Enrollment FAQs

• Applicants must have parents/guardians who are currently legal residents of North Carolina. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Division of Charter Schools, mandates that out-of-state residents are not eligible to participate in the lottery.
• Cornerstone Charter Academy admits students without regard to ethnicity, national origin, gender, or disability. Our state-mandated lottery process results in a random sampling of applicants.    
• According to state law, children must turn five years old on or before August 31, of the applying school year to apply to kindergarten. Lottery applicants must meet the same criteria. If your child is not 5 by August 31 of the applying school year, our Early Entry Policy comes into effect.  

         Kindergarten Early Entry Policy 

• As a public charter school, we are required to conduct an annual admissions lottery for any opening in grades K-10. Once enrolled, the student may attend through the 12th grade without further application as long as North Carolina residency is maintained.  
• Before the lottery opens, Cornerstone Charter Academy administrators determine the number of seats that will be available in each grade level. This is based on several factors, including the number of current CCA students moving to the next grade and available classroom space.
• According to the law governing charter schools in North Carolina, all new students who wish to be part of the CCA lottery must complete an application for admission.  
• Only one application per child will be accepted. Submitting duplicate applications to gain an advantage will result in disqualifying the student’s application(s). If a family has more than one child applying for admission, separate applications must be completed for each child.
• All applicants to the lottery must be North Carolina residents at the time of the lottery with a physical North Carolina address. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Division of Charter Schools, mandates that out-of-state residents are not eligible to participate in the lottery.
• According to state law, children must turn five years old on or before August 31 of the current school to apply to kindergarten. Lottery applicants must meet the same criteria.

No, per state law you must apply every year for the appropriate grade.

• Families must fill out applications online while the application period is open. For the 2023-2024 school year, Open Enrollment will begin October 3, 2022 and end on February 28, 2023.
• Please only complete one application per student. 
• During Open Enrollment, the order in which the application is submitted  does not impact the selection process for the lottery.
• After the Open Enrollment period, applications will not be included in the lottery, but will be added to the waitlist in the order that they were received.
• The Lottery Randomizer (computer program) will randomly select applications for admission at the public lottery on March 10, 2023 at 9:30 AM. You are welcome to attend, but it is not mandatory. Attending the lottery does not improve or lessen chances of admission. 
• Families will be notified by email within 24 hours of the public lottery whether their application was selected, or whether they are on a waitlist. If applicants are on a waitlist, we will also provide the waitlist number.  If you attend the public lottery live, you will not receive the results at that time.

• If there are no spaces available at the grade level for which the student is applying, the lottery will generate a waitlist number assigned to that student based on the order in which his/her name is selected for the grade he/she is applying for.  
• Please keep in mind, most natural attrition or movement will happen over the summer; we will continue to use the waitlist to fill any openings up until the end of the first semester (mid-January).
• If one child in a family receives an admissions offer, other siblings are not automatically included in the offer. Other family siblings will only receive an offer if their waitlist number moves up to an offer for the grade they are applying. If no offer is made, they will be considered “siblings” for the next school year (after one child in the family is attending) and will receive sibling priority in the lottery for the following academic year.
• Per state law, North Carolina Charter Schools are not permitted to carry-over wait lists year to year; therefore, it is necessary to apply for each school year.

• Cornerstone Charter Academy will continue to use the waitlist to fill open seats until the end of the first semester (mid-January).
• As seats open, we will offer them to eligible student applicants according to their number on the waitlist. These applicants will receive an email that contains how to accept or decline the spot. Applicants will be given 24-48 hours to accept the seat (depending on when they are contacted – after the lottery through July 31, families will receive 48 hours to accept/decline the seat; starting August 1, applications will have 24 hours to accept/decline the seat). 
• If your child is accepted to Cornerstone Charter Academy, it is mandatory that you complete the enrollment paperwork in a timely manner.
• If the offer is denied or not claimed by the deadline given when the offer is made, the seat will be offered to the next student on the waitlist.
• If one child in a family receives an admissions offer, other siblings are not automatically included in the offer. Other family siblings will only receive an offer if their waitlist number moves up to an offer for the grade they are applying.  If no offer is made, they will be considered “siblings” for the next year (after one child in the family is attending) and will receive sibling priority in the lottery for the following academic year.

Cornerstone Charter Academy may give enrollment priority in certain instances pursuant to North Carolina law, specifically G.S.115C-218.45. The Cornerstone Charter Academy Board of Directors, per Board Policy, will offer admissions priority for the 2021-22 school year as follows:

(The law limits the amount of staff and/or board children to no more than 15 percent of the school’s total enrollment.)

For the purposes of this subsection, the term “siblings” includes any of the following who reside in the same household: half siblings, step-siblings, and children residing in a family foster home.

(The law limits the amount of staff and/or board children to no more than 15 percent of the school’s total enrollment.)

A schedule of school tours can be found on our website under the Enrollment Information page. You can also view our virtual tour by clicking here.