Northland Prep Student Enrollment

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2024-25 SCHOOL YEAR!
Complete the application form

Becoming A

Spartan

Thank you for your interest in Northland Preparatory Academy. We are pleased that you are considering NPA for your child’s education. As a public charter school, NPA carefully follows state laws regarding enrollment (A.R.S. 15-184). When the number of applicants for a given grade level exceeds the available spaces, state law calls for a lottery to determine which applicants may enroll. State charter school law grants preference to siblings of current students, and allows charter schools to grant preference to children of staff members and governing board members.

Step 1: Apply Online

*If you cannot access the form online, please contact the school for an alternative form.

Step 2: Lottery

Your application will go through the lottery system.  Applications received after the lottery deadline will be added to the waitlist in the order they are received.

 

Step 3: Result

Join the NPA Spartan Family by completing the Online Registration!

Open Enrollment Period &

Enrollment Showcases

Digital Showcase
Testimonials
Student Support
Science Dept
Math Department
English Arts
Social Studies
World Languages
Athletics Club
Fine Arts

Families interested in enrollment at NPA are invited to attend one of our optional, in-person Showcase events on Saturday, November 2nd or Saturday, December 7th from 10am-Noon.  The Showcases include campus tours and the opportunity to meet staff and current students.  There no need to RSVP for the events but please plan to be here the whole time — we look forward to connecting with future Spartans!

Whether you’re coming to a Showcase event or not, above are some videos that help give an overview of what makes NPA special.

Northland Preparatory Academy is a college prep public charter school that serves students in grades 6-12. NPA honors the diversity of every one of our 645 students and strives to create an environment of equity and inclusion.

Each year we accept applications and conduct a lottery to determine who will be newly enrolled for the following school year. Post lottery applications are accepted and applicants will be added to the waitlist in the order they are received.

  • Click here to complete the Application Form. If you cannot access the form online, please contact the school for an alternative form.
  • Lottery applications for the following year are accepted starting in November. The deadline for applications to be included in the lottery is the second Friday in January.  For the 2025-26 school year the lottery deadline is January 10, 2025.
  • The lottery is conducted in the first week of February.
  • The results of the lottery will be communicated in mid-February.

Northland Preparatory Academy’s (NPA’s) admissions policy states that the Open Enrollment Period shall run from the second Friday in November through the second Friday in January. Shortly after the Open Enrollment Period closes, lotteries at each grade level are conducted to determine which students will be eligible to attend NPA and which students are placed on the wait lists. This year’s pre-lottery application deadline is January 10th, 2025.

Any applications received after the Open Enrollment Period closes will not be part of the lotteries but will instead be placed at the bottom of the waiting lists in the order they were received.

If you cannot access the form online please come in or contact the school for an alternative form.

Please feel free to call us at 928-214-8776 if you have any questions. Thank you for your interest in NPA, and we hope to welcome you into the NPA Spartan Family!

Tips for Completing

the Online Registration

Once your student has been offered a spot, either through the lottery or from the waitlist, you will be sent the link to the Online Registration for enrollment. Here are some tips for completing that process.

 

  • Use a laptop or desktop. The process involves printing and uploading documents. Also, some pop ups and prompts are not seen on a smartphone screen.
  • We recommend using Google Chrome for the browser, as it seems to be less troublesome.
  • Save often, especially when working on the Student tab. We recommend saving after each uploaded document. Some families have experienced trouble saving and continuing on the final step.
  • Don’t have a scanner? You may upload a clear, legible, glare-free picture of the entire document taken with a smartphone.
  • Just can’t seem to get the documents to upload and save? Please save your progress up to the upload prompt.
  • Then, email the necessary documents to lmcgaughey@northlandprep.org. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR REGISTRATION NUMBER IN YOUR EMAIL CORRESPONDANCE.
  • Do not add the same person under both the Parent/Guardian section and the Emergency Contact section.  Doing so will cause glitches.  In an emergency, we will always attempt to contact the parents/guardians first, however, we do need at least one emergency contact in addition to the parent/guardians.
  • If you cannot access the form online, please contact the school for an alternative form.

Enrollment & Lottery Process

FAQS

Who goes into the lottery?

There are seven grades and seven separate wait lists that are developed through the lottery process. At each grade level, in accordance with A.R.S. 15-184 and NPA policy, priority is given to siblings of currently enrolled students, children of full-time NPA staff, and children of NPA board members, in that order. At 6th grade, where we will have 100 spaces, there will certainly be fewer students with preferences than there are openings, so all of the students with preferences will end up getting spots. The non-siblings at 6th grade are randomly assigned priorities for the remaining openings. (Example #1: If there are 100 spots, and 42 siblings/staff children/board children, there will be 58 other spots available. If there are 128 non-sibling applicants, those assigned random #’s 1-58 will get spots, and #’s 59-128 will be in positions 1- 70 on the wait list for 6th grade.)
Due to the uncertainty of the number of vacancies there will be in grades 7-12, most applicants will be placed on a wait list. The wait lists will be generated by two lotteries at each grade level – one for siblings, etc. and one for non-siblings. The lowest-place sibling is just above the highest-place non-sibling. (Example #2: 7 siblings and 62 non-siblings apply for 9th grade. Positions 1-7 on the wait list are assigned to the siblings by lottery and positions 8-69 are assigned to the non-siblings.)

Does it matter when I submit my application?

All applications submitted during the enrollment window are on equal footing when the lottery happens. All applications received after the lottery deadline will be added to the appropriate waitlist in the order they are received.

 

How does NPA conduct the lottery?

As completed applications are submitted, they are logged into a spreadsheet and sorted by grade and whether there is a sibling preference involved. Within each pool of applications on equal footing, a series of random numbers are generated and assigned down the list as in Example #1 above. For those really curious to know, we use the random number generator at www.random.org. NPA’s lottery is true and fair and fully compliant with A.R.S. 15-184.

How does it work when two or more children in the same family apply?

In establishing the rules for charter admission, A.R.S. 15-184 states that the sibling preference applies to students who are siblings of current students or siblings of students admitted by the lottery process. In practice, while this does not mean that the sibling of an admitted student automatically gets admitted, it does mean that after the lotteries establish the wait list order for each grade, students whose siblings were admitted at another grade level are moved up on the wait list above non-siblings who still do not have an admitted sibling. (Example #3: Ana applies for 6th grade and her brother Marc applied for 9th grade. Ana gets a good non-sibling number at 6th grade and is admitted to 6th grade, while Marc is at #26 on the wait list for 9th grade. Using the same numbers of applicants in 9th grade as in Example #2 above, and because his sister now gets admitted, he is moved up above the non-siblings on the 9th grade wait list to position #8, below the seven 9th grade applicants who were already siblings but above the non-siblings.)

NOTES: If multiple students at another grade level have siblings who make it into 6th grade and thereby move up, they will all move up in the same order they had relative to each other before their siblings were admitted. If students # 26, 38, and 51 from the 9th grade lottery all have siblings who get admitted to 6th grade, they would move up to positions #8, 9, and 10 on the 9th grade wait list, respectively. This process also applies to siblings at the same grade level, i.e., the worst spot that a twin whose sibling gets into 6th grade could get would be at the top of the 6th grade wait list above all non-siblings on that wait list.

How many spaces will there be in 2025-26?

NPA’s 2024-25 enrollment is approximately 640 students. For 2025-26, we are planning for ~100 students each at 6th-8th grade, ~95 students at 9th, ~90 students at 10th, ~85 students at 11th, and ~75 students at 12th grade.

We do not yet know how many of our current students may vacate their spots due to moving away from Flagstaff, changing schools, etc., and thus do not know how many spots will be available for students seeking enrollment in Grades 7-12. The number of vacancies at these grade levels is typically small – usually fewer than five spots opening up at 7th or 8th grade. We usually have about 25 vacancies each year for 9th Grade, and we expect to have spots available in the upper grades as well. At all grade levels other than 6th Grade, most applicants will initially be placed on waiting lists until we know of definite vacancies opening up.

So, what are my child’s odds of getting in?

It will depend on the number of vacancies, applications, and the exact number of students with preferences (siblings and children of staff & board). The typical % of sibling applicants at 6th grade is ~40-50%. We can only speculate in putting out the numbers above. Typically in the lottery for 6th Grade, with 100 spots available, the odds of a non-sibling gaining a spot are about 50/50, but each year’s odds vary. When you include not just the students who gain a space immediately in the lottery as well as the students who eventually have a spot come available by the time August comes, the percentage is better.

When will I know the results of the lottery?

After the application deadline, it will take us about two weeks or more to finish logging the final burst of application submissions, pull the lottery, and then send out notices at the beginning of February. GOOD LUCK!

 

What happens after the lottery?

First, we recommend patience. Each spring and summer, the process is frustratingly slow, as those with the chance to enroll finalize their decisions. For those on the wait list, do know that some spots still come open well into summer, even up into the start of school in August. People move and people change their minds. We have found that the later in the summer that spots open, the more likely people are to turn down vacancies, so our movement down the wait list to fill vacancies accelerates as we get closer to August. If NPA is your first choice, and your wait list position is not terribly far from the top, you should continue to hope for a spot to come open.

For those who win a spot through the lottery, please do all you can to make your enrollment decision from among the options open to you as soon as possible. The families and children on wait lists will greatly appreciate that. All schools involved will benefit from having a firm sense of which admitted students will truly be enrolling in the fall.

After the lottery, once your student’s enrollment status (admitted or waitlisted) has been determined, you will receive the information regarding necessary registration paperwork for enrollment.

 

A Special Note For

those re-applying

**A new application is required for each year.**

It is also worth noting that our waitlists do reset each year based on each new year’s pool of applicants. For example, if someone has risen to #3 on the waitlist for a given grade by the time that year ends, he/she does not start out at #3 for the next year. A new lottery establishes a new waitlist for the following year. Such a student will need to re-apply.

Thank you again for your interest in NPA.

Missed the deadline?

Those seeing this message after the lottery deadline are encouraged to submit post-lottery applications. In some years at some grade levels (generally upper grades when school-to-school mobility is lesser) we have shorter wait lists, so those interested in NPA should not assume that missing the January application deadline completely eliminates one’s chances of enrolling.