How the CPS application cycle works.

You always have a school

Every Chicago address has a designated neighborhood school for elementary grades and one for high school. Your child is guaranteed a seat there, and you enroll at the school itself. You do not need to apply for it. The application cycle is for families who want to be considered for other schools as well. Many families apply to several and keep the neighborhood school as the calm option they already hold.

Who applies, and when in a child’s life

The big application years are the year before kindergarten and the year before 9th grade, because that is when most seats open. Families also apply for pre-kindergarten, for a change of school in any grade, and for the Academic Centers, which admit at 7th grade. You apply in the fall for the school year that starts the next August, so an 8th grader applies in the fall of 8th grade for 9th grade.

One website, two applications

GoCPS is the CPS website where every application is made. It holds two separate applications for the same child, and you can use one or both.

The Choice application covers magnet schools, magnet cluster programs, neighborhood schools outside your own area, International Baccalaureate, career programs, charter schools and more. Most of these seats are given out by a computer lottery. You rank up to 20 programs in the order you truly prefer them.

The Selective Enrollment application covers the test-in programs: Classical and Regional Gifted elementary programs, the Academic Centers, and the Selective Enrollment high schools. Seats here go by points, not a lottery. You rank up to 6 programs in your true order.

A lottery is not a points list

In a lottery, every eligible applicant has the same chance, apart from a few priorities that CPS names in advance, such as a sibling already at the school or living within the school’s attendance area. Nobody can improve their odds by strategy, and nobody can predict the result.

In a points program, your child earns a score and the seats go to the highest scores in each group. For elementary programs the score comes from an admissions exam. For high school it comes from the High School Admissions Test and 7th-grade grades, combined on one public formula. Read how the points work and the selective enrollment tests, explained when you are ready.

Tiers

CPS groups every Chicago address into one of four socioeconomic tiers. For Selective Enrollment programs, part of the seats go to the top scores citywide and the rest are split evenly across the four tiers, so the score needed to get in differs by tier. Your tier comes from your address, and SchoolNav reads it for you. Read CPS tiers, explained for the detail.

The calendar, in seasons

Spring and summer: the calm months. Read about the process, look at schools, and start a list.

Fall: the GoCPS application opens, usually in October. Schools hold tours and open houses. Selective Enrollment applicants take their exam in this window, and 8th graders in CPS take the High School Admissions Test at school. The application usually closes before winter break.

Late winter and spring: results come out in GoCPS. High school and elementary results arrive on different dates. Families respond by the Offer Acceptance deadline, and waitlists can move into the summer. See when GoCPS results come out for what past cycles say. CPS sets the exact dates each year, and the app shows them with their sources once CPS publishes them.

What results day looks like

For each application, GoCPS gives your child at most one offer, from the highest program on your list that had a seat for them. Programs above it on your list can show a waitlist position. A program below an offer is closed off, which is why your list should be in your true order. Because there are two applications, a child can hold one Choice offer and one Selective Enrollment offer at the same time.

The words GoCPS uses

• Pending offer: a seat is being held for your child until you respond.
• Accepted: you took the seat in GoCPS.
• Declined: you turned the seat down.
• Admin declined: CPS closed the offer because a different offer was accepted or a rule applied.
• Expired: the Offer Acceptance deadline passed with no response, and the seat was released.
• Waitlist: a numbered place in line for a program above your offer. It moves only when other families decline.
• Enrollment: the paperwork at the school after an accepted offer. Accepting in GoCPS is not the same as enrolling.

What to do with this

Nothing yet. Families go through the same six steps each year, and the journey page walks them in order: get oriented, see your options, compare and rank, tour, apply, and decide. Create a free account when you are ready. The official rules are always on go.cps.edu, and SchoolNav is not affiliated with CPS.