001Welcome and thank you for your interest in our lotteryies for Arlington public schools prek through 12th grade option schools programs and transfers. We are so happy you are here with us. Our goal is to make this process as transparent as possible. This year we opened the lottery for all prek through 12th grade programs from November 10th, 2025 to January 16th, 2026. This gave families in Arlington and across the country plenty of time to explore their options and apply. Today, we will be conducting the lottery for all preK to 12th grade programs. After each lottery, notifications will be sent with either an offer or weight list notifications through the preferred communication method in the APS lottery platform, School Mint. Please allow our team until the end of the evening to send updates. We appreciate your patience.
002We'll begin with the early childhood prek programs lottery from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Next will be the elementary options schools programs and transfers lottery from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. We will finish the day with middle and high school options schools programs and transfers lottery from 4 to 6 p.m. To maintain transparency, we run the process as double blind. This means an independent third party schoolment determines the order of applications without any involvement from APS staff or applicants. Neither APS staff or applicants know the identities of participants during the lottery. School Mint uses random numbers, not student IDs, to conduct the selection. You'll see these random numbers on the screen. They are not associated with any specific student ID. APS will run the lottery for the schools that have seats available for the 2026 2027 school
003year. If no seats are available, the lottery will be run and will create a wait list. For neighborhood transfers, if there are no seats for certain grades, the lottery will not be run. Lottery results will reveal two key pieces of information. The number of students to be offered a seat and the number of students placed on a wait list. Remember, notifications will be sent with either a seat offer or placement on a wait list by the end of the evening through the preferred method of communication, either email or text, selected in school mint. Families have 14 calendar days to accept or decline the offer. If multiple offers are given once an offer is accepted, the student will be automatically removed from all other offers and weight lists. If the offer is declined, the student will
004remain on all weight lists. Starting today, families will have 14 calendar days to accept or decline the offer on School Mint by Friday, February 27th, 2026 at 8:00 p.m. Families should review their offer and take action to accept or decline. If no action is taken, the seat will automatically be rescended or removed on Friday, February 27, 8:00 p.m. Families will need to reapply for the program and may be placed on the wait list. Only the first round of offers will have 14 calendar days to accept or decline. After the first round, families will have five calendar days to accept or decline an offer on swipment. As seats become available, additional rounds of offers will be sent to those on the wait list. If no action is taken, the seat will automatically be rescended or removed.
005All families new to APS who accept a seat offer must register and provide required documents, including proof of Arlington address by June 26, 2026. Please note specific early childhood programs including CBP, primary monastery prek and early childhood programs at Yorktown and Arlington Career Center must also submit proof of income within 14 calendar days of accepting the seed offer. Directions for providing proof of income will be provided in the acceptance email. If proof of income is not received within the designated timeline, the seat offer will be rescended. Thank you for watching. We're here to support you every step of the way. For questions, contact the welcome center at 703-2288000 and select option 1. We are open today with extended hours from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Late applications will open on Monday, March 2nd, 2026 at
0068 a.m. on School Mint. For more information and helpful resources, visit the option schools and programs website.