Lawrence Family Development Charter School (LFDCS) is a public school operating under a charter granted by the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and serves students in PreSchool (K1) through Grade 8.

LFDCS does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, creed, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, age, ancestry, athletic performance, special need, proficiency in the English language or a foreign language or prior academic achievement when recruiting or admitting students 603 M.G.L. Chapter. 71 89(1); 603 CMR 1.05(2).

Eligibility Criteria

1. GRADE

Applications are accepted in the winter for children enrolling in K-1 (PreSchool) through Grades 4 for the next school year.

2. AGE

Children must meet the following age criteria by September 1st:

Potential students in grades 1 (if applicable) and grades 2-4 must submit transcripts or a report card confirming successful completion of the grade prior to the one for which they seek admission by the end of the current school year, or in special circumstances where Summer School is required for graduation, due one week before the first day of school. Students applying to grade 1 (without any K1 or K2 experience) must be 6 years by September 1st of the enrollment year.

LFDCS does not require potential students or their families to attend interviews or informational meetings as a condition of application, admission and attendance and does not administer tests to potential students or predicate acceptance for admission on results from any test of ability or achievement.

3. RESIDENCY

Applicants must be a resident of Massachusetts to apply for admission to attend LFDCS.

A child who is homeless is considered eligible to apply to the LFDCS lottery regardless of residency documentation, and the application of a homeless applicant will not be dependent on the submission of required documentation. Homeless applicants must provide reasonable proof (depending upon the circumstances or via an affidavit) of residency to receive an admission preference based on where they are currently or temporarily living. Homeless applicants will receive a residency preference based on their current or temporary residence within the City of Lawrence; however, Lawrence as a prior permanent residence does not provide a residence preference for admission.

Application Requirements

The application process does not require the submission of the applicant’s Social Security number. However, the signature of one parent or guardian is required unless a court order specifies otherwise for the applicant.

The application form must include all required information as outlined by the charter school statute for the waitlist:

• Student's full name (first, middle, last)
• Date of birth
• City or town of residence
• Grade level
• Home address and telephone number.

It is the responsibility of the parent or guardian to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information provided on the application. Corrections to the application, including the grade applied for, may be made up until the application deadline. If any false or misleading information is discovered, the application will be deemed void. Any admission offer made under such circumstances will be rescinded, and the applicant will be unenrolled from the school.

LFDCS retains a temporary digital file of the application packet for applicants placed on the waitlist for the school year they sought admission. This file is kept until the last day of school for that academic year. Before or on this date, parents or guardians may request a copy of the documents; otherwise, the file will be deleted.

Documents required with application:

A birth certificate for the child

A state issued ID or driver's license for the parent

Proof of Residency, which may include one of the following:

• • A Deed, Mortgage Payment dated within the past 60 days or Property Tax Bill dated within the last year
  • A current Lease, Section 8 Agreement or Landlord Affidavit
  • A W-2 form dated within the year or a Payroll Stub dated within the past 60 days
  • A Bank or Credit Card Statement dated within the past 60 days
  • A Letter from an Approved Government Agency* dated within the past 60 days
  • A Utility Bill (not water or cell phone) dated within the past 60 days

*Approved Government Agencies: Departments of Revenue (DOR), Department of Children and Families (DCF), Transitional Assistance (DTA), Youth Services (DYS), Social Security any communications on Commonwealth of Massachusetts Letterhead.

Application

Lottery applications will be available online for the 2025-2026 school year. A link to the application will be posted here starting January 15, 2025 until February 28, 2025.

Lottery

LFDCS determines the number of available spaces in each grade annually. When the number of eligible applicants exceeds the number of available spaces, admission is determined through a public lottery process. The lottery is conducted using a online enrollment system at the LFDCS Upper School gymnasium, located at 400 Haverhill St, Lawrence, MA.

Lottery Event: Wednesday March 5, 2025

Lottery Preferences:
The following preferences are applied during the lottery process:

1. Siblings: Children who share a common parent, either biologically or through legal adoption, with a current LFDCS student, regardless of residency status.
2. Lawrence Residents: Applicants who reside within the City of Lawrence.
3. Massachusetts Residents: Applicants residing outside of Lawrence but within the state of Massachusetts.

All applicants are drawn during the lottery to establish a random order for each grade. Admission offers are made based on the number of available seats and the preference criteria. Applicants not admitted immediately are placed on a waiting list in the order they were drawn.

If the initial lottery does not generate enough applicants to meet enrollment needs, LFDCS will advertise and hold a subsequent lottery following a one-month public notice and adherence to the required lottery procedures.

Privacy: To maintain privacy of children, LFDCS assigns all children a Lottery Alias. You will receive this Alias via email before the lottery event.

If admission was offered to an applicant from the waitlist who is not a sibling of another student who is currently attending LFDCS and would exceed the district charter tuition cap, the applicant should be skipped but kept on the waitlist. In cases where the enrollment of a student who is a sibling of a student who is already attending and LFDCS would exceed the district charter school tuition cap and has not admitted other students prior to admitting the sibling, the sibling may be offered admission and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will provide tuition for the sibling, subject to appropriation.

Waitlist

LFDCS keeps a waitlist for the school year for which applicants sought admission for that year only. Applicants will be drawn from this waitlist during the school year for which the applicant sought admission if any openings occur prior to accepting new applicants according to sibling preference, resident and non-resident preference. If any openings occur in eligible grades, LFDCS will contact families by number rankings while taking into consideration preferences for admission. The order of the applicant’s placement on the waitlist may change depending on the preferences that exist at the time an offer of admission is extended, such as an applicant moving up on a waitlist due to sibling status.

If a student or applicant stops attending LFDCS or declines admission, the next available applicant on the waitlist for that grade, subject to preferences at the time of admission, will be offered admission until the vacant seat is filled. No applicant will be admitted ahead of other eligible applicants on the waitlist unless said applicant is either a sibling of a currently enrolled student or a resident of Lawrence.

LFDCS maintains accurate waitlist records including applicant names (first, middle, last), dates of birth, home addresses of residence, telephone numbers and grade levels of applicants who were part of the lottery but did not gain admission. Applicants accepted from the waitlist for the school year for which the applicant sought admission are notified immediately by telephone and in writing and must notify the school within 10 calendar days to accept admission up until the last day of the current school year. If an applicant is chosen from the waitlist after the last day of the current school year up until 10 calendar days before the first day of school that the applicant sought admission, the applicant has 5 calendar days to accept admission. If an applicant is chosen from the waitlist 10 calendar days before the beginning of the school year up until February 15 of the school year the applicant sought admission, the applicant has 3 calendar days from the day they are notified to accept admission.

If an applicant declines a seat, the applicant must reapply if they wish to be considered again for admission.

Vacancies at LFDCS

When a student stops attending LFDCS for any reason...

Before February 15: LFDCS fill those vacant seats up to grade 4.

LFDCS would draw from the waitlist for the school year for which the applicant sought admission depending on the grade by numerical rank, while also taking into consideration preferences for admission.

Afrer February 15: LFDCS will fill vacanies in the following school year.

Students who have withdrawn from the school, in accordance with the school’s withdrawal policy, would need to reapply for admission.

LFDCS do not backfill in grades 5-8

Third Party Mail House

Parent(s)/Guardians(s) of student applicants are informed that LFDCS in accordance with M.G.L. Chapter 71, Section 89(g) shall release the names and addresses of students to a third party mail house upon request unless the parent or guardian of said student objects to disclosure of such information. If a parent of a charter school student and or applicant wishes not to have their child’s information released to a third-party mail house, the parent needs to check off the box on the bottom of the online application form.

Growth Plan

LFDCS has been approved for an expansion to increase enrollment from 800 to 1,000 students by 2030. LFDCS will increase its enrollment by 60 students in SY’2022-2023 (20 students in K-1, 20 students in K-2 and 20 students in Grade 1) and in SY’2023-2024 increase enrollment by 20 students each year at the K-1 level until it reaches its cap of 1,000 students by SY’2029-2030. LFDCS will not, in accordance with our growth plan, exceed the total number of students reported in LFDCS’s pre-enrollment submission to ESE in the previous spring in accordance with 603 CMR 1.08(5).

The figures provided above are projections and are subject to change based on natural fluctuations in enrollment that may occur (i.e., retentions). The primary entry point is in K-1 but LFDCS will backfill up to grade 4.

Glossary

Siblings are potential students who currently have a sibling attending the charter school at the time of the lottery or when an offer of admission is made. Siblings are children that share a common biological or legal parent or legally through adoption as opposed to children who may live in the same house but do not share a common parent. If a student moves out of the city but remains enrolled, that student’s sibling has preference in the admission even though they are non-residents at the time of the application.

Residents are students that live in the city in which the charter school is located. Residents enrolled in district, charter, private or parochial schools get equal preference. Students must be residents of the city at the time of application and at the time an offer of admission is made.

Non-Residents are students who live in Massachusetts but outside the city in which the charter school is located.