RI Charter Schools See Huge Increase in Applications

RI Charter Schools See Huge Increase in Applications

Rhode Island’s public charter schools have seen a large increase in interest from parents deciding where their children should be educated, so much so that a total of 7,900 applications were sent in for the less than 800 openings available leading up to this year’s so-called “lottery day.”

That’s an increase of more than 20 percent from last year and, according to Stephen A. Nardelli, executive director of the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools, it says a lot about the current state of public education in Rhode Island.

 “Lottery day is a happy day for some families, but also a disappointing day for many families who would like more school choices to be available,” Nardelli said. “The growing, unmet demand for charter public schools highlights the need and value of public school choice options in our state.”

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Lottery day is a term used to describe the state-imposed date of March 1 that charter public schools had to determine their student bodies for the upcoming school year. By law, each charter public school is required to conduct a blind lottery when the number of applicants exceeds the number of available spaces.