Sarasota County Schools opens controlled open enrollment Feb. 3–March 3; notifications by early April
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Summary
Sarasota County Schools staff outlined rules, timelines and limits for the district's controlled open enrollment window on the district podcast, including a three-choice limit, a 90% capacity rule for openings and no district transportation for choice students.
On the Sarasota County Schools' Intune podcast, district staff said the 2025 controlled open enrollment window for traditional public school choice will open Feb. 3 and close March 3, with families notified by the beginning of April.
The window gives families the opportunity to apply to attend up to three traditional public schools outside their attendance zone, Millie Wheeler of the school choice office said. "This year, the school choice application window will be open, beginning on February 3rd through March 3rd," Wheeler said, and families will receive both an email and a notification in their Focus Parent Portal when placements are released.
The process matters because the district is also opening a new school, Sky Ranch School, this August and the district has adjusted boundaries for Ashton and Lakeview elementary schools and Sarasota Middle, district planners said. Diane Comanati of the office of planning said the district does not factor school choice into initial enrollment for a new campus. "So we create a new boundary for that school and then reserve capacity for the students living in the zone and then for future growth," Comanati said, adding that the district applies a 90% factor on a school's permanent capacity when calculating seats available for choice.
How the lottery and wait list work
Wheeler described the lottery and preference validation process: the district validates any claimed preferences (for example sibling preference) before a random lottery is run in the student information system. "The students that do have a validated preference will get a slight weighting in the lottery, but, again, it's still not guaranteed," Wheeler said. She added that many preferential weightings are driven by state statute. If a student is placed into their second- or third-choice school, the district will not place that student on the wait list for a higher-ranked choice; however, if a student cannot be placed in any of their three selections, they will be placed on the wait list for their number-one choice.
Capacity, openings and summer monitoring
District staff described permanent capacity as the number of student stations at a school and said they apply a 90% utilization rate to that number to determine seats available for school choice. Comanati said capacity estimates are set well before final registration and that additional seats may open as enrollment and registration proceed. The district monitors wait lists through the summer; Wheeler said families contacted through July if seats later become available and offered the option to accept.
Transportation and program exceptions
Wheeler said students attending a school of choice do not receive district-provided transportation and that parents are responsible for transporting those students. She also said the traditional school choice lottery does not apply to magnet or specialized programs; families interested in a magnet or specialized ESE program must follow that program's separate application process and may need to contact the school or an ESE liaison for details.
Who may apply and returning students
Families who are not currently enrolled in Sarasota County traditional public schools may apply during the window, but non-enrolled families may first need to create a Focus Parent Portal account, Wheeler said. She also noted that students who are already attending a school on school choice and wish to remain at that same school do not need to reapply; however, when a student reaches the highest grade level at that school, continued placement in a different feeder school is not guaranteed and would require reapplication.
Where to find more information
Wheeler directed families to the Sarasota County Schools website and the district's school choice section for application instructions, policy and an updated list of capacity by grade level at each school. "Families can go to the Sarasota County Schools website," she said. "Once there, they can search for school choice in the search box, and it should take them to that section of the website where they can review policies and procedures around school choice, applications for how to apply, and an updated list of capacity by grade level at each school."
