Below please find the Open Enrollment dates for the school year 2026-2027.

Esperanza Academy is holding Open Enrollment for the 2026-2027 academic school year starting Tuesday, July 1, 2025 thru Wednesday, November 26, 2025.

Lottery Date: Monday, December 15, 2025

• If you do not have access to a computer or mobile device, you can visit our office to complete an application on any school day between 9:30 am-2:30 pm.
• We have paper applications available in English and Spanish.  Please contact us with questions or for more information:  215-457-3667.
• Only one application can be submitted per student.Changes cannot be made to the application after it is submitted. Unless contact information needs to be updated.
• It is the responsibility of the adult who submits the application to notify us immediately if there are any changes to your contact information. It is the responsibility of the adult who submits the application to ensure s/he receives a receipt from Esperanza Academy Charter School to confirm the application was received.
• Esperanza Academy Charter School creates separate waiting lists each year through the lottery process for each grade.
• Esperanza Academy Charter School does not carry waiting lists over from year-to-year. If a child is on the waiting list for the 2025-2026 school year and a space does not become available, the child’s name does not automatically go on to a waiting list for 2026-2027; The family must submit a new application for the 2026-2027 lottery.

• Esperanza Academy Charter School gives lottery preference to a child of a parent who has actively participated in the development of the charter school and to siblings of students presently enrolled in the charter school. Siblings must live in the same household, have the same parent/guardian, and both siblings must be enrolled at Esperanza Academy Charter School for the current academic school year. Families must submit a valid lottery application by the deadline to be eligible for sibling preference.
• Esperanza Academy Charter School cannot guarantee that a space will be available for siblings entering grades K-12, only that siblings will receive a preferred space on the waiting list.
• Any applications claiming sibling preference received after the lottery deadline will be added to the end of the waiting list.
• If a child is accepted for the upcoming school year through sibling preference, but the current Esperanza Academy Charter School sibling does not return to Esperanza Academy Charter School for the following school year and/or the family moves out of Philadelphia, sibling preference is no longer valid.

If a family is applying for more than one child, an application needs to be completed for each child and each child’s name will be entered individually into the lottery.

If/when Esperanza Academy Charter School reaches one of your family’s children on the waiting list, the other sibling(s) will be moved to a sibling waiting list; however, there is no guarantee that a space will become available for those siblings.

Esperanza Academy will notify in writing to the parents of students who were not chosen in Esperanza Academy’s lottery. Students not chosen in the lottery will be placed on the open enrollment waiting list and given a number.  If any student chosen in the lottery does not respond in a timely manner or goes to another school and as a result creates an opening, Esperanza Academy will contact the next number on the open enrollment waiting list. If your number on the waiting list is reached, we will contact you immediately and expect you to respond within one working day.

If contacted, full acceptance is conditional upon completion of our school application packet, and your submission of all required documents. Also, proof of graduation from 8th grade (or current transcripts if entering grades 10 through 12) is required and must be made available to the registrar.