The Philly School Guide

What's in here

1. The 60-second version
2. Which year are you in? (any year from pre-K to 11th, and the three that matter most)
3. Find your assigned schools
4. Your school options
5. The calendar: every deadline, both systems
6. How to apply, step by step
7. The criteria schools
8. The schools, up close (what they're known for, in their communities' words)
9. The lottery, demystified
10. What's changing: the closures
11. Red flags and gotchas
12. Is the school any good?
13. Private school, and paying for it
14. Quick answers (FAQ)
15. Glossary and official links
16. About this guide

Want this as a PDF you can keep, plus every deadline dropped straight into your calendar? Grab the free download. It's the whole guide, designed to read and print, and a calendar file that puts all the dates on your phone with reminders. Drop your email below.

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🧭 The 60-second version

Philadelphia has one school district. But your choices run on four separate tracks, with separate applications and separate deadlines. That's what makes this confusing, and why it's so easy to miss one.

The four:

1. Your catchment school. Every address in the city has one. This is based on where you live. You don't apply. You register, and your kid has a seat. (One asterisk on that, covered below.)
2. District citywide and criteria schools. These are the magnets and the open-lottery schools. You apply through the District's Find Your Fit school selection process (that's the District's name for it as of this year; most people still just say "School Selection").
3. Charter schools. Separate application, separate deadline, through Apply Philly Charter. Also a lottery. Note that 15 "Renaissance" charters actually carry a catchment, so for some families the assigned school is a charter.
4. Private and parochial schools. You apply to each one directly. Some offer financial aid.

Here are two additional nuances:

1/ There are two separate applications, and they close on different days. The District's School Selection is one. Apply Philly Charter is another. Missing one because you thought you'd handled "the school application" is common.

2/ One home address can give your kid up to three different assigned schools, one for elementary, one for middle, one for high. They're not always the same building.

To sum up: The District's window opens September 8, 2026, 4 pm and closes October 30, 2026, 11:59 pm. Preliminary results come in November. Then January is a pileup: final eligibility, lottery results, the deadline to accept an offer, kindergarten registration opening, and the charter deadline (Friday, January 15, 2027) all land within a few weeks of each other. Charter results come Monday, February 8, 2027, and waitlists run into the spring.

If that sounds like a lot to keep straight... trust your instincts. That's why we created this guide. Onwards.

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🗓️ Which year are you in?

First, the thing almost nobody tells you: you can apply in almost any year. The District's process is open to students in pre-K through 11th grade. You are not locked out because your kid isn't at a "normal" entry point.

But three moments force a real decision, because they're when the most seats open. Let's dig in:

Starting kindergarten

There's the trap that catches first-time parents:

Your catchment school will take your kid for kindergarten. That registration opens in January and runs into the spring. It's rolling, and low-stress.

However, if you want a different kindergarten, e.g. a magnet, a citywide school, or a charter, you have to apply in the fall before. That window opens in September and closes in October, months before catchment registration even starts.

So if you wait for "kindergarten registration" in January, you already missed the window. If you might want anything other than your neighborhood school, you act in the fall.

The age rule is simple and firm: your child has to turn 5 on or before September 1 of the year they start. No exceptions.

New this year, and it reverses old advice: the District has added a Kindergarten Preference. Qualifying pre-K students now get lottery priority to stay at the same school for kindergarten. For years the honest answer was that pre-K bought you nothing; for 2027-28 it does.

Rising 6th grade

This one only matters for some families. Here's how to tell if it's you.

Many Philadelphia schools run K through 8, so a kid just keeps going. But some catchments split: a K-5 elementary that feeds a separate middle school. If you're in one of those, 6th grade is a entry point, and it's a moment to consider applying out.

The way to know which one you are is to look up your address (next section). If your elementary and middle assignments are the same school, you're K-8 and you can relax. If they're different, 6th grade is a decision year.

Sixth grade is also an entry point for some magnets, so if your kid is aiming at a selective middle school, this is the year to apply.

And it isn't only 6th. A few of the District's best-known programs start earlier or in an odd year: Masterman begins at 5th grade, and Carver takes 7th graders. If your kid is aiming at Masterman, the application happens in the 4th-grade year, which catches families off guard constantly.

Rising 9th grade

Every kid leaves 8th grade for a high school, so every family makes a choice here.

Your default is your neighborhood high school, by the feeder pattern. Finish 8th grade in its zone and you're in. There is no application.

But 9th grade is also when the selective high schools admit the most new students. (Not always their biggest class overall: the schools that run 5-12 or 7-12, like Masterman and GAMP, already have most of their students in the building.) If your kid is aiming at Central, Masterman, Carver, CAPA, or any of the criteria schools, the application happens in the fall of 8th grade, and it leans on your kid's 7th-grade record. So the groundwork is laid a full year before they'd start.

Both applications, the District's and the charters', run that same fall.

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📍 Find your assigned schools

Before anything else, find out what your address gives you. Three free, official tools do this, and you need more than one:

1/ The District's own finder, called Explore, lives at philasd.explore.avela.org. Address in, schools out. It shows you today's assignment.

2/ The City's Atlas tool. Type your address, and (among all the other things) it lists your assigned elementary, middle, and high school. Also today's.

3/ The 2027-28 catchment map, at explore.avela.org/fpp. This is the one almost nobody finds. It shows the proposed assignments for 2027-28, after the closures and grade-level changes take effect. It's linked from a small "2027-2028 Catchments" tab inside Explore, and it is not linked from the District's own facilities-plan page.

A few things to know when you look:

• K-8 is common. If your elementary and middle school come back as the same name, that's normal. It just means your neighborhood school runs kindergarten through 8th grade.
• Split catchments exist. Some addresses get three different schools. A Far Northeast home, for example, might land at one elementary, a separate middle school, and a separate high school.
• Your assigned school can be a charter. Fifteen "Renaissance" charters carry a neighborhood catchment. If you live in one, you enroll first-come, first-served, no lottery, the same as a regular neighborhood school.

Two maps, two different questions. This is the single most useful thing in this section, so here it is plainly:

Use Explore (or Atlas) to answer "where does my kid go now?" Use the 2027-28 catchment map to answer "where will my kid go after the closures?" They give different answers, and neither one warns you about the other.

Here's the proof, using one Fishtown address:

Same address. Same school. Different answer. The default tool will never mention that the second one exists.

One honest caveat: the 2027-28 map is labeled proposed, and it carries an open feedback form. It's the best available answer, not a final one. If your assigned school is on the closure list, check both, then confirm with the District.

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🏫 Your school options

When you look up schools on a real-estate site or a ratings site, it'll show your assigned school right next to a bunch of top-rated magnets, all in one list, with no labels. It looks like a menu. It isn't. Some of those schools your kid gets by address, and some require an application and a qualifying record you may or may not have.

There are six kinds of schools you can end up at, and they work completely differently:

One caveat on the word "guaranteed." Your catchment school is your right, and in practice you get a seat. But if a catchment school is full, the District reassigns students to the next closest school with space, and you keep a documented right to return to your catchment school later. So it isn't quite the absolute that people repeat. It is still the closest thing to a sure thing in this whole process.

Also worth knowing: the District runs a free full-time virtual school, Philadelphia Virtual Academy (PVA), for K-12. It's a real option that this table doesn't capture.

A top-rated magnet on Zillow is not automatically a school your kid can attend. Central and Masterman show up on every "best schools" list, but they're criteria schools. You apply, you have to qualify, and even then it's a lottery. Being eligible only puts you into the drawing. It is not a seat.

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📅 The calendar: every deadline, both systems

Partly posted. The District has confirmed the 2027-28 application window and the charter track's full timeline. The mid-cycle dates are still unposted; those rows show last cycle's dates marked (estimated) so you can see the shape of the year. We update this page and the calendar reminders the day the real ones drop.

The District's Find Your Fit track, for 2027-28:

Anything marked (estimated) is last cycle's date, moved forward a year, because the District hasn't posted this cycle's yet. It says the rest of the timeline comes "throughout the fall." Note the window closes a week later than last year, so don't work off last year's muscle memory.

The kindergarten track:

The charter track, Apply Philly Charter, for 2027-28:

Important call outs:

The ordering trap. A non-catchment kindergarten seat requires applying in the fall. Catchment kindergarten registration doesn't even open until January. If you wait for "registration," the choice window is already closed.

The January collision. The charter deadline is Friday, January 15, 2027, kindergarten registration opens around the same time, and your District lottery result and accept-by deadline land within the following two weeks. That's four different clocks in one short stretch, and only one of them sends you a reminder.

One more mechanic to know: waitlist offers roll out in early February and then every Monday, and you get 3 days to say yes before the offer expires. An offer you don't actively accept expires on its own. Watch your email in February.

Get all of these dates into your phone with reminders. Download the calendar file (and the full PDF) below.

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📝 How to apply, step by step

The District: School Selection

You apply online through the District's Find Your Fit school selection system in the fall.

• You rank up to 5 schools. The District's own advice is not to limit yourself: fewer choices only lowers your odds.
• Don't rank your catchment school. The District says it directly: you shouldn't apply to your catchment school, because you don't need to. It's already yours. Ranking it burns one of your five slots on a seat you already have.
• Criteria schools look at your kid's grades, attendance, and standardized test scores from the prior two years.
• New this year: you must upload report cards or transcripts AND the Common Transcript Form. This applies to every criteria-based applicant. Missing documents can make an otherwise strong application ineligible, and this is a brand-new requirement, so nobody has the habit yet.
• The single most common mistake, per the District: editing your application and then forgetting to resubmit it. If you change anything, submit again. Also on their list of common missteps: mis-ranking, and picking schools too far from home.
• After the window closes, you get preliminary eligibility in November, final eligibility in January, and then your lottery offer.

If the school you want isn't in the dropdown. This one confuses a lot of families. Not every District school participates every year. The District's own answer: "The school may not be listed on the application because they do not have space for students outside of their catchment area." Participation is decided per school, per grade, per year. To check before you get your hopes up, use the "Grade participating in School Selection" filter inside Explore.

Sibling preference has a limit. Having a sibling already enrolled helps at catchment and citywide schools, where space allows. It does not apply at criteria-based schools. Families assume it works everywhere. It doesn't.

If your kid has an IEP, a 504 plan, or is an English Learner, read this part.

There's a process called Individualized Review, and it's the most under-used thing in the whole system. In the District's words it "expands upon" what used to be called the Impartial Review or the LeGare Review, so you may still hear those older names. It's broader than what it replaced.

Here's how it works. If your child has a current IEP, a current 504 plan (or is 504-eligible), or is an English Learner, and they're applying to the entry grade of a criteria-based middle or high school, they can waive one of the three criteria (grades, attendance, or test scores) and have a team look at the whole child instead.

• You request it inside the application. There's no separate form to hunt down.
• A team from your child's current school reviews it: the principal or their designee, the counselor, the special-education teacher, the EL or ESL teacher, and the nurse for 504s.
• They look at the supports the school can provide, the supports your child needs, academic growth, and the waiver request.
• It happens before the lottery, and it decides whether your child is eligible for the lottery. It is not a guarantee of a seat.
• New for this cycle: qualifying students get the review regardless of whether they met the criteria at any of the schools they applied to. That's a real expansion.

The things that disqualify you are mostly clerical, which is exactly why this is worth knowing: not requesting it, waiving the wrong criterion, needing to waive more than one, or not submitting the supporting documentation.

Appeals are a different, much narrower thing. You can appeal an ineligible status only when it came from missing or invalid uploads of grades, attendance, or assessments. You cannot appeal because you feel your kid should have qualified, and you cannot appeal an audition result or an Individualized Review decision.

Charters: Apply Philly Charter

Most charters share one common application, Apply Philly Charter. This is a different site, with a different deadline, but for the same fall school season. A few run their own separate application instead, including FACTS, String Theory, and Boys' Latin, so check each school's own site.

• You rank up to 15 schools. The system uses "Rank and Match": you get a single best offer, the highest-ranked school where you're matched.
• Siblings of current students get priority where seats allow (the family has to be Philadelphia residents). It's a priority, not a guarantee.
• Renaissance charters are the exception: if you live in one's catchment, you enroll first-come, first-served, not through the lottery. These are former District neighborhood schools handed to charter operators. They're District-authorized and keep their catchment, but they're run by independent charter organizations, not by the District.
• Accepting a seat is not the same as finishing enrollment. If you don't complete the required paperwork, you can lose the spot.

Registration: catchment and kindergarten

For your neighborhood school, you register rather than apply, and registration is rolling. It effectively never closes: once you've handed in the required documents, Pennsylvania requires schools to enroll a child within about five business days, year-round. If you move here in March, you go and register in March. The May 31 date you'll see is a recommendation that helps the school staff and plan, not a deadline that locks you out.

You'll do it through Online Registration (OLR) via Infinite Campus, or in person at your catchment school. What you'll need:

• Proof of residency. A deed, mortgage statement, or fully-executed current lease, plus one other approved document. If you don't have any of those three, you'll need three other approved documents instead. Everything has to be dated within the last 90 days.
• The approved documents include: a current utility bill, a recent pay stub with your address, a phone bill, a letter from Social Security or Public Assistance, an IRS or wage-tax statement, a current credit-card bill, current vehicle registration, a recent bank statement, renters' or owners' insurance, or a HUD settlement sheet.
• What won't count: a driver's license, a voter registration card, a library card, a membership ID, mail to an old address, or letters from friends and family.
• If you can't provide two proofs in your own name (say you live in someone else's home), there's a notarized Residency Affidavit path.
• Plus the basics: your child's birth certificate, immunization records, and your photo ID.

Missing some of that? Start anyway. Age can be proven without a birth certificate. Schools may never ask for a Social Security number or your immigration status. And a family experiencing homelessness has the right to enroll immediately under McKinney-Vento, documents or not. Immunization requirements still apply, but a missing document is a reason to go in and talk to someone, not a reason to stay home.

Private and parochial

You apply to each school directly, usually the year before. More on timing and aid in the private-school section.

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🎯 The criteria schools

First, a myth worth clearing up: You may have seen a chart online that sorts the magnets into numbered "tiers," Tier 1 through Tier 5, each with its own cutoff. That's not a real thing. It came from a 2023 news article, and the District doesn't publish anything like it. Each school sets its own bar, and the bars are all different.

How different? Some schools want the 50th percentile on state tests, some want the 65th, and the top two want the 80th. Some need you to clear the bar in both English and math, others in either one. Some allow no C's, some allow two. There is no single number.

Before we get into the breakdown, a couple of definitions that apply everywhere:

• "95% attendance" means 9 or fewer unexcused absences. "90%" means 18 or fewer.
• Grades are counted across three core subjects: English (or Reading), math, and science. This changed for 2027-28: social studies no longer counts, and neither does your overall GPA or any other subject.
• They take your best two years. The District uses the best grades and best attendance from the previous two school years. Applying this fall means your 2024-25 and 2025-26 records. If only one year exists, that year is used.
• Meeting a school's bar doesn't get you a seat. It gets you into that school's lottery.

About the test scores, because this is where families get caught:

• Only PSSA English and PSSA Math are used.
• 🚩 You cannot opt out of the PSSA and still apply to a criteria school. The District says it flatly: District and charter students may not opt out if they plan to apply. This is a decision you make in the spring, long before you're thinking about applications.
• Applying for 6th through 10th grade, they take your best percentile from the last two years. For 5th grade, only the previous year counts. For 11th and 12th, test scores aren't reviewed at all.
• If your kid never had the chance to take the PSSA (you moved here, they were in private school, they're homeschooled), the District accepts TerraNova, ERB-CTP, or another state's assessment. Any Pennsylvania homeschooled or private-school student can also ask to take the PSSA at their local public school.
• To turn a score into a percentile you need the District's conversion chart. The 2024-25 charts are posted; the 2025-26 charts were still listed as "coming soon" when we checked.

Here's what each criteria high school asks, per the District's own criteria sheet on its School Selection page. The schools group naturally by how high the bar is. These are not rankings, just different requirements.

Read this table as a snapshot, not a rule. As of August 2026 the District's published criteria sheet still shows the 2026-27 requirements, with updated 2027-28 criteria marked "available soon." Percentile cutoffs and grade rules do move year to year. Confirm your school's line on the District's sheet before you rank anything.

A few notes on that table:

• These are the District's current numbers, and they can shift year to year. Confirm the sheet when you apply.
• Some schools add their own step on top of these, like an interview or a writing sample. Those aren't on the District's criteria sheet, so check a school's own page if it interests you.
• Three of these schools are closing. Lankenau, Parkway West, and Parkway Northwest are criteria high schools that are also on the closure list. If any of them is on your list, read the closures section first.
• The District also runs criteria middle-grade programs: Masterman, Carver, SLA at Beeber, GAMP, Hill-Freedman, AMY Northwest, and Russell Conwell. Look them up in the Explore tool if you're choosing a middle school.

The ZIP-code preference. If you live in one of six ZIP codes, your kid gets priority consideration at four of the most competitive magnets, as long as they meet the criteria. For 2027-28 the ZIPs are 19132, 19133, 19135, 19138, 19140, and 19141, and the schools and entry grades are:

• Academy at Palumbo (9th grade)
• Carver Engineering & Science (7th and 9th)
• Central (9th)
• Masterman (5th and 9th)

Two things worth knowing. First, this list changes every year, and it has changed in each of the last three cycles: 19138 and 19141 were added for 2027-28, and 19121 and 19136 came off. Never work from an old list, including this one once the next cycle posts. Second, here's why it moves: the District picks the ZIP codes with the lowest share of students accepting offers over the previous four years. It's a rebalancing tool, so the map follows the data.

One more thing worth knowing: the Continuation School Preference. Five schools run middle grades straight into high school: Carver, GAMP, Hill-Freedman, Masterman, and SLA at Beeber. If your kid is an 8th grader at one of them, they're guaranteed a 9th-grade seat at that school, but only if all three of these are true:

1. They apply through School Selection
2. They meet the criteria
3. They rank the school first

That third one is the trap. Rank your current school second and take an offer from your first choice, and the guarantee is gone. It's a real guarantee, but it's conditional, and the condition is easy to fumble.

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🏫 The schools, up close

You know how the systems work now. Let's put faces to the names. Below are the schools Philadelphia parents ask about most, grouped the same way as your school options: the criteria and magnet high schools, the charters, and the neighborhood schools.

What this is not: a ranking. We don't score schools or sort them best-to-worst, for the reasons in Is the school any good?. For each school: what it's known for, plus (where we could find it) a word from the people who go there or run the place. "Known for" is a starting point, not a verdict. Read this section to get an idea, then talk to parents, students, and staff to get a feel for yourself.

Note that every quote below is sourced. Where we couldn't find an on-the-record voice for a school, we left the quote out.

The criteria and magnet high schools

These are the citywide special-admission schools from the table above. For most of them, you apply through School Selection, meet the school's bar, and then a seat is a lottery among the kids who qualify. One exception: Constitution, a citywide lottery school with no academic cutoffs.

Central. The second-oldest continuously operating public high school in the country, chartered in 1836, and unusual in that an 1849 state charter lets it grant graduates an actual academic degree (its principal is titled "president"). In 2024 it became the first Philadelphia school named a National Blue Ribbon School three times. "It just shows that Central is back, better than ever," junior Jake Benny said when the honor came in.

Masterman. The District's flagship academic magnet, and one of the few schools that runs 5th through 12th grade in one building, so a family that gets in early can stay for the long haul. It's a perennial fixture on national "best high schools" lists and a repeat National Blue Ribbon School. (Where exactly it lands moves year to year, so take any single ranking number with a grain of salt.)

Academy at Palumbo. A selective liberal-arts magnet in South Philadelphia that has sent kids to big places. The Class of 2025 produced three Gates Scholars and a run of Ivy acceptances. "People sometimes look down on Palumbo, think we're tertiary, but our kids are really successful," counselor Chris Donnelly told the Inquirer.

Carver Engineering & Science. A STEM magnet built around engineering and science through the hands-on Project Lead The Way curriculum, with competitive robotics and design teams and two National Blue Ribbon honors. Its middle grades feed straight into the high school.

Parkway Center City Middle College. Billed as the first "middle college" of its kind in Pennsylvania: through a partnership with Community College of Philadelphia, students can graduate with a diploma and an associate degree, or a stack of college credits, tuition-free. There's a required five-week summer bridge before you start.

Northeast Magnet (Medical, Engineering, Aerospace). A selective magnet program housed inside the big comprehensive Northeast High, for kids strong in science and math. It's long been home to Project SPARC, a space-science program with simulated missions. (Its funding has come and gone over the years, so confirm the program's current status with the school.)

Bodine. A small International Affairs magnet co-founded in 1981 with the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, and an IB World School known for travel and global programming. "Bodine is a small school, but also a school where you can build so many different relationships," senior Jasmin Dluzniewski told the Philadelphia Tribune. One thing to watch: under the 2026 plan, Bodine is proposed to move into the Penn Treaty building. See the closures section.

Science Leadership Academy (Center City). An inquiry-driven, project-based school founded in 2006 with the Franklin Institute, built on projects and presentations instead of traditional tests, with a laptop for every student. WHYY has called it "one of Philadelphia's academic bright spots."

SLA at Beeber. The second Science Leadership Academy campus, same project-based model, with career-tech tracks in engineering and education, including a "grow-your-own" teacher pipeline. "Here, I got experience that I wouldn't get in any other school," said student Abduljaleel Shoufan, who arrived from Syria as a refugee and won a full Drexel scholarship.

GAMP (Girard Academic Music Program). A 5th-through-12th-grade audition-based music magnet in South Philadelphia that pairs a serious college-prep load with required music study. Everyone auditions, even if you play an instrument, you'll also sing. "A wonderful, special school that takes students and transforms them," retired longtime music director Diane Dannenfelser said of it.

CAPA. Philadelphia's flagship arts magnet, on the Avenue of the Arts, with an alumni roll that reads like a Grammys lineup: Questlove and Black Thought of The Roots, Boyz II Men, Leslie Odom Jr., Jazmine Sullivan, Christian McBride. Questlove has told current students it's where the band got its start, "literally that's how The Roots was born."

Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush. An audition-based arts magnet in the Northeast, majors in visual art, dance, music, and theater under a "social justice through the arts" mission, and a National Blue Ribbon School. "We focus on creating joy in school, so students come not just because they have to, but because they want to," principal Latoyia Bailey told the Philadelphia Tribune.

Franklin Learning Center. One of the District's oldest magnet schools, historically built on a competency-based model with no traditional letter grades, and organized into "mini-schools" in health science, business, the arts, and computer science, housed in the historic former William Penn building.

Hill-Freedman World Academy. The District's first full International Baccalaureate school, and home to a student music-label program that became the subject of a 2023 HBO documentary produced by John Legend. "Mistakes are a process and they build you up, they make you better," student Jaden Alvin said in the film.

Motivation. A small magnet in Southwest Philadelphia with a private-school feel, blazers and ties, a heavy college-prep focus, and an emphasis on relationships. "Our major goal this year, apart from giving our scholars high quality education, was building relationships," principal Rennu Teli-Johnson told the Philadelphia Tribune. (Heads up: District listings have shown some conflicting information about Motivation's future, so confirm its status directly before you rank it.)

W.B. Saul. An agricultural magnet in Roxborough on a 130-acre campus with a working farm (animals, greenhouses, food science) and one of the largest FFA chapters in the country. It's often described as the nation's largest agricultural high school. "Not every kid who graduates from Saul is going to move to western Pennsylvania and own a dairy farm. Most are going to live in an urban setting," principal Alexa Dunn told the Philadelphia Citizen, on keeping the work relevant to city kids.

Constitution. A small citywide high school in the historic district built around law, democracy, and history, with partnerships at the National Constitution Center. It's a lottery school with no academic cutoffs. (Under the 2026 plan, it's proposed to move into Bodine's current building.)

The charters people ask about

Most charters admit through Apply Philly Charter, one application, up to 15 schools. But some run their own separate application, including FACTS, String Theory, and Boys' Latin, so check each school's own site before you assume one form covers them all. A handful of the best-known:

Independence Charter School (ICS). A community-founded K-8 in Center City built around global studies and Spanish immersion, kindergartners spend most of the day in Spanish, tapering off as they move up. The school describes its mission as raising "independent, thoughtful global citizens."

Folk Arts–Cultural Treasures (FACTS). A K-8 in Chinatown North founded by Asian Americans United and the Philadelphia Folklore Project, built for immigrant and refugee families around a folk-arts curriculum and a strong English-language program. A National Blue Ribbon School.

Philadelphia Performing Arts (String Theory). A K-12 performing-arts charter, best known for the "vertical" high school stacked inside a landmark tower on Vine Street, theaters, studios, even a motion-capture room. It recently added a program that lets students graduate with up to 60 free college credits. "I like to challenge myself and do things that other people see as hard. And I like that it's free," senior Hasim Smith told the Inquirer.

Russell Byers. A Center City K-8 named for the Philadelphia columnist, built on "expeditionary learning," long, hands-on projects with fieldwork and expert interviews. The school sums up its aim in its own motto: "Roots to Grow, Wings to Fly."

Mastery. Philadelphia's largest charter network, and the biggest operator of "Renaissance" schools, neighborhood District schools handed over to be turned around, several of them in and near the River Wards. Those Renaissance campuses keep a catchment, so for some families the assigned school is a Mastery school. In a 2010 speech to the National Urban League, President Obama pointed to Mastery's early turnaround results as a national example. (The longer-run record on Renaissance schools is more mixed, so read them one by one.)

KIPP Philadelphia. A tuition-free, college-prep charter network in North and West Philadelphia. The fuller picture: in 2025 the school board moved to not renew one KIPP campus over academic and discipline concerns, though a court later blocked that and the campus stayed open. Take each campus on its own.

Boys' Latin. Philadelphia's only all-boys charter, in West Philly, a classical college-prep model with four years of required Latin and a mission built around getting young Black men to and through college. Admission is a straight lottery, no requirements. "Honestly, if Hardy didn't start this school, I don't know where I would be," graduate Eric Young said, reflecting on founder David Hardy years later.

Franklin Towne. A Bridesburg charter, and one of the most-asked-about schools in the River Wards, with a high school, an elementary, and a strong local reputation. The high school now admits through Apply Philly Charter; the elementary runs its own separate application on a different calendar, so check the school directly.

You should also know its recent history, because it's a live part of the school's story. In 2023 Franklin Towne's own chief academic officer alleged that the high school's admissions lottery had been manipulated at the direction of its longtime CEO, excluding applicants from certain ZIP codes. An Inquirer analysis found the odds of a fair lottery producing that result were on the order of one in a quadrillion, with 17 city ZIP codes shut out entirely. The CEO resigned in February 2023, and that August the school board voted 8-1 to begin revoking the school's charter. The school has new leadership, remains open, and moving the high school onto the centralized charter lottery removes the mechanism at issue. We're not telling you to rule it out. We're telling you because you'd want to know, and because a guide that skipped it wouldn't be much of a guide.

Pan American Academy. A K-8 dual-language school (Spanish and English) in the Fairhill/Kensington area, founded by Congreso de Latinos Unidos and run as an IB World School, serving the Latino community that borders the River Wards. "The school knows that it's needed to keep [the heritage] alive in them," parent Margarita Albino told Chalkbeat.

The neighborhood schools worth knowing

These you get by address. No application: if you live in the catchment, your kid has a seat. A few have become so sought-after that being inside the lines reportedly adds to a home's price, and a couple are changing under the 2026 plan. A note on the price talk: only one of these has a rigorously documented "premium," the rest is realtor lore. Treat the dollar figures as reported, not gospel.

The citywide "stars":

Meredith (Queen Village). One of the most sought-after K-8s in the Center City area, so oversubscribed it moved to a kindergarten lottery back in 2017 to handle the crowd. "My husband and I live in a tiny house, our whole lives are so constrained. Being in a school with more space was very appealing," catchment parent Karen Clancy told the Philadelphia Citizen.

Greenfield (Rittenhouse). A National Blue Ribbon K-8 in the heart of Center City and, by most accounts, one of the priciest elementary catchments in the city. Families have lined up before dawn to register for kindergarten. "This is a revolution in terms of demand and appeal," one parent told the Inquirer.

Penn Alexander (University City). The textbook case of a school reshaping a housing market. Penn helped fund and support it, and being in the catchment reportedly adds somewhere between $100,000 and $300,000 to a home. "We stretched to be in that neighborhood... and we have no hope of being able to afford our neighborhood and one day buy a house, which is funny, because we're both lawyers," parent Caleb Arnold told WHYY.

McCall (Society Hill). A National Blue Ribbon K-8 with a diverse, community-minded student body and a sought-after Society Hill catchment.

Powel (Powelton Village). A historic K-4 that moved in 2021 into a new building it shares with the Science Leadership Academy Middle School, a project backed by Drexel, so a Powel kid has a built-in path into a project-based middle school in the same building.

In the River Wards:

Adaire (Fishtown). The Fishtown neighborhood school, and something of a poster child for young families deciding to invest in their local public school instead of leaving. Its Friends of Adaire parent group is unusually active and raises real money for the school. Worth knowing in general: "friends of" groups are a genuine asset to the schools that have them, and they're concentrated in neighborhoods that can fund them, which is part of why two District schools with the same budget can feel very different.

Hackett (Fishtown/East Kensington). Right now Hackett is nearly as known for a fight as for anything else. Under the 2026 plan it's set to expand to a K-8 and become its own middle-school catchment, stop taking new out-of-catchment students, and phase out its life-skills special-education classes. Two details that matter if this is your family: life-skills students already at Hackett stay, with no new life-skills admissions once the change takes effect in 2027; and out-of-catchment students already enrolled stay through graduation. It's the future placements that close off. Much of the community pushed back hard. "They're basically starving us and creating a [Hackett] catchment of $800,000 homes. If I wanted that, I would just move back to Bucks County," parent Cimone Berman told the Inquirer. The change is approved but doesn't take effect before 2027-28. See the closures section.

Moffet (South Kensington). A tight-knit Kensington elementary that fought off a proposal to turn it into a middle school. The final plan keeps it an elementary, reconfigured from K-5 to K-4. Its roughly 36 fifth graders move to Ludlow, and the Moffet catchment then feeds Ludlow for middle school. Its elementary catchment doesn't change. "It's more than just a school. It truly is a community. Being here as long as I have, I'm teaching children of children I taught," 26-year teacher Marita Anderson told PhillyVoice during the spring 2026 debate. Like Hackett, the change is approved for 2027-28, not before.

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🎲 The lottery, demystified

Good news: you can mostly stop stressing about this part.

Philadelphia uses a system called "deferred acceptance," the same Nobel-Prize-winning method some other big cities use. Here's what it does: it tries to place your kid at the highest school on your list where they qualify and get lucky, gives them one offer, and breaks ties with a random number. You get one offer, or none, in the first round.

The important part, straight from the District:

There's no way to game it. The District says it plainly: rank your schools in your true order of preference. Putting a reach school at number one never lowers your chances at the safer schools you rank below it. If you don't get the reach, the system moves you to your next choice.

You don't need a strategy for the order. Your true ranking is your best ranking.

One wrinkle, and it's the only place strategy comes in:

Because you can only rank 5 schools, which five you list does matter. If all five are long shots, you could end up with nothing. So make sure at least one of your five is a school you're confident you can get into and would be happy with. The order can't be gamed. The list is where you're thoughtful.

What happens after the offer, which is the part that makes the whole "rank honestly" thing actually safe:

• You stay on the waitlist only for schools you ranked above your offer. Anything you ranked below it is automatically declined. That's the system protecting you from being pulled down your own list.
• If a waitlist offer comes through for a school you ranked higher, accepting it automatically declines the one you're holding, and you stay on the list for anything still higher.
• Nothing happens automatically in your favor. An offer you don't actively accept expires. Waitlist offers expire after 3 days.

And the District's own list of the mistakes families make: mis-ranking, picking schools too far from home, and (the big one) editing the application and forgetting to hit submit again.

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🚨 What's changing: the closures

For a lot of River Wards families, this is the most important section in the guide.

On April 30, 2026, the Board of Education voted 6 to 3 to adopt a plan called Accelerating Opportunity. It closes 17 schools, modernizes many more, and merges a few. Nothing changes before the 2027-28 school year, every affected community gets a full planning year, and the District has set up a School Transition Office.

Here are the 17 schools closing:

• Elementary and K-8: Blankenburg, Fitler Academics Plus, Robert Morris, Overbrook Elementary, Pennypacker, Welsh, and Waring.
• Middle: AMY at Northwest, Harding, Stetson, Tilden, and Wagner.
• High: Lankenau, Parkway Northwest, Parkway West, Penn Treaty, and Robeson.

On the mergers, we're only naming the ones the District has confirmed: Robeson merges into Motivation, Lankenau merges into Saul, and Elkin Elementary will feed into Conwell. You may see a larger number of mergers reported; these three are the confirmed ones.

For the River Wards

This is happening in our backyard, so here's the local picture.

• Penn Treaty, the neighborhood 6-12 school in Fishtown, is closing, phased out. On the 2027-28 map it runs grades 7-8 and 10-12, meaning it stops taking new 6th and 9th graders.
• If you're in the Penn Treaty catchment, here's where your kid goes. This is the question everyone asks, and the District's catchment documents answer it:
  • High school: the Kensington campus. Penn Treaty's high-school catchment merges into what the District's planning documents call the Kensington Multiplex catchment. That campus holds three schools, and reporting on the plan says catchment families would choose among them: Kensington High School, Kensington CAPA, and Kensington Health Sciences Academy. On the District's own numbers the campus grows from about 459 students to about 741, in a building with room for roughly 900.
  • Middle school: Hackett or Ludlow, depending on where in the catchment you live.
• Hackett expands from K-5 to K-8 and becomes its own middle-school catchment.
• Moffet shifts from K-5 to K-4. Its roughly 36 fifth graders move to Ludlow, and the Moffet catchment feeds Ludlow for middle school. Hackett's and Moffet's elementary catchments don't change.
• Ludlow was taken off the closure list, and grows from about 216 students to about 317.
• Bodine, the international-affairs magnet, is reported to be relocating into the Penn Treaty building. That's from Inquirer reporting, not the District's own vote document, so we're flagging it as reported.
• A closing magnet doesn't always mean a closing program. Parkway Northwest, for instance, is slated to continue as a criteria-based honors program inside its receiving school. And if a criteria or citywide program merges into your catchment high school, students from that catchment get priority for it.

Is your school on the list?

If your assigned school is one of the 17, here's the short version of what to do:

Nothing changes until the 2027-28 school year, so you have time. But start now. Read what the District's Facilities Planning page and School Transition Office say about your specific school, because the timeline and the receiving school are decided school by school. And know that the lookup tools haven't caught up: they'll still show your closing school as normal, with no warning.

The District has now published a proposed 2027-28 catchment map, and it's the single most useful link in this section: explore.avela.org/fpp. Put your address in and it shows the assignments as they're planned to be, including the new grade bands. Two caveats. The plan itself is adopted, but the catchment lines on that map are still labeled proposed, and it carries an open feedback form. And it is not linked from the District's own facilities-plan page, so almost nobody knows it's there. The default school finder will keep showing you today's answer.

Know a family at one of these schools? Send them the PDF.

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⚠️ Red flags and gotchas

The whole guide in one scannable list.

1. The ordering trap. Want a non-catchment kindergarten? Apply in the fall, not at January registration. By January the choice window is closed.
2. Two systems, two deadlines. The District and the charters are separate applications that close on different days. Handling one is not handling both.
3. Resubmit after edits. Change your District application and forget to submit again, and your changes don't count. The District says this is a top mistake.
4. 🆕 The PSSA opt-out is a one-way door. If your kid opts out of the PSSA, they can't apply to a criteria school. That choice gets made in the spring, a year before anyone's thinking about applications.
5. 🆕 The Common Transcript Form is new, and it's mandatory. Every criteria-based applicant needs report cards or transcripts and that form. Missing documents can sink an otherwise qualified application, and nobody has the habit yet.
6. 🆕 Don't rank your catchment school. You already have that seat. Ranking it spends one of your five slots on nothing.
7. The 3-day waitlist window. Waitlist offers expire in three days, and an offer you don't actively accept expires on its own. Watch your email in February.
8. Magnet conflation. A top-rated school on Zillow or GreatSchools is not automatically a school your kid can attend. Check the admission type.
9. Your assigned school can be a charter. Fifteen Renaissance charters carry a catchment. Look it up so you're not surprised.
10. Eligible is not admitted. Meeting a criteria school's bar puts you in the lottery. It's not a seat.
11. Sibling preference stops at the criteria schools. It helps at catchment and citywide schools. It does nothing at Central or Masterman.
12. ♻️ Pre-K now does give kindergarten priority, and that's a change. For 2027-28 the District added a Kindergarten Preference for qualifying pre-K students staying at the same school. If you read anywhere (including an older version of this guide) that pre-K buys you nothing, that advice is out of date.
13. ♻️ The default lookup tool still shows today, but a 2027-28 map now exists. Explore and Atlas will show you a closing school as though nothing's happening. The proposed 2027-28 map at explore.avela.org/fpp is the one that knows. Check both.
14. Always confirm with the District. This guide gets you oriented. Before you act on a date or a criterion, confirm it on the District's site. Things change.

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🤔 Is the school any good?

You'll notice this guide doesn't rate schools or rank them. That's on purpose. (We do tell you what individual schools are known for, up in The schools, up close. That's a different thing from rating them: we'll tell you a school is known for music, or engineering, or a 4 a.m. kindergarten line, but we won't put a number on it.)

The internet has plenty of ratings already, and they're the most loaded number in this whole process. A test score is a test score. It isn't the same as whether a school is right for your kid, and the popular ratings lean heavily on the kind of data that tracks a neighborhood's income more than a school's teaching.

What we'd point you to instead:

• The state's own data. The Future Ready PA Index publishes school-level results, and the District's own school profiles give you enrollment and program details. It's a dashboard, not a ranking: the state doesn't rank schools against each other, and anyone who tells you it placed one school above another is reading it wrong. It refreshes each fall, so check which year you're looking at. Read it as one input, not a verdict.
• A visit. Go to an open house. Ask how they handle a kid who's ahead, and a kid who's behind. Ask what happens when a kid struggles. Watch how the halls feel.
• A gut check on the whole picture. The commute, the start time, the after-school options, the other families. A "10-rated" school an hour away can be worse for your kid than the solid one down the block.

One more note: this process rewards families who already know how to work it. That's part of why this guide exists: the more people who understand the system, the less it favors only the connected.

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💰 Private school, and paying for it

Public isn't the only lane. Two things to know: the timing, and the tuition help.

Timing. Most private schools admit for the following fall, so you're applying the year before. The independent (non-religious) schools in the PRISEC consortium coordinate common earliest dates, roughly applications by December 1, decisions around January 10, and a reply by February 15. Treat those as a floor, and confirm each school's own dates, since they vary and parochial schools set their own. Testing is usually the ISEE or SSAT for independent schools, and Catholic high schools have their own entrance test.

Aid. There's tuition help:

• EITC and OSTC scholarships. These are funded by state tax credits, but here's the key: you apply to a scholarship organization, not to the state. And the timing is tight: organizations often start processing on July 1 and can run out of money the same day. If you're going this route, be ready to apply the moment the window opens.
• BLOCS and the Archdiocese's own aid cover a lot of Catholic-school families. Archdiocese aid tends to open around October 1.
• Groups like CSFP (Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia) fund scholarships too.

The income caps and award amounts change every year, so we're not printing a dollar figure here. Check the scholarship organization for the current numbers before you count on anything.

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❓ FAQ

When does School Selection open for next year? For 2027-28 the window opens September 8, 2026, 4 pm and closes October 30, 2026, 11:59 pm. Note that's a week later than last year's close.

What is "Find Your Fit"? It's the District's name for the school selection process. Same process, newer branding. If you got a letter from the Superintendent using that phrase, this guide covers it.

My kid has an IEP (or a 504, or is an English Learner). Is there anything extra? Yes, and it's the most under-used part of the process. It's called Individualized Review, it lets you waive one criterion and have a team look at the whole child, and you request it inside the application. See how to apply.

Can my kid skip the PSSA? Not if they want to apply to a criteria school. District and charter students may not opt out and still apply.

What's the kindergarten age cutoff in Philadelphia? Your child has to turn 5 on or before September 1 of the year they start. No exceptions.

Do Philly charter schools have catchments? Most don't, they're citywide lotteries. But 15 "Renaissance" charters do carry a neighborhood catchment, so for some families the assigned school is a charter.

Is Penn Treaty closing? Yes. Penn Treaty is one of 17 schools closing under the Accelerating Opportunity plan, phased starting in 2027-28. For high school, its catchment merges into the Kensington campus (Kensington High, Kensington CAPA, and Kensington Health Sciences Academy); its middle-grade students go to Hackett or Ludlow depending on where they live. See the closures section.

Where can I see my kid's school after the closures? The District's proposed 2027-28 catchment map is at explore.avela.org/fpp. The regular school finder won't show you this.

How many schools can I rank? Up to 5 in the District's School Selection, and up to 15 in Apply Philly Charter. They're separate applications.

What documents do I need to register? Proof of residency (a deed, mortgage statement, or lease plus one more document, or three documents if you have none of those), your child's birth certificate and immunization records, and your photo ID. See how to apply.

Can I game the lottery by ranking strategically? No, and that's good news. Rank your true order. The one decision that matters is making sure at least one of your 5 is a realistic pick. See the lottery section.

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📖 Glossary and official links

Catchment: the neighborhood zone that entitles your kid to a seat at a specific school, based on your address.

Citywide school: a District school open to anyone by lottery, with no academic criteria.

Criteria school (magnet): a District school with an academic bar (grades, attendance, test scores). You apply and have to qualify.

Renaissance charter: a former District neighborhood school converted to charter management. It keeps its catchment, so in-zone families enroll first-come, first-served. Authorized and overseen by the District's board, but run by an independent charter organization.

Feeder pattern: the chain that routes your address from elementary to middle to your neighborhood high school.

School Selection: the District's fall application process for citywide and criteria schools.

Apply Philly Charter: the common application for most charter schools.

Rank and Match: the charter system that gives you one best offer from your ranked list.

Deferred acceptance: the lottery method the District uses. It rewards ranking your true preferences.

PSSA: Pennsylvania's state standardized test, used in criteria-school percentiles.

Find Your Fit: the District's current name for the School Selection process.

Explore: the District's school-finder tool. Shows today's assignment.

Individualized Review: the built-in review for students with an IEP, a 504, or EL status, allowing one criterion to be waived. Formerly the Impartial Review or LeGare Review.

Continuation School Preference: the guarantee of a 9th-grade seat for 8th graders at Carver, GAMP, Hill-Freedman, Masterman, and SLA at Beeber, if they apply, qualify, and rank it first.

Common Transcript Form: the District form every criteria-based applicant must now submit alongside report cards or transcripts.

Official links:

• Find Your Fit school selection: philasd.org/studentplacement/school-selection
• Kindergarten registration: philasd.org/studentplacement/kindergarten-registration
• Find your neighborhood school (City Atlas): atlas.phila.gov
• District school finder, today's assignment (Explore): philasd.explore.avela.org
• Proposed 2027-28 catchment map: explore.avela.org/fpp
• Apply Philly Charter: applyphillycharter.org
• Research charter schools (Philly Schools Compass): phillyschoolscompass.org
• State school data (Future Ready PA Index): futurereadypa.org
• The closures and facilities plan: philasd.org/fpp

Actual humans you can call:

• School Selection questions: 215-400-4290, or schoolselect@philasd.org (Monday to Friday, 9 to 5)
• Login and technical trouble: 215-400-4444, or familytechsupport@philasd.org
• Assessment questions: schoolselecttest@philasd.org
• Apply Philly Charter helpline: (800) 891-3999. You can apply by phone, and they cover dozens of languages.

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ℹ️ About this guide

This is made by Good Morning Philly, a free newsletter about the River Wards and the rest of the city. We built it because navigating Philadelphia schools is hard, and this is important information every family should have.

Where the facts come from. All of it traces to the District's and the City's own public records: the School Selection site, the kindergarten registration page, Apply Philly Charter, City Atlas, and the District's facilities-plan pages. We pull every date and criterion from the source, stamp it with the date we checked, and refresh the whole thing once a year when the new cycle posts. A few details about the school closures come from local reporting rather than the District's own vote documents, and we flag those as reported. Where the District's records leave something out, we leave it out too, instead of guessing.

What "verified August 2026" means. It means we confirmed these facts against the official source in that month. School dates and rules change, so if you're about to act on something, confirm it on the District's site first.

Special thanks to Julie Lenard-Palmer and Carey Rhodes for their help with this project.

The fine print. This is a guide, not enrollment or legal advice, and it's not affiliated with the School District. Always confirm with the District before you rely on a date or a decision.

Found something wrong or confusing? This is a first version, and we want to know. Email us at hello@morningphilly.com.

Take the whole thing with you. Download the designed PDF plus a calendar file that drops every deadline into your phone with reminders. Drop your email below. You'll also join Good Morning Philly, our free Monday newsletter about the neighborhood. Unsubscribe anytime.