(Dates are subject to change)

September 2024

Admissions and Enrollment Timeline posted for 2024-2025 Season

October 2024

Rollover instructions are sent to all families waiting on the waitlist that are eligible for rollover to the 24/25 school year.

November 17th, 2024

Waitlisted Application Roll-Over Period

December 14th- January 31st, 2025

Open Enrollment period for K-8th grade

January 24th, 2025

Pre-registration/Intent to Return deadline for current students returning in order to hold their spot for the next year.

February 20th, 2025

Lotteries will be conducted for applications received during the Open Enrollment Period for the 2024-2025 school year. Lotteries will take place at 10:30 am at the district office. Lotteries are open to the public, but applicants are not required or expected to attend.

February 22nd, 2025

Admissions status based on lottery results will be posted for applications received during Open Enrollment Period for the 2024-2025 school year.

March through the 2024-2025 school year

Any person applying will still follow the application procedure. If there is not a waiting list in a particular grade level, applications will be offered a spot on a first-come-first-served basis. If there is a waitlist, applications will continue to be added to the waitlist on a first-come-first-served basis.

Part 1: Application for Admission

Applications can be completed online at https://pioneer.powerschool.com/public/formbuilder/form.html?formid=23011, downloaded from our website, and printed or picked up in the PTAA-AZ Enrollment Center. If eligible for the lottery, you will be contacted with information on the Open Enrollment lottery dates.

Applications for admission must be completed within our Open Enrollment period to be eligible for the lottery. Applications completed after the Open Enrollment deadline will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis behind applications completed during the open enrollment period.

Note: Pioneer Technology & Arts Academy of Arizona can determine a student is ineligible if they have been expelled from another educational institution or are in the process of being expelled from another educational institution.*

Part 2: Offers of Admission or Waitlist

Families will receive an email and/or phone call from PTAA-AZ if and when an offer of admission is extended to their child. Please contact the enrollment center if you have any questions concerning the initial offer of admission. Offers will be sent to accepted students, and waitlist numbers will be available to families not offered positions.

Acceptance of an offer of admission does not constitute official enrollment. Offered applicants will receive instructions on enrollment to finalize their enrollment at the school. Parents must complete enrollment by the deadline to be officially enrolled. An enrollment will not be considered complete until all paperwork is completed in accordance with state law.* Failure to submit by the school’s deadline could result in the non-enrollment of the student. Acceptance of the offer of admission and submission of required documents complete the enrollment process. By submitting the required documents, the student is indicating his or her intention to attend the school and be included in the school’s student count.

The following documents must be provided within 30 days of the offer of admission in order for enrollment to be deemed complete:

• Copy of Birth Certificate or other proof of age and identity as described below*
• Custody paperwork (if applicable)
• Special Education Records (if applicable)
• Proof of Arizona Residency (signed form and documentation)*
• Home Language Survey (PHLOTE) (required by the State)
• Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• Student Media Release
• Race/Ethnicity Data Collection Form (required by the State)

The following documents must be submitted prior to 1st date of attendance but are not required to submit prior to or as a condition of enrollment:

• Proof of immunization or evidence of a statutory exemption *

Student is entitled to enrollment even if documents are unavailable when:

• The student is in foster care.
• Defined as “Homeless or Temporarily Housed” under the McKinney-Vento law {42 U.S.C. 11302}

*Other reliable proofs of age or identity:

• Other reliable proof of the pupil’s identity and age, including the pupil’s baptismal certificate, an application for a social security number or original school registration records, and an affidavit explaining the inability to provide a copy of the birth certificate; or
• A letter from the authorized representative of an agency having custody of the pupil pursuant to a juvenile court proceeding, certifying that the pupil has been placed in the custody of the agency as prescribed by law.

*Proof of Residency

As with all public schools in Arizona, charter schools are required to obtain and maintain verifiable documentation of a student’s Arizona state residency upon enrollment.A.R.S. §15-828(A)(1)-(3).

The Arizona Department of Education has prepared Residency Guidelines available for review at http://www.azed.gov/policy/files/2017/06/revised-residency-guideline-2017-1.pdf. Residency documents are different from citizenship or immigration documents. Schools may not request or require documentation regarding a student’s citizenship or immigration status in connection with enrollment or at any other time.

Immunization Exemptions

Every student is required to present proof of an official certificate of immunizations. Students may be exempted from the immunization requirements if parents sign an exemption for when any of the following situations exist:

• Medical Exemption
• Religious Belief Exemption
• Personal Belief Exemption

Our Open Enrollment period is NOT first-come, first served. If for any grade level, the number of applicants exceeds the number of openings, there will be a lottery to determine admission and waitlist numbers. Only applications completed during the OPEN ENROLLMENT PERIOD are included within that lottery pool. Lotteries will be held on February 20th, and results will be available starting February 22nd.

When your application reaches the top of the list and a spot becomes available to you, the school will contact you immediately.

It is not possible for us to determine your child’s chances of being offered a spot. Once our classes are full, any spots that open up are the result of student withdrawals. Although we do typically see a number of spots open up before the start of school, we have no way of knowing in which grades spots will open up or how many spots will become available.

It is possible you may move up or down on the list. Don’t be too worried if you move down a few spots; this occasionally happens. For example, a 1st-grade student is called from the waitlist because someone declined a spot. The 1st grader has a sibling who is #50 on the waitlist for 3rd grade. This sibling must (by law) be given “sibling preference,” so she moves up to the top of the 3rd-grade waitlist (or near the top; there may be other siblings ahead of her). Therefore, if your 3rd-grade child had started at #49, s/he will now be bumped down to #50.

Parents/guardians of the student must submit an enrollment application through the enrollment Portal to be eligible for an offer from PTAA-AZ. The parent/guardian must apply for the correct grade for the enrollment year to which they are applying since each grade level’s waitlist is independent of other waitlists. PTAA-AZ cannot change the application grade for a student after the original application has been submitted due to AZ Charter laws. If the parent/guardian applies for the wrong grade, the parent must cancel the original enrollment application and apply again for the correct grade, and be given a new submission date and waitlist number.

PTAA-AZ does not allow more than one application for an individual student for the same/multiple grades because it is not a fair and equitable enrollment process. If the PTAA-AZ enrollment center finds a duplicate application for a student, the guardian/parent of the student will be notified to determine which application should be canceled, so there is only one valid application.

A.R.S. §15-184(F) allows a charter PTAA-AZ to refuse to admit any pupil who has been expelled from another educational institution or who is in the process of being expelled from another educational institution. In addition, if the student and family withdrew from their previous school to avoid expulsion, the corresponding school may also cancel the application or rescind the offer of enrollment.

The following types of applications are eligible for “Priority Status”, and in the following order:

• Current student in same school.
• PTAA-AZ Faculty/Administrator/Staff child or grandchild (full-time, benefits-eligible)
• Applicants with siblings attending.
• Newly accepted student siblings.
• Board member child or grandchild
• Confirmed rollover applicant from the previous school year
• Non-prioritized Open Enrollment applicants (by original lottery number)
• Non-prioritized Post Open Enrollment applicants (by first come first served)

Please Note: Any false statement on an application, including but not limited to falsely indicating priority eligibility, may result in revocation of enrollment or offer of enrollment.

Sibling priority only applies when the incoming applicant has a sibling that is officially enrolled or currently attending the same school to which the applicant is applying.

• A “sibling” is defined as an immediate family member of the applicant or a blended family member of the applicant that resides under the same roof as the applicant.
• The sibling must be currently enrolled at PTAA-AZ.
• If a sibling withdraws from the school before an applicant is offered enrollment, priority status will be revoked.
• Once marked as a “sibling” application, these priority applications are ordered by original lottery number.
• Students with siblings already attending get a higher priority than newly accepted students.
• Priority status does not guarantee placement.

• The employee must be the parent or legal guardian of the applicant, or the applicant must live with the employee for at least 50% of the calendar year.
• The employee is responsible for notifying PTAA-AZ of their priority status eligibility
• If employment is terminated by the employee or employer before an applicant is offered enrollment at PTAA-AZ, priority status will be revoked.
• Once marked as an “employee” application, these priority applications are ordered by the original lottery number.
• Priority status does not guarantee placement.

Children of PTAA-AZ Board Members

• The board member must be the parent or legal guardian of applicant or the applicant must live with the board member for at least 50% of the calendar year.
• The board member must be an official, board-approved board member.
• The board member is responsible for notifying PTAA-AZ of their submitted application and of their priority status eligibility.
• If the board member’s service on the board ends before the applicant is offered enrollment at PTAA-AZ, priority status will be revoked.
• Once marked as a “board” application, these priority applications are ordered by the original lottery number.
• Priority status does not guarantee placement.

If your child is not offered a spot for the 2024-2025 school year, and if your waitlisted application is eligible to roll over to the next school year waitlist, the school will notify you of upcoming open enrollment dates, the responsibility falls upon the applicant to contact the school to roll their application over. Roll-over applicants will still need to fill out a current year’s application. It is crucial you do not miss the Roll-Over deadlines set by the school to ensure your child’s application is moved to the next year’s waitlist and given the correct priority. Any applicant that was on the previous year’s waitlist will only receive the roll-over priority if they apply during the posted rollover period (if there are any major changes to the content of the application process, all previous years’ waitlisted applications will be notified of the new application process).

What happens to my 2020-21 waitlisted application if I roll over to the 2024-2025 school year waitlist?

If you choose to roll over your eligible waitlisted application/s to the 2024-2025 school year waitlist, your 2023-24 waitlisted application/s will remain active for the remainder of the current school year. However, if you receive an offer of enrollment for the current (2023-2024)school year after you elect to roll over your application, that application will be removed from the 2024-2025 waitlist

Furthermore, applications received after August 31st for the current school year are not eligible to roll over for the next school year

Students entering kindergarten for the upcoming school year must be five years old on or before September 30th of the current school year. For details on our Early Kindergarten enrollment, please visit here.

The following factors will be considered by Pioneer Technology & Arts PTAA-AZ when determining capacity:

• Physical capacity of the school building and classrooms.
• Availability of staff members (i.e. administrators, teachers, other certified employees,classified employees)
• Number of students already enrolled in grade level capacity limits for all opportunities at Pioneer Technology & Arts PTAA-AZ are based on physical space and teacher ratios. Therefore, if there is additional physical space on site, Pioneer Technology & Arts PTAA-AZ will hire staff to accommodate additional students as needed. Once the physical capacity of the premises is at its maximum and the staff-to-student ratios are also at their maximum, no additional students will be enrolled in the relevant class or classroom.

Intent to Return forms are for current PTAA-AZ students only. In early spring, current students do not need to go through our enrollment process, they only need to return their Intent to Return forms by the required deadline in order for their spot to be held the following school year.

Please note: Any current student who plans to return the following school year must fill out Intent to Return paperwork to keep their position. Unless families give notice via in writing (email or paper) that they plan to not return the following year, the schools legally cannot give away their position for that grade, even if Intent to Return paperwork is not filled out.