New website launched for all types of high-school applications
The site, www.PhillySchoolApp.org, can be used for charter, parochial and district high schools.
A COALITION of district, charter and parochial schools introduced a new website yesterday where Philadelphia students can download 2014-15 applications for all three types of high schools.
It will be the first time district, charter and Catholic high schools will share the same deadline, Dec. 6, said Lori Shorr, the chief education officer in Mayor Nutter's administration.
The website launched by the Great Schools Compact, PhillySchoolApp.org, has color-coded applications by school type and can be used for 11 charter schools, eight Catholic schools and more than 50 district schools, including three Renaissance schools.
The one-page application forms can also be found at participating schools. Students and families using the district or parochial applications can apply to up to five schools with one form for each category. Charter applicants must fill out a form for each school they're applying to.
Depending on the school type, applications must be submitted to different offices. Schools are expected to announce decisions, or lottery results for charters, by late January.
"This is the first step toward making it easier for parents and more accessible," Shorr said.
The Great Schools Compact Committee, which is chaired by Shorr, has been looking into a Common Application for all city students and, at one point, had planned on launching such a policy early in 2014. Shorr said the working group overseeing that application needed more time to discuss such a policy shift.
Elementary and middle-school students will be offered a similar process in late November, Shorr said. The deadline for most of those applications is early 2014.