Enrollment Priorities

Students who apply on-time are assigned to schools through a lottery, based on the school choices indicated on their enrollment application and taking into account OUSD enrollment priorities. The process is designed to provide each student equitable access to the range of opportunities available throughout the District. Students are placed in their highest ranked school if there are openings at that school.  

If there are more requests for a school than openings, the student placement process uses a series of priorities to determine the assignment the student will receive. These enrollment priorities are governed by OUSD Board Policy 5116.1 (available online here).

Enrollment Priorities

• Continuing Students: Students continuing at the same school for the next year.
• Continuing students entering Grade 6 or Grade 9 need to submit an application.
• Continuing students in all other grades do not need to submit an application.
• Sibling of Current Student: If the student applying to this school is an Oakland resident and already has a brother or sister attending the school, their application will get first priority for school assignment.
• Opportunity Ticket: Students from schools that are closing or physically moving in order to be merged are placed next, for up to 51% of the remaining seats. The Opportunity Ticket does not apply for students applying to grade K, grade 6, or grade 9. Typically, few students will be eligible to receive an Opportunity Ticket priority each year.
• Neighborhood: If the student applying to this school lives in the neighborhood in which the school is located, their application will get priority next.
• You can view your neighborhood school(s) on the the SchoolFinder website. Just choose the type of school (elementary, middle or high school) and enter your address.
• You can also contact the Student Welcome Center at 510-879-4600.
• OUSD Staff: Children of OUSD staff who work at the school (or at a school on the same campus) will get priority next.
• Pre-K Priority for TK/K: Priority for current OUSD Pre-K students to TK/K on the same or nearby campus.
• Equitable Enrollment Priority (Chabot, Edna Brewer, Sequoia): Students living in Prioritized Census Block Groups (See details below).
• Other Oakland Residents: All other applications from Oakland residents will be put into a random lottery and students will get assigned to the school based on the number of available seats.
• Non-Oakland Residents: Applications from non-Oakland residents will be considered after applications from Oakland residents have been accommodated, including students who are non-Oakland residents with a sibling attending the school.

Parents are encouraged to select six schools they wish their child to attend to help ensure that their child receives one of their selections.

Siblings
Sibling priority refers to sisters and/or brothers who live at the same address and have the same parent/guardian. Applicants will receive priority to be assigned to their brother's or sister’s school if 

• That sibling will be attending the school for the following school year,
• The applicant lives in Oakland, and
• There is space in the school at the required grade level.

Siblings who are applying for school at the same time for different grades cannot be guaranteed placement into the same school and are not granted sibling priority in the lottery.

Neighborhood
Neighborhood priority refers to the geographic boundaries drawn around the school. Geographic boundaries for each school in OUSD are approved by the Board of Education. Your permanent residence falls within the geographic boundaries of an elementary, middle, and high school within your residential area. Those are considered your neighborhood schools. Families applying to their neighborhood school are given priority in the assignment process behind those students that have siblings in the specific school. 

You can view your neighborhood school(s) on the SchoolFinder website. Just choose the type of school (elementary, middle or high school) and enter your address. You can also contact the Student Welcome Center at 510-879-4600.

Pre-K Priority for TK/K
Current OUSD Pre-K students receive a priority for Transitional Kindergarten (TK) and Kindergarten on the same or nearby campus as the Pre-K program. This priority comes after the OUSD Staff Priority. Click here to view a list of OUSD Pre-K programs (CDCs) and the elementary schools those students have priority to. 

Equitable Enrollment Priority (Chabot, Edna Brewer, Sequoia)
Families applying to Chabot Elementary, Edna Brewer Middle, or Sequoia Elementary will receive priority to the school if they live in a Prioritized Census Block Group. This priority comes after the OUSD Staff Priority. Click here to see if your address is located within a Prioritized Census Block Group:

• In the search box in the upper right-hand portion of the page, enter your address.
• If your address is located in a tan-colored part of the map, then your address is located in a Prioritized Census Block Group.

Click here to see how the Prioritized Census Blocks Groups have been identified.