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Dear Judy,
We just got the results of my daughter’s middle school choice process and ended up with a school we did not choose. Is there any way to appeal this placement? Could it be a mistake?
5th grade parent
Dear 5th grade parent:
You are not alone, we have heard from many parents with the same problem. Mistakes happen. We know a parent whose daughter was matched with a school she didn’t apply to out of her district, yet she was not “accepted” at any of the district schools she applied to. This was clearly an error. My advice? If you think this could be a mistake, check with your elementary school guidance counselor now; ask her to contact the school that “accepted” your daughter to see if her name is on their list. When in doubt, double check with the local enrollment office and finally, with the middle school enrollment office at
If it is not a mistake, but just bad luck, you have until June 10 to appeal the placement, according to Department of Education spokesperson Andy Jacob. This goes for schools in districts that have middle school choice. Ask your guidance counselor for an appeal form. She can review your daughter’s situation and help fill out the appeal application. You might have a guidance counselor who knows your child well enough to go to bat for her. She may know middle school guidance counselors; she may know which schools are still open to applicants. Jacob said that “Appeals are granted based on seat availability and the selection criteria of the schools listed on the application.” He cautioned that ” Submitting an appeal does not guarantee admittance to a specific school, or even that a new placement will be offered.” You’ll be notified about appeals decisions by the end of June, according to Jacob.
Also consider checking out the few new schools that are opening next fall – they may still have openings.
Be as patient as you can. Late in summer there will be special enrollment offices to deal with unsettled admissions problems, and often the schools do not have an accurate count of who is actually attending until September. If you have applied and been endorsed by the guidance counselor, you might get an open spot.
Meanwhile, another piece of advice: don’t deride the school to which your daughter has been assigned. Do look for bright spots and emphasize them. She might just end up there!
Judy
Correction: Previously we reported, as per Jimmy Bueschen of the Manhattan enrollment office, that children could only appeal to schools that they had already applied to. According to parents who have copies of the appeal form, and Andy Jacob of the DOE’s press office, children can apply to any choice program or school to which they are eligible and whose admissions are handled by the Office of Student Enrollment. That includes schools to which a child may have previously applied and new middle schools opening in September.
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Dear JUdy,
My daughter is in 3rd grade going to fourth, I would like to place her in a gifted middle school where I don’t have to be worry about middle school ,when she reaches 5th grade. I have been asking my school for citywide gifted aplication and I never got it. what can I do about that?
Comment by Myriam Charles — June 3, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
Dear Judy,
My son was transfer to another district because his school was a no child left behind. He has been attending school in district 22 since 3rd grade and is graduating to middle school. He has recieve level 4 (majority) and high level 3 (3 exams) on his state examination since 3rd grade and ironically did not get accept to any middle school in distict 22. The denial letter states to go back into his orginally zone (in which the grade are poor and in need of serious improvement). I did get the appeal letter to fill out and curious if there is another way around the appeal if he gets denied again, as I do want to upkeep his grades at a level 4 at all times. I would like to use his grades on the state exam as well as in school as a foundation of my fight to appeal the decision.
Thank You Very Much
Comment by Tracy Hoo-Florian — June 4, 2009 @ 3:41 pm
Tracy,
I was told that you can also appeal the appellate decision. So that’s something to consider.
Comment by Monifa Thomas — June 4, 2009 @ 9:31 pm
Dear Judy,
my son is applying to 6th grade entry in District 2 public schools. We just found out that he did not get accepted to any of the 4 schools he applied to. Basically, his 1st choice school did not accept him and all three other schools told us that they did not look at his application because they had more than enough candidates with their 1st choice pool. The whole thing seems like a complete waste.
Now we are back to square one and have to file an appeal form. Is it allowed to appeal to a complete new school in his District where we did not apply before? There seems to be a lot of confusion and contradictions between what the school counselors say, and what the DOE says. Any clarity and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Comment by 5th Grade parent — June 7, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
As the parent of a rising 5th grader in District 2, I am very interested in your reply to number 5. At my daughter’s school I have also heard that people either got their first choice or their 3rd (generally Wagner SP), NEVER the second choice. If certain schools cannot consider those who put it second, transparency demands that this be made clear up front. Apparently the district claims that you don’t have to put a selective school first choice to be considered by them. Is there any way you can press the powers that be on this question and get a truthful answer?
Comment by a parent — June 8, 2009 @ 11:01 am
With regard to the prior post: This winter, I asked this question of the District 15 middle school coordinator and was told the following: the desirable schools that require interviews, auditions, etc, only have time to interview kids who list them first or second. Based on these auditions, interviews, etc. the schools then develop lists of the kids who they want and submit the lists to the central office. In practice, therefore, the desirable schools can fill whole classes with kids who ranked them first (or maybe second), so they never get to the kids who ranked them third, and who they never interviewed. This is NOT the way we were told that the high school process worked (at least two years ago). We were told that the high schools auditioned or interviewed all kids who met their basic criteria and that the high schools had no way of knowing how the kids ranked them.
Comment by fifthgrade parent — June 8, 2009 @ 1:03 pm
Re the last 2 posts - the middle school and high school processes are different. High schools look at all applicants, but selective middle schools only have to interview/test those who ranked them 1st or 2nd. Middle schools see how you ranked them and high schools don’t.
Comment by anonymous — June 8, 2009 @ 3:36 pm
Please note: If you have a personal question for Judy, please click on the link that says, “Have a question for Judy? Contact Judy” You will find it at the end of the AskJudy column. I will be glad to respond directly.
Comment by Judy — June 9, 2009 @ 11:16 am