Updates

11/30/22:  The Office of Access and Enrollment has extended the GoCPS application deadline to next Thursday, December 8 at 5 pm CST.

This means that both elementary and high school families will be able to submit and edit their applications for all school programs until December 8th.

9/19/22 -- Message for the Office of Access and Enrollment - Grow Community Program

"September 2022

Dear 8th Grade Families at Grow Community Elementary Schools:  

We hope you are having a wonderful start of the school year! The GoCPS high school application process is scheduled to open on Wednesday, September 21st (and close on Friday, December 2nd). During that time, you will be able to apply to a range of high school offerings for your child.  

As a family who attends one of the 17 Grow Community partner schools (Audubon, Bell, Blaine, Budlong, Burley, Chappell, Coonley, Greeley, Hamilton, Hawthorne, Inter-American, Jahn, Jamieson, McPherson, Nettelhorst, Ravenswood, or Waters), your child has a preference to attend both Lake View High School and Amundsen High School. You must rank the Lake View Early College Stem program or the Amundsen General Education Grow Community program to receive this preference. (There is no Grow Community preference for the Amundsen IB program.)

Both Amundsen and Lake View High Schools are thriving and therefore must ensure there is enough space in the building  so that they can provide an optimal educational environment for all students. If you live within the Amundsen attendance area, your child will still be guaranteed admission to the school. However, for Grow Community families outside the attendance area, it will be necessary to limit the number of offers to 300. We anticipate that this number of offers for the coming year will accommodate more than 90 percent of the students interested in attending Amundsen Grow Community. Setting a specific number of offers is how all GoCPS programs (outside of attendance area programs) operate.  

Lake View High School also fills all of their seats in the GoCPS admissions process and while it is not necessary to place a specific limit on Grow offers at this time, it is important to note that Lake View High School will be full after high school offers are released in the spring. Grow families who are interested in Lake View should be sure to rank it on their GoCPS application to be considered. If you live within the Lake View attendance area, your child will still be guaranteed admission to the school.   

If there are more applicants than seats with the Grow Community preference who apply to the Amundsen General Education Grow Community program, students will be selected by a random lottery until the alloted seats are filled. Remaining applicants will be placed on a Grow Community waiting list. All students who apply to the program will be considered in the lottery unless you receive an offer to a program that is ranked higher; you do not need to rank the Amundsen General Education Grow Community program first or second on your application in order to be considered.  

Going forward, we will determine the number of offers available on an annual basis in collaboration with the principals of Amundsen and Lake View High Schools as necessary.

Chicago Public Schools has a wide array of high school options and your child will find a wonderful fit whether that is through the Grow Community program at Amundsen or Lake View High Schools or a different option that meets your child’s interests and needs. When making your choices on your high school application, please be sure to rank them in the order in which you want to be considered with the program you would most like your child to attend ranked as number 1, your next preference as number 2, etc. until you have selected all of the programs you are interested in.  

We will have a virtual information session to review the Grow program on Wednesday, September 21st from 10 to 11 am. If you are interested in attending, please complete this form to receive a calendar invite.  

If you have questions about the GoCPS high school application process, please visit https://www.cps.edu/gocps, call us at 773-553-2060, or email us at gocps@cps.edu.

Sincerely,

The Office of Access and Enrollment"

9/14/22:

This morning the district announced that it has pushed back the opening of the Application Window until Sept 21. They are still working to make sure everything is accurate in the new website. Starting today, however, families can go to cps.edu/GOCPS to create your family account or login into your existing account if you created one last year. It will be from your account that you will create and submitted your application.