CMS launches school choice lottery. How to apply for the 2025-26 school year before Jan. 3
Applications for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ “School Choice Lottery” opened on Monday, offering students and their families the opportunity to apply for a range of specialized magnet programs.
The district provides educational options that include language immersion, visual and performing arts, STEM and the International Baccalaureate program at elementary, middle and high schools across the county. Roughly 24,500 students were seated in last year’s lottery, according to the district.
However, space is limited, and the lottery process takes several factors into account, such as socioeconomic status and the school placements of siblings. As spots become available, some students may be placed on a waitlist and later offered enrollment.
Here’s what to know about applying for CMS’ school lottery system for the 2025-26 school year:
How to apply for the CMS school lottery
You can apply for a seat by submitting a lottery application online. If your student has already been accepted and assigned to a school, you do not need to reapply.
To access the lottery application, you will need your child’s Student Identification Number and Personal Identification Number. If you are a new CMS family, you must first complete the CMS registration process and a student ID and PIN will be emailed to you.
Once you’ve got your student enrolled and have their information, the district recommends attending an open house and/or information session for the school or schools your family is interested in. The full slate of events can be found at cmschoice.org/calendar.
After narrowing down your choices, it’s time to apply for the lottery. The application will be available daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and closes on Jan. 3. The deadline is the same for all students, including those who are new to CMS. Though, students who are new to CMS must register with the district first.
CMS recommends printing, taking a screenshot of the confirmation page or writing down the confirmation number after submitting an application.
Most students will be able to apply to up to three schools. Students coming from a “priority school” — those ranked by the state as being among the lowest performing — will be able to apply to up to six schools.
Lottery results should be mailed to all families who participated in the lottery within a few weeks after the lottery closes, according to the district.
How the CMS school lottery is decided
A family’s socioeconomic status affects how they fare in the lottery system, the district says. That is determined by census data and “family-reported data” gathered during the application process, including household income and how many children are in the household.
“Applications with these questions answered are given priority,” CMS says.
CMS also considers how close applicants live to the schools they prefer and has a “sibling guarantee.”
The guarantee says “an older sibling can pull a younger sibling into a magnet program if the older will still be in the school when the younger sibling attends.” The guarantee applies to all programs except early and middle colleges. The younger sibling must still participate in the lottery and list their older sibling’s program as their first choice.
What if your child is waitlisted?
Students who don’t get accepted into any of their chosen schools initially will automatically be “randomly assigned a waitlist number for their first choice” school, CMS advises.
Of the 26,700 lottery applications submitted last year, fewer than 2,200 students were waitlisted. However, more competitive schools, such as Park Road Montessori and Central Piedmont Early College, had longer waitlists.
If your child is chosen off the waitlist, you will receive a phone call from the school that’s picked them. Those calls can come “as seats open up” anytime between March and August, per the district.
Reporter Mary Ramsey contributed to this story.
