Chinook Open Optional - Prospective Families

Please check your email and phone messages regularly during the notification window. Families have two business days to accept or decline a seat once offered. If no response is received, the seat is forfeited, and the student must reapply in the next lottery.

Program Information:

Chinook Open Optional serves students entering kindergarten through fifth grade. Enrollment in the Open Optional Program is by lottery. Families need to complete an application for each child prior to the lottery. Tours of the program are not required, but are highly recommended!

Lottery:

The Online Lottery is currently open for the 2026-2027 school year.

Lottery Information

The lottery process is set by the Anchorage School District. The lottery is held twice yearly, in the spring and in the summer. Students are assigned to the program on a “space available” basis.

Students who are not selected are given a slot on the wait list for that grade level. You can learn more about the details of the lottery process at the Anchorage School District website page titled Online Lottery System. That page contains many links to more detailed information about the lottery and application process.

Applications for the lottery may be completed online at the Anchorage School District website. If you need help completing the lottery process, please call Chinook at 742-6700.

New Lottery Process in 2026

The Anchorage School District has updated its online lottery process, which supports both lottery programs and families requesting enrollment outside their neighborhood school zone.

Beginning January 2026, the lottery waitlist will be reset each year for the new school year. Students who were on the waitlist will need to reapply for the next upcoming school year lottery cycle to be considered for a seat at a program or a school outside their neighborhood attendance zone.

Enrolling your child in our program constitutes your commitment to support the program with your time, either in the classroom or in other ways.

Parent participation is a fundamental feature of our program.

Class Size

Visitors frequently ask about our class sizes. Class sizes are based on the recommendations and policies of the Anchorage School District, as well as the needs of the Chinook Elementary community.

Eligibility

As an alternative schools program, our program is open to any child residing in the Municipality of Anchorage. The Anchorage School District does not provide transportation to students who live outside the Chinook Elementary attendance area; families need to arrange transportation.

Siblings of children already in the program are not automatically enrolled; parents with children already attending the Chinook Open Optional Program must enter a sibling in the lottery in order to be considered for placement.

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