Priority Group Preferences

Sibling Priority Preference

ALL of the following requirements must be met in order to qualify for sibling preference:

• The “sibling” must be a natural sibling, step-sibling, foster sibling, or adopted sibling who lives in the same household.
• The applicant must have a sibling who is currently enrolled and will remain enrolled in the school to which the applicant is applying. This means that siblings in their final year at that school will not allow the applicant to qualify for sibling preference.
• You must submit a GoCPS application to any school outside of your designated neighborhood school if you want your child to be considered for enrollment, even if you already have a child enrolled at that school.
• You must provide identifying sibling information on your child’s GoCPS application (currently enrolled student's name, current school name, and CPS ID number), or your child will not be given sibling preference during the selection process. Make sure that this information is current and up to date with your children’s schools.

When Sibling Priority Does Not Apply

• If applying for two or more children without a sibling already enrolled. Sibling preference only applies when a student is already enrolled. There is no priority given to multiple children applying to different grades to the same school or program.
• Sibling priority is not given for students who are enrolled in a CPS PreK program at a school because PreK students are not guaranteed a seat in the kindergarten program unless it is their neighborhood school. Exceptions to this rule include Drummond, Suder, and Inter-American Elementary Schools.
• If an enrolled sibling graduates or transfers to another school. In that case, your child’s offer will be rescinded and your child will be placed in the general applicant queue.
• It does not apply to multiples (siblings from the same pregnancy like twins and triplets) that are applying in the same school year. The terms “twins” and “multiples” do not include siblings adopted during the same year, adopted siblings born during the same 12-month period, biological siblings born during the same 12-month period, or any other circumstance in which siblings are close in age.
  
  • Families of multiples have the option of linking their GoCPS CHOICE applications together so that the students are either admitted together or placed next to each other on the waitlist. Applicants can only be linked when the program is running a lottery- based selections process.
  • If you choose not to indicate on the GoCPS application that your children are multiples, their GoCPS applications will be independently processed in the lottery and their applications will not be linked.

Selection and Waitlist

• If a school receives more GoCPS applications from siblings than there are seats available, a computerized lottery will be conducted to fill the seats.
• Siblings are placed on a sibling waitlist if there is no immediate availability.

Staff Priority Preference

Some programs give priority to students applying to the entry-level grade, usually kindergarten, at a school where their parent/guardian is a full-time staff member.

• Staff preference is only available at the entry-level grade.
• Only two seats will be given to the children of CPS staff. If a parent or guardian is not staffed at any specific Chicago public school, they cannot apply for staff preference.
• The staff members’ “child” or “children” must be natural children, stepchildren, foster children, or adopted children.
• These seats are based on availability after siblings are accommodated. If a parent or guardian is assigned to more than one CPS school, they can only apply for staff preference at only one of the schools and this must be designated in the GoCPS application.
• If there are more than two applicants to a program who qualify for staff preference, the applicants will be put through a computerized lottery. After two seats are filled, all other students will be added to the general queue.

Applying for a School/Program Where Employed

CPS employees must submit a GoCPS application to any school outside of their designated neighborhood school for their child to be considered, even if employed there. CPS employees should use a personal email address and NOT their CPS email address when creating a GoCPS account. Without a GoCPS application, the student cannot be considered. Parents/Guardians will need to provide the name of the school where employed and their CPS Employee ID at the time of application submission.

Selection and Waitlist

Your child will be included on the staff preference waitlist if your child is not selected for a staff preference seat.

Proximity Priority Preference (Magnet programs only)

• Only applies to students applying for entry-level grades at magnet schools, usually kindergarten. If you are applying to a non-entry grade level at a magnet school, your child will not be included in a proximity lottery.
• Proximity lotteries are for students who live within a 1.5 mile radius of an elementary magnet school to which they are applying (2.5 miles for Sor Juana Elementary School).
• Proximity lotteries are not conducted for magnet schools that have an attendance boundary, or for magnet schools where at least 50% of the students reside in the neighborhood and at least 50% are of a single racial/ethnic group based on student data on the 20th day of school.