One system to apply for IPS and charter schools? Nearly 4,000 students gave it a shot

A new website designed to help families across Indianapolis apply for schools drew applications from 3,862 students in the first round.

The applications to OneMatch slightly exceeded the goal of 3,500, marking the successful launch of a project that has been in planning for more than two years. The deadline was Tuesday for the first application window using the new system.

The OneMatch application, which is run by the nonprofit Enroll Indy, aims to make it easier for families to choose and apply for schools in a city where there is a growing selection of options for students. It allows families to apply for more than 50 charter and Indianapolis Public School district schools through the same website or enrollment office.

Applicants rank their top choice schools, and an algorithm then matches students with schools. This round, families applied to an average of just under three schools per child for a total of 10,518 applications.

“Our phones were ringing off the hook yesterday, and we had parents in our office all day,” Enroll Indy founder Caitlin Hannon wrote in an email the day after applications were due.

In the nine weeks leading up to the first application deadline, staff from Enroll Indy fanned out across the city to tell parents about the process. Since the application opened Nov. 15, they reached about 8,500 families through canvassing and phone banks, and held about 29 intake sessions in partnership with schools and community groups, according to Hannon.

It was during one of those intake sessions that Princess Glenn met staff from Enroll Indy. A parent with two children in IPS, Glenn was a panelist at a meeting about choosing schools on Wednesday organized by UNCF and the Mind Trust, a nonprofit that supports charter schools and helped fund Enroll Indy.

When Enroll Indy visited her school, Glenn applied for new schools for two of her children. For her daughter, who is in 3rd grade, she chose a charter school. And for her son, who is in 6th grade, she chose a district magnet with a focus on physical activity.

“My son is one of those kids that, he likes to stay busy,” she said. “For something like that to be available for our kids nowadays, I just think that it’s great.”

Families who applied through OneMatch will receive a single school offer on Feb. 15. Enroll Indy will run two additional application windows in the coming months for families who did not meet the first deadline or would like to reapply.

Common enrollment systems, which allow students to apply for district and charter schools in a single location, have been embraced in several cities in recent years, including New Orleans, Denver and Washington, D.C. But their success hinges on collaboration between district and charter school leaders. Efforts to create similar systems have stalled in cities such as Detroit and Boston.

Enroll Indy staff members say the aim is to help students who are about to start elementary, middle or high school find the right fit. But one fear among critics of common enrollment systems is that they will make it easier for charter schools to woo parents like Glenn away from traditional public schools. On the other hand, charter schools also fear losing control over the admissions process.

Although OneMatch has gotten some pushback from Indianapolis parents and community members, the effort encountered relatively little public opposition from leaders. Most Indianapolis charter schools are participating, and the IPS school board not only voted to join OneMatch, but also allowed Enroll Indy to lease space in the central office for an enrollment center.

Parents in Indianapolis now face a panoply of school choices. Nearly 13,000 students who live in IPS boundaries attend charter schools, including innovation schools that are overseen by the district. At the same time, the city’s largest district has also expanded choices by creating new magnet schools, and next year, all high school students will choose specialized programs with focus areas such as the arts or information technology.

At the community event Wednesday, Patrick Herrel, who heads enrollment for the district, said that Enroll Indy is the latest effort to make applying for schools easier for Indianapolis families. As recently as four years ago, families who wanted to apply for magnet schools had to turn in paper applications at the district office.

“As those number of choices have grown, we have had to become more sophisticated in our way of helping parents access those choices,” he said. “I think Enroll Indy really represents the next step.”