charter schools must have fair and open admissions processes, conducting outreach and recruitment to all segments of the community they serve. When more students apply than can be accommodated, many charters use a lottery to randomly determine which students can be accepted. Many charter schools also have waiting lists.
Charter schools are tuition free. They are public schools and funding for the schools comes from federal, state, and local taxes.
As public schools, charters are not allowed to charge tuition, and they are funded according to enrollment. In most states, charters do not receive capital funds for facilities. They are entitled to federal categorical funding for which their students are eligible, such as Title I and Special Education monies. Charter schools rely on fundraising for additional monies to support our programs. For more information please read A Case for Support and consider giving a donation.
Parents must contact each individual charter school to see if they have openings. If they have more applications than available slots, an open lottery must be instituted to fill the remaining spots. Parents or guardians can submit a completed online lottery application for each child. Once an application has been submitted, you will receieve confirmation with your child's lottery number, which will be used to check your lottery status.
You do not have to attend the public lottery. Within 24 hours of the lottery, an email will be sent to confirm either acceptance or waitlisted to the Charter program. All lottery results will be posted on our website.
Do not submit a new application. Please send an email with the name of the Parent/Guardian, student's name and date of birth and the item needing correction to admissions@sterlingmontessori.org. You will receive a confirmation email that the change has been made.
Double check you email including junk mail and spam account. If you cannot locate the lottery number, please send an email to admissions@sterlingmontessori.org. Include Parent/Guardian and student's name, student's date of birth and grade applied for. You will receive a return email with the application confirmation number.
Sterling has 72 Kindergarten spots. Employees, Siblings and the School Board have priority for those spots. Usually there are 50-55 seats for the general public, but every year is different. At the time of the lottery, first-eigth grades are waitlisted. We will fill those spots only if we have current students withdraw from the school.