GoCPS FAQ

The school tied to your home address. If you live inside its boundary, your child has a guaranteed seat there, no lottery, no application. It's the fallback every family has, even if you end up applying elsewhere too.

Both focus on one subject, like world language, fine arts, or STEM. A magnet school has no neighborhood boundary at all, everyone applies through the lottery. A magnet cluster program has a boundary, so kids who live nearby get priority, but families outside the boundary can still apply for remaining seats.

An accelerated academic track focused on literature, math, and the humanities, similar in spirit to a gifted program but built around a specific classical curriculum rather than general acceleration. These are competitive and typically require testing to get in.

Programs for high-ability students that lean hard into reasoning, problem-solving, and creativity rather than just moving faster through the standard curriculum. A handful of these centers also run in Spanish or Polish specifically for English Learners.

District-run schools are operated directly by CPS. Charter schools are run by an outside organization with a lot of independence over policy, though the Board of Education authorizes them. Contract schools are a middle ground, run by an external operator but still bound to district policy. Day to day, the practical differences show up more in things like calendar, uniform policy, and school culture than in the enrollment process itself.

It's CPS's catch-all for programs that aren't Selective Enrollment, meaning you don't need to test in. Most Choice programs fill seats through a random lottery rather than by ranking test scores.

Yes. Elementary Selective Enrollment programs, mainly the gifted and classical tracks, require an admissions test, unlike most Choice programs. It's a more academically competitive path than a standard lottery seat.

The Illinois Report Card is the state's official source for test scores, enrollment demographics, staffing, and school finances. It's separate from CPS's own site and can be a useful second opinion when you're comparing schools.

Kids are taught general education subjects in two languages, usually English and Spanish, rather than taking a separate language class. It's full immersion built into the regular school day, not an add-on elective.

One-way programs are built mainly for English Learner students. Two-way programs mix English Learner students and native English speakers together in the same classroom, so both groups are learning from and alongside each other in both languages.

Usually yes. Most dual language programs have a neighborhood attendance boundary and give priority to nearby families first, then open remaining seats to everyone else, similar to how magnet cluster programs work.

It depends on the specific program and whether it's one-way or two-way, some seats are set aside specifically for English Learners. Check the individual school's profile page for its exact language requirements before assuming either way.

It's genuinely random, but only after CPS puts you in a priority group. Think of it like boarding a plane: priority passengers go first, then everyone else gets called in a random order. The priority groups for elementary Choice programs are sibling, staff, proximity, Pre-K, English Learner, and sometimes tier. CPS runs a separate mini-lottery inside each group, then fills any remaining seats from the general pool.

If you already have a child enrolled at a school - and that child will still be there next year - a younger sibling applying to the same school gets a priority bump. The sibling has to live in the same household, and you must list the current student's name, school, and CPS ID on the application. It doesn't guarantee a seat, but it puts your family in a smaller, better lottery. Note: being in a CPS Pre-K at the school usually doesn't count, unless the school is one of the rare exceptions like Drummond, Suder, or Inter-American.

Possibly, through staff priority. Some Choice programs reserve up to two seats at the entry-level grade for children of full-time CPS staff who work at that school. The child has to be your natural, step, foster, or adopted child. You can only claim staff priority at one school, even if you're assigned to several. If more than two staff children apply, those families go through their own mini-lottery and the rest land on the staff waitlist or general waitlist.

It's a distance-based boost for magnet schools only. If you live within 1.5 miles of the elementary magnet school you're applying to - or 2.5 miles for Sor Juana Elementary - your child can be in the proximity lottery for the entry-level grade. It doesn't apply to magnet cluster programs, or to magnet schools that have an attendance boundary. CPS also leaves it out at a magnet school that meets both of these conditions: at least half of its students live in the surrounding neighborhood, and at least half of its students are from a single racial or ethnic group. It's a radius around the school, not the same thing as a neighborhood boundary.

Sometimes. If your child is currently enrolled in a CPS Pre-K program at a school and you apply to a kindergarten Choice program at that same school, some programs give Pre-K priority after siblings and staff. This only applies to Choice programs, not Selective Enrollment. It also doesn't apply at Drummond, Suder, Inter-American, or LaSalle II because of how their Pre-K programs feed into kindergarten. And it only helps if the Pre-K program is not your designated neighborhood school - your neighborhood school is already guaranteed.

Dual Language programs give priority to students who qualify as English Learners (ELs) and whose home or primary language is Spanish or another Romance language like French, Italian, or Portuguese. The program is built to support students who are still building English proficiency while becoming bilingual. At the entry-level grade, this priority comes after sibling and staff; at other grades it comes after sibling. It does not apply to non-dual-language programs.

Every address in Chicago is assigned a tier, 1 through 4, based on socioeconomic factors in that area. Some programs use tiers to keep classrooms economically diverse. Not every elementary program uses them, and the ones that do won't always say so loudly, so check each school's profile page. If tiers do apply, they act like another sorting bucket before the random lottery runs.

These matter more for families thinking ahead than for incoming kindergarteners. 'Continuing programs' means an eighth-grade program housed in a high school can guarantee those students a ninth-grade seat there. 'Elementary preference' means some elementary programs give students a priority to a connected high school program later. They're not typical kindergarten lotteries, but if you see them on a school profile page, that's what they mean.

You're placed on a rolling waitlist. Waitlist movement is updated nightly and you can track your number by logging into your GoCPS account, there's no need to keep re-applying or calling the school directly.

It's the first year a program is available at a school, almost always kindergarten for elementary programs. Many priority preferences - sibling, staff, proximity, Pre-K, and EL - only apply at the entry-level grade. So if you're hoping to use one of those boosts, applying for kindergarten specifically rather than transferring in later usually gives you the best shot.

Results are released in the spring through your GoCPS account, and CPS emails you when they're posted. You'll see one of two things for each program you applied to: an offer, or a waitlist number. There's no letter in the mail - everything lives in the portal, so make sure you can log in before results day.

Ranking is something you do, you list the programs you applied to in order of preference. An offer is something CPS sends you, a seat at one specific program based on your ranking and your position in the lottery or points list. You only get one offer at a time, for your highest-ranked program you were selected for.

Usually yes. Accepting an offer does not knock you off the waitlists of programs you ranked higher, so you can hold a seat you're happy with while still hoping for a better one. Declining an offer, on the other hand, gives that seat up for good and does not improve your waitlist position anywhere else.

The offer expires and moves to the next family in line. It can't be reissued to you after that, so if you're on the fence, accept it before the deadline and you can still work out logistics later.

When families decline or let offers expire, those seats go to the next students on that program's waitlist, in number order. Waitlist numbers are updated nightly in your GoCPS account, so you can watch your position change over the spring and summer without re-applying or calling the school.

CPS sets an accept-or-decline window for each waitlist offer, and it's shorter than the spring results window, so keep an eye on your email and GoCPS account once the school year ends. Same rule as any offer: miss the deadline and the seat goes to the next family.

No. Waitlists stay active through the summer into the start of the school year, but they expire before the next application cycle opens. If you're still on a waitlist when it expires and you still want that school, you'll need to apply again in the next round.

Once your child is enrolled somewhere, whether it's the neighborhood school or a program you accepted through GoCPS, they're automatically re-enrolled there the next year. You only need to go through GoCPS again if you're actively applying somewhere new.