Enroll Indy Releases Data on School Enrollment, Empty Seats

Enroll Indy begins enrollment for the 2019-2020 school year Thursday.

Enroll Indy works with IPS, the Office of Education Innovation and the Indiana Charter School Board to enroll students in IPS schools, including traditional, charter and innovation schools. This is the lottery system's second year.

Enroll Indy has also released data on last year’s enrollment numbers and community engagement. Executive director Caitlin Hannon says the data will help them target their engagement efforts. 

“So last year we didn’t have a lot of data to sort of tell us who needs to fill out an application. So we went really broad and kind of shallow,” Hannon says. “This year, we’re narrowing that to really target 8th-grade families who need a high school, and pre-k families that need a kindergarten, and going deep."

This data also includes information about the number of students matched with schools.

The Bulter Lab schools and Center for Inquiry Schools 2, 70 and 84 had the lowest match rates for their kindergarten students. This means they are some of the most requested schools in the district.

The data also measures empty seats at the start of the school year, these are spots that were thought to have been filled by Enroll Indy. These students may have moved out of the district, decided to enroll in a private school or simply attend their neighborhood school. Hannon says Enroll Indy hopes to continue gathering data to understand where these students go. 

At IPS/Butler University Laboratory School 55, one of the district’s most in-demand schools, this rate was 36 percent for their kindergarten class. Enroll Indy is planning to use this data to help schools inform enrollment.

There are several changes in Enroll Indy this year. First, there will be only two enrollment rounds. Also, families will be required to use Enroll Indy to hold their guaranteed seats in popular programs –– like IB and visual performing arts.

Hannon says the first application was submitted nine minutes after the site opened early Thursday morning. However, application time within a round does not affect enrollment outcomes. 

Updated 9:00 p.m. 11/1/18 to clarify Enroll Indy's role.