Running the lottery places students randomly into their selected choice program based on the priority ranking chart, taking into consideration the student's ranking of programs on the application.
The lottery must be run with the upcoming school year selected at the top of the screen.
Before running the standard lottery, verify the following:
- In Setup > School Choice Setup > Programs tab, ensure the seat availability is set in the grade level columns or All Grades column.
- In Setup > School Choice Reports in the Student List tabs, review all information and ensure verification for active military, siblings, course requirements, etc. has been done.
- In Setup > Tours and Auditions, ensure all completed tours/auditions have been entered for students.
- In Setup > School Choice Reports in the Student List tabs, run "Refresh Choice Data" to ensure all students are receiving the correct priority rankings for the programs they have applied to.
1. In the Setup menu, click Run Lottery.
The Standard tab is opened by default.
2. To run the lottery only for specific programs, select the Program(s).
If no programs are selected, then the lottery will run for all programs.
3. Click Run Magnet, Run SPA, or Run Choice.
When the lottery is finished running, a completion message is displayed.
The specialized lottery uses the priorities High Applicant Pool, Medium Applicant Pool, and Low Applicant Pool set in Setup > School Choice Setup > Priority Chart Rankings. A student meets the priority requirement when they have an address in-district (present in the address_to_district table) and the "choice_pool" column on the associated address_to_district row has been marked as "High," "Medium," or "Low."
Before running the specialized lottery, verify the following:
- In Setup > School Choice Reports in the Student List tabs, review all information and ensure verification for active military, siblings, course requirements, etc. has been done.
- In Setup > Tours and Auditions, ensure all completed tours/auditions have been entered for students.
- In Setup > School Choice Reports in the Student List tabs, run "Refresh Choice Data" to ensure all students are receiving the correct priority rankings for the programs they have applied to.
For the specialized lottery, seat counts do not need to be defined on the Programs tab in School Choice Setup.
1. In the Setup menu, click Run Lottery.
2. Click the Specialized tab.
3. Select the Acceptance Year, the school year for which applications are being accepted.
4. Select the Choice Type, the application type for which to run the lottery.
5. Select the Grade Level to include in this lottery run. Only one can be selected.
6. Select the Priorities to include in this lottery run. One or multiple can be selected.
7. Select the Program to include in this lottery run. Only one can be selected.
8. Select the Choice number to only include students who ranked the program with that number.
9. Select the Race Options to only include students with a value of 1 in the applicable race student system fields. One or multiple race options can be selected.
10. Select the Sibling check box to only include students who have been verified as having a sibling in the program.
11. Select the Deadline Met check box to only include students who have been verified as having met the district deadline.
12. Enter the number of Seats available in this lottery run.
13. Click Run Lottery.
14. In the confirmation message, click Yes.
A confirmation message is displayed when the lottery run has completed, with the list of students who were accepted. Continue this process until all students have been placed.
Once the lottery has been run, each student's Status is updated. The blind logic of the lottery placement process places students randomly in their selected choice program based on the Priority Ranking Chart, taking into consideration the student's ranking of programs.
If a student ranked a program as 1, that student will be placed in their desired program over a student who ranked the program as 3. If a student is placed in their first choice program, they will not receive a placement or waitlist ranking for their second choice. If a student is placed in their second choice program, they will not receive a waitlist ranking for their first choice.
After the lottery, the district can review the student's Status and Waitlist ranking in Setup > School Choice Reports > Student List tabs or Students > Magnet/Special Assignment.
The lottery can be run a second time to place students in their desired programs to fill empty seats based upon the first lottery's waitlist ranking determination.
The district can update a student's Status from Waitlist to Accepted in Setup > School Choice Reports > Student List tabs or Students > Magnet/Special Assignment.
The student's Rolling/Retention Option and EduChoice status are not automatically populated by the lottery and the student's application Status. Therefore, regardless of the student's application Status, the student will not be rolled as expected if the Rolling/Retention Option and EduChoice status are not set correctly.
A nightly scheduled job should be run to populate the applicable student enrollment fields prior to running the Set Next School or Rollover scheduled jobs. Focus will provide your district with the appropriate query to populate this job.
If the student's application Status is Accepted, the job will populate the student's Rolling/Retention Option to the program school and the EduChoice field to Choiced. This will roll the student into the next school year at the correct school.