For Families Applying to Elementary School

GoCPS Training on the Selections Process for SY 2025-2026

Spring 2025

Recording

See Spanish Version Here

• Introductions & Agenda
• Overview of the Selections Process
• Navigating the GoCPS Parent Portal
• The Rolling Waitlist
• Resources for Families
• Questions!

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Overview of the Selections Process

Elementary School Programs

How it Works

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If a student wants to attend ANY school outside of their Neighborhood school,

Is the PRIMARY way!

• Students are not restricted to their assigned neighborhood schools or schools near their home

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• Students must go through the GoCPS application process before attending a school or program outside of their attendance area.

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• Applications are submitted the year before a student will enroll. For example, if enrolling in fall 2025, the application was submitted in fall of 2024 or in the Spring of 2025 through the Rolling Waitlist.

Exceptions include: OSD placement for ES, STLS placement, etc…

Selections Process Timelines

Elementary School

Please Note: The GoCPS Platform will be closed to all School Staff and Guardians for the week prior to Elementary School Results going live.

GoCPS Closed

4/7-11

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HOW IT WORKS

Single Best Offer

A student can receive up to…

Choice Elementary School Program

Academic Center Program

(Grade 7-8 only)

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Classical or Regional Gifted Center Program

Regional Gifted Center Program for English Learners

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Students in grades K-8 will not receive neighborhood offers. They can go directly to their neighborhood school with proof of residency and enroll.

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How Exactly are Selections Determined?

Elementary School

Selections Process

This video and more are available now on the GoCPS website in both English and Spanish.

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Click Here to View them all now!

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Elementary School GoCPS Results

will be posted at 5 PM on

Friday, April 11, 2025

Accept/Decline Window & Deadline

Results are Released

Accept/Decline Deadline

3 Week Period

• Accepting any offer automatically declines all other offers.

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• Decisions CAN be changed as many times within this 3 week window

All Initial Results Posted in the GoCPS Online Portal

• Decisions CANNOT be changed after the Accept/Decline deadline at 5 pm

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• Make sure all decisions are final before the deadline

**Offer Statuses are Final as of the Accept/Decline Deadline **

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HOW IT WORKS

Receiving Results…

ONLINE APPLICATION

All Results posted to GoCPS online account

What Will Applicants See?

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• Offered programs.

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• Not offered programs.

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• Waitlisted programs and waitlist number.

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When are students automatically waitlisted?

(Open Enrollment, Dual Language, Magnet & Magnet Cluster Programs)

CHOICE

SELECTIVE ENROLLMENT

If NO offer is received, the applicant will be placed on all waitlists*

If an offer to a selective enrollment program is received, the applicant WILL NOT automatically be placed on any waitlists

If an offer is received, an applicant can decline the offer and join a waitlist.

Offers and Waitlists for the different categories of SEES run independently

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• Academic Centers
• Classical & Regional Gifted Centers
• EL Regional Gifted Centers

* students will be marked “Admin Declined” if they do not meet minimum program eligibility requirements

Students are waitlisted for all programs ranked higher than the offer received.

Admin Declined = Not waitlisted. For Choice ES, this means a student was offered a higher-ranked program. For SEES, this means either the student received another offer in that category OR the student does not meet minimum eligibility requirements.

Navigating the GoCPS Parent Portal

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Log into the GoCPS Parent Portal

from the GoCPS site!

Click the “Log In” button in the top left corner.

Accessing Info in GoCPS Portal

Link to GoCPS Parent Portal

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Click the arrow to translate the site into the following languages

Click “Login to an Existing Account”. If you do not know this information, please use the password reset on the next screen. Do NOT create a new account.

Questions about logging in? Call the Office of Access and Enrollment at 773-553-2060 or email gocps@cps.edu.

Parent Name

Student Name

2999999

7th Grade

Parent Dashboard - Scores

If your child applied to Selective Enrollment programs, scores will be available on 4/11 at 5PM.

Click “View Grades & Scores”

Click Here to find all SEES scoring rubrics on the GoCPS website.

Parent Name

Student Name

2999999

7th Grade

Parent Dashboard - Offers/Waitlists

The Parent Dashboard will show which applications were submitted and where an offer is available.

Example: Application not submitted

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Example: Application submitted, offer not received

Click “View”to see the offer!

Scroll Down on the next page.

The Program for which you received an offer is located here

Response Due: May 2, 2025

This is the date that the offer will expire and automatically decline if there is no response.

During the Accept/Decline period, families can only accept offers. Once the Waitlist period opens, families will be able to accept and decline offers.

This is the Offer that is available for the applicant.

These are the Current Waitlists that the applicant is still sitting on.

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Families can check the yellow block to see where they are on the waitlist.

Applicants may be removed from waitlists for the following reasons:

• Receiving another offer in the same category.
• For Choice programs, students are only removed from waitlists for programs ranked lower than the offer received.
• SEES only: Having a point total below the program’s minimum eligibility requirement.

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Admin Declined means that the system automatically removed this student from the waitlist. If eligible, students will have the option to join again once the Rolling Waitlist opens.

Dual Language

MOOS

Magnet - World Language

LASALLE II

Fine & Performing Arts

PRITZKER

STEAM @ CHASE

Response Due: May 2, 2025

Magnet - World Language @ SABIN

Open Enrollment @ GINSBURG

Accepting an Offer

Click ‘Accept’ to finish submitting pop-up. See confetti to ensure acceptance is confirmed.

STEAM @ CHASE

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STEAM @ CHASE

Response Due: May 2, 2025

STEAM @ CHASE

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Parent Dashboard

Parent Dashboard

Parent Name

Student Name

2999999

7th Grade

The Parent Dashboard will now reflect the accepted offer.

Remember, after the Accept/Decline Deadline, accepting an offer will decline other Choice or Selective offers.

Rolling Waitlist

How it Works

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Rolling Waitlist Basics

• All schools are included on the Rolling Waitlist, and students can add any school that they are eligible to apply for to their application regardless of capacity.
• Only programs with space will make waitlist offers to students.
• Waitlist offers will continue to be made until program capacity is met.

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Rolling Waitlist Changes

[NEW] Receiving Waitlist Offers:

• All offers will be made by OAE instead of by schools
• Offers will go out twice a week on a set schedule
• Families can receive a single best waitlist offer
• Ranking becomes an important part of the Rolling Waitlist
• Choice: Students will be removed from waitlists ranked lower than the offer they receive
• Selective: Students are automatically removed from all selective waitlists (within that category) if an offer is received
• Remember - SEES categories run independently, so if a student receives an Academic Center offer, that will only remove them from other Academic Center waitlists
• Schools should still notify families when offers are extended

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Rolling Waitlist Offers will be made by the Office of Access and Enrollment twice a week

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Schools should notify parents who received an offer!

• Schools will know who received an offer the same time as families.
• Schools should contact families through phone or email to let them know they received an offer and when their offers will expire.
• Families will also receive automatic notifications from our office when the offer is made through an email coming directly from EnrollWise.

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Navigating the GoCPS Parent Portal- Rolling Waitlist

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Things to Remember for Rolling Waitlist

Adding/Removing Programs to the Application

• Students will open their existing applications and add or remove programs.
• Up to 20 choice
• Up to 6 Academic Centers
• Up to 6 Classical or Regional Gifted Centers
• Up to 3 Regional Gifted Centers for English Learners
• Students who did not apply in the fall, will create a GoCPS account and add programs.
• There is no cap on how many waitlist offers a student can receive, but they can only accept one at a time.
• Accepting an offer automatically declines any other offers received.

When does the Waitlist Close?

• Selective Enrollment Programs: 20th day of school
• Choice Programs: January 2026

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HOW IT WORKS

Joining the Rolling Waitlist:

Choice Programs

HOW IT WORKS

Joining the Rolling

Waitlist:

Selective Enrollment Programs

LOTTERY BASED PROGRAMS

WL #1

WL #6

WL #3

WL #2

WL #7

WL #4

WL #5

Example

WL #1

WL #6

WL #3

WL #2

WL #4

WL #5

275

230

261

273

255

254

Points

Waitlist #

Joins the waitlist with 274 points

Resorted

Applicants can add themselves to the end of the existing waitlist.

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All priorities exist.

Applicants are re-sorted into descending total point order

All Selective Programs:

An applicant will not be able to add themselves to the waitlist if they have received an offer in that category until the offer is declined. Once the offer is declined, they can manually add themselves to the waitlist for another program(s).

Login and Navigate to the Dashboard

7th Grade

Student Name

Click “View” and see the details of this application.

Click here to go back to the map to add new programs to your application.

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See all the programs you had previously applied to and click RE-APPLY if you want to re-add a program to your application.

STEAM @ CHASE

Fine & Performing Arts @ PRITZKER

Magnet - World Language @ LASALLE II

Magnet - World Language @ SABIN

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Dual Language @ GOETHE

Dual Language @ MOOS

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Rolling Waitlist Ranking

Make sure to rank all programs. Students will only receive a single best offer when the waitlist is run.

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For students, this means…

• Choice: Applicants will be removed from waitlists that are ranked lower than the offer received.
• Selective: Applicants will be removed from all waitlists if an offer is received in that category.

Use the arrows to re-rank

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Waitlist numbers will populate in the yellow bubbles.

Remove

Remove

Remove

Remove

Remove

Tier Waitlist

Proximity

Proximity

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If a Waitlist Offer is received…

1. Applicants can receive up to 1 single best offer in each category.
1. Choice: Removed from all waitlists ranked lower than the offer received.
2. Selective: Removed from all other waitlists in that category. The 3 categories run independently.

• Offers will be available by 10 am on Tuesdays and Fridays.

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• Families will receive a notification from OAE when the offer is sent out.

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• Schools should follow up with a call or email to families.

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• Applicants can log into their GoCPS online portal to Accept the offer. Offers Expire same time every week.

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After Accepting the Offer

Offer Letter Available in the Online GoCPS Portal

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• Students should look out for next steps directly from the school they have accepted.

Remember… accepting an offer automatically declines any other open or previously accepted offers.

Make sure you see confetti to ensure that your acceptance went through.

Resources for Families

Spring 2025

GoCPS Family Trainings

Elementary School Family Training Sign Up

• April 1, 2025 at 10 am
• April 3, 2025 at 10 pm
• April 4, 2025 at 1 pm
• April 7, 2025 at 2 pm

Sign up linked below and will also be on the GoCPS Homepage.

Training Sessions for Students applying to K-8th Grade

• April 8, 2025 at 5 pm
• April 9, 2025 at 10 am
• April 10, 2025 at 10 am

English Sessions in White Spanish Sessions in Yellow

Resources on the GoCPS Website

Resources Available include…

• Series of Animated Videos
• Scoring Rubrics and Point Total Documents
• Guides and Training Recordings
• Preference Maps
• Breakdown of all parts of the application

GoCPS Website Linked Here

Parents/guardians should sign up so they can be involved in and directly informed about their child’s application process. CPS students that are 13 years of age or older should subscribe using a personal email address or their parent/guardian’s email address.

Subscribe at cps.edu/gocps

Common Terms and Appendix

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SEHS

Selective Enrollment High School

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SEES

Selective Enrollment Elementary School

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HSAT

High School Admissions Test

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RGC

Regional Gifted Exam

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EL-RGC

Regional Gifted Exam for English Learners

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EWID

EnrollWise ID

Waitlists - What the EnrollWise system calls programs being added to the application

Pending Offer - Student received an offer and needs to accept or decline before expiry date

Pending Waitlist - Student is currently on the waitlist for this program

Admin Declined - The system has declined the seat due to another offer being available or eligibility rules

Declined- Family has declined the seat or accepted another offer

Commonly Used Acronyms

Remaining Time for…

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Contact the OFFICE OF ACCESS AND ENROLLMENT

773-553-2060

gocps@cps.edu