Admission to Elmwood Village Charter School is done through a random lottery drawing that is open to the public.

PUBLIC LOTTERY 

The Elmwood Village Charter Schools’ Days Park & Hertel lotteries was hosted on April 8, 2025 for the 2025-2026 school year on the Enroll Buffalo Charter Schools YouTube.

After the lottery is run, you may log in to Avela to accept your seat offer or view your waitlist position. Please note that waitlist numbers will continue to shift as seat offers are made. No waitlist numbers will be given out over the phone.

THE LOTTERY PROCESS

EVCS’s lottery runs through Avela, using a fully random, automated process that assigns a spot or waitlist position number to the name of each person who has applied during the open enrollment period. Avela is an objective site, not related to EVCS, nor any employee of Elmwood Village Charter Schools, nor any person with a vested interest in the outcome of the lottery. The automated lottery fills all available seats, and places students on the waiting list in the order that their names were assigned by the automated random process. This waiting list will be used to fill any seats that become available throughout the course of that school year.

The open enrollment application window is December 1 through early April each year, for the upcoming academic year. Applications received after the open enrollment period are placed at the end of the waitlist generated by the lottery. Lottery results are available almost immediately and visible to applicants by logging in to their Avela account at avela.org. Each applicant’s parent /guardian can view their children’s acceptance or waitlist number.

For those who cannot apply via Avela, paper applications submitted within the open enrollment period will be entered online by an EVCS staff member. 

Families are free to apply for all grade levels, however, please note: For most grades after kindergarten, a limited number of open spots are available, so most 1-8 grade applicants are waitlisted.

For non-admitted students, complete a new application each year: Waitlists are refreshed with the most current lottery results each year. (Waitlists do not roll over from one year to the next.) As a result, parents / guardians must complete a new application each year for non-admitted students, including those who were offered a spot but refused it, those on the waitlist from any previous lottery, or any other situation not resulting in admission.

ORDER OF STUDENT PREFERENCE

The rules for student preference in our charter school lottery are as follows:

• Returning Students. Returning students of EVCS are given first preference. Once a student is admitted to EVCS, that child’s place in the school is secure, and he or she will not have to go through the lottery in subsequent years.
• Siblings. Siblings of current EVCS students are given second preference. This preference only applies to children once a sibling has been accepted and their registration is completed. Once an accepted student is officially registered, the sibling priority will then be applied to their sibling or siblings (who have completed an application during the open-enrollment period for the same academic year). Parents/guardians must notify EVCS admissions staff members of any sibling(s) who have applied in the same year as an accepted, registered student.
• EVCS Staff. Children of full-time permanent employees of EVCS are given third preference. Staff preference does not apply to the children of temporary or per diem employees, outsourced service providers, or independent contractors. Eligible staff members must be employed at EVCS on the first day of the school year or they will forfeit their seat to the next child on the waiting list for that grade level. In the event that there are more children of staff members applying for admission than available seats, a staff lottery will be held at the time of the general lottery.
• City of Buffalo Residents. Students who apply to the lottery as residents of the City of Buffalo are given fourth preference. Proof of residence is required at the time of registration, and they must reside in Buffalo on the first day of school or they will forfeit their seat to the next child on the waiting list for that grade level.
• All Other Eligible Students. All other eligible applications are then considered for both available seats and the waiting list.