What a fantastic finish for the first half of the 2023-24 school year! Our student lottery is one of the most important events of the year, and it is quickly approaching for all IDEA regions in 2024.

Making important decisions such as where your child goes to school doesn’t happen overnight. That is why during this time of decision making for your family, our Team and Family are here to help guide you through the upcoming lottery season.

How does IDEA’s Student Lottery Work? 

During the lottery, names will be selected at random, by grade, with spots offered in the order of names selected. When the capacity for each grade level is reached, the remaining applications will be assigned a position on our waiting list in a randomized order. Only applications completed before the deadline will participate in the lottery. Applications submitted after the lottery deadline are granted seats or added to the wait list in order of the date and time of their application.    

IMPORTANT NOTE: Current IDEA students thinking of transferring to another IDEA campus must submit an application prior to their region’s designated lottery date.  

When is the Lottery? 

• January 6, 2024
  This date is exclusively for IDEA Baton Rouge schools.
   
• February 17, 2024
  This is IDEA’s lottery date for IDEA Texas, IDEA Florida, and IDEA Ohio. Families who are interested in attending IDEA Travis must visit Midland Independent School District for more information.

The Lottery Process Explained 

Each lottery will be conducted via STREAM, IDEA’s automated enrollment software system. 

• Random Selection: During the lottery, applicants in each grade level at each school will be drawn at random and placed on a lottery-ordered applicant roster. Open seats will be offered in the order of names drawn through lottery. When the capacity for each grade level is reached, the remaining applicants will be placed on our wait list in lottery-order.    
• Notification: Once the lottery is completed, parents/guardians will receive a notification to your preferred method of contact (email and/or text message). All families will also be able to see their offer status by logging into STREAM after the lottery has finished running in their region.    
• Accepting an Offer: In your notification email/text, you will be linked to your STREAM account to accept or decline your offer. When an offer is accepted, all other applications for that student will be deactivated; for example, if you applied to IDEA Eastside and IDEA Carver in San Antonio, when you accept the offer at IDEA Eastside, your IDEA Carver application will be removed from the system.    
• Declining an Offer: If you choose not to accept your offer, you must decline your offer in STREAM. Declining the offer will deactivate the application at that campus and will award the open seat to the next student on the wait list.    
• Withdrawal: If after applying, you have decided IDEA is not for you, please withdraw your application by logging in to your STREAM account.    

We are so excited to welcome our new families to IDEA Public Schools, starting in August 2024! If you accept your offer, you can look forward to receiving details from your campus about upcoming campus events such as orientation, culture camp, and Meet the Teacher Night.    

For any additional questions about the lottery process, please review our Lottery FAQ or contact apply@ideapublicschools.org.  

After you’ve accepted an offer, all further questions can be directed to your new campus.

Thank you for your interest in joining the IDEA Team & Family!