SHQIP | عربي | 语 | Français | ខ្មែរ  | Português | Pусский | Español | Việt

Dear School District of Philadelphia Families,

The School District of Philadelphia’s Find Your Fit school selection process allows students currently in pre-kindergarten through 11th grade to apply to attend any District school, with available space, outside of their neighborhood or catchment area for the following school year. The Find Your Fit school selection process for the 2025-2026 school year opens on September 13, 2024 at 4:00 pm and closes on October 23, 2024 at 11:59 pm.   

During the 2023-2024 school year, the School District continued to receive input from students and families regarding improvements to the school selection process. As a result, the Offices of Student Enrollment and Placement (OSEP) and Information Technology (IT) collaborated with a new technology provider, Avela, to make several changes based on your input. Our newly updated school selection system will provide a more streamlined application process. On August 5, we launched a more user-friendly school search tool, called Explore, that provides comprehensive information about each school. Here is what students and families who plan to participate in the school selection process for the 2025-2026 school year can expect when the application opens this fall:

• In our new school selection system, each applicant will be able to rank their top five school/program choices – a critically important update. In previous years, eligibility and seats available were considered almost exclusively. This new system uses a Nobel Prize-winning algorithm that is designed to generate the best offer based on both an applicant’s eligibility and their preference based on how they ranked their school choices. It is important to remember to choose a total of 5 schools. Limiting options will not improve the chances of receiving an offer – in fact, the chances will decrease.
• Applicants may receive either one offer or zero offers during the initial response phase. Offers will be made based on the order in which an applicant ranked their five schools, the applicant’s eligibility, and seats available at the school/program.
• Applicants will remain on the waitlist only for higher ranked schools to which they did not receive an offer. For example, if a student ranked five schools and received an offer to their 3rd ranked school, they will remain on the waitlist for their 1st and 2nd ranked schools, but would be automatically declined for a seat at their 4th and 5th ranked schools. If they subsequently receive a waitlist offer for their 2nd choice, they can accept that offer which would automatically decline the original offer at their third choice but allow them to remain on the waitlist for their 1st choice. They could later accept a seat at their first choice, if offered.
• Zip code preference is still considered, but the zip codes have changed slightly. The six zip codes are 19140, 19133, 19132, 19136, 19124, and 19134.
• While assessment information, including the PSSA, is still required to obtain seats at criteria-based schools, the application system will no longer accept Pennsylvania Alternate System of Assessment (PASA) as an approved standardized assessment. 

As a District, we are excited about these updates to the Find Your Fit school selection process. We believe that the new system will better account for student preference, provide more students with an initial offer, facilitate more acceptances in a shorter amount of time, and result in an overall reduction in the time it will take to fill open seats across our schools.

We will provide more detailed information about the Find Your Fit school selection process, including timelines, criteria, and helpful resources, in the fall. In the meantime, we invite you to find answers to your additional questions and learn more about school selection by visiting www.philasd.org/findyourfit.

Please enjoy the rest of your summer!

In partnership,

 

Tony B. Watlington Sr., Ed.D.
Superintendent
The School District of Philadelphia