Each door has its own application. Who decides, when you apply and what you give up change from door to door.
Which doors can we try, and what does each one ask?
Your backup Your assigned school Your district decides. Register with your district.
Intradistrict transfer, or open enrollment Another school in your district Your district decides. Apply in your district’s window.
A permit, a parent’s job, or a District of Choice A school in another district Usually both districts decide. Apply in your district’s permit window, or to a District of Choice before January 1, 2027.
Its own application A charter school The charter school decides. Apply to each school by its own date.
A theme such as science or the arts A magnet program or school The district decides. Apply in your district’s choice window.
A program inside a school, not a kind of school A dual language program The district or school decides. Apply with the school’s or district’s application.
Pick a door to see what it asks.
A door to try. Your backup. The door you picked.
Your backup
Your district assigns it, usually by home address.
- When you apply for 2027–28
- Register with your district. LAUSD says a child who lives in the district can enroll in the assigned school “at any time.”
- What decides a seat
- Your address. Whether a seat is promised is your district’s call. San Diego Unified says it is, and CDE says state law doesn’t.
- What you give up
- Nothing new. It is the school you are trying to improve on, so keep it registered while you apply elsewhere.
Intradistrict transfer, or open enrollment
Your district. State law lets you ask for any school in it, and the district board sets the policy.
- When you apply for 2027–28
- Your district sets the window. For 2027–28: LAUSD Choices closes November 6, 2026. San Diego Unified’s Choice window closes November 15.
- What decides a seat
- If a school is full, a random draw that doesn’t weigh grades or sports. Families in its attendance area can’t be displaced. Specialized schools may keep entrance criteria.
- What you give up
- No promise of a seat. A ride is up to the district unless the law requires one, so ask.
A permit, a parent’s job, or a District of Choice
Permit: both districts must agree, with limited exceptions such as military families. CDE says so. Parent’s job: the district where a parent works may admit your child. It doesn’t have to. District of Choice: that district, which must accept everyone who applies until it is full, within limits the law sets.
- When you apply for 2027–28
- Permit: your district’s window. LAUSD takes outgoing requests February 2 to April 30. San Diego Unified starts March 1, 2027. District of Choice: apply before January 1, 2027. Parent’s job: ask the district.
- What decides a seat
- Permit: the two districts’ terms. San Diego Unified asks for good standing in academics, behavior and attendance. District of Choice: a public drawing if it is full. Siblings go first, then children eligible for free or reduced-price meals and foster or homeless youth, then military children.
- What you give up
- Your home district can say no to a permit. It may also limit how many of its students transfer out to a District of Choice. A ride is up to the district unless the law requires one, so ask. A seat from a parent’s job depends on a parent still working in that district.
Its own application
The charter school. San Diego Unified says charters “operate independently” of the district. LAUSD’s affiliated charters are the exception: families outside their boundary use the district’s Choices form, and families inside it enroll directly.
- When you apply for 2027–28
- Each independent charter sets its own date. The earliest we found closes in late November. LAUSD’s affiliated charters close with Choices on November 6.
- What decides a seat
- Room first: a charter “shall admit all pupils who wish to attend.” If it is full, a public random drawing. Current students keep their seats, and district residents usually get preference.
- What you give up
- One application for each school or network. Rides vary by school, so ask.
A theme such as science or the arts
The district. Its governing board establishes magnets.
- When you apply for 2027–28
- Your district’s choice window. LAUSD: November 6, 2026.
- What decides a seat
- The district’s own rule. LAUSD uses priority points, racial balance and available space.
- What you give up
- The district sets the rule on outside students. LAUSD magnets need LAUSD residence, with one limited exception, and a second-choice magnet seat ends your first-choice waitlist.
A program inside a school, not a kind of school
The district or school that runs the program. LAUSD lists dual language under its Multilingual Multicultural Programs.
- When you apply for 2027–28
- With the school’s or district’s application. LAUSD: Choices, November 6, 2026.
- What decides a seat
- The program’s own rules. LAUSD uses no points, though some schools use their own process, and it puts families who would need a permit in its last two priority tiers.
- What you give up
- Class time in two languages. CDE says these programs are “typically found in kindergarten through grade eight”, so ask what comes after.
Your assigned school is usually your backup, though whether a seat is promised is your district’s call.
See the five doors and your backup as a table
| Door | Who decides | When you apply for 2027–28 | What decides a seat | What you give up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your assigned schoolYour backup | Your district assigns it, usually by home address. | Register with your district. LAUSD says a child who lives in the district can enroll in the assigned school “at any time.” | Your address. Whether a seat is promised is your district’s call. San Diego Unified says it is, and CDE says state law doesn’t. | Nothing new. It is the school you are trying to improve on, so keep it registered while you apply elsewhere. |
| Another school in your districtIntradistrict transfer, or open enrollment | Your district. State law lets you ask for any school in it, and the district board sets the policy. | Your district sets the window. For 2027–28: LAUSD Choices closes November 6, 2026. San Diego Unified’s Choice window closes November 15. | If a school is full, a random draw that doesn’t weigh grades or sports. Families in its attendance area can’t be displaced. Specialized schools may keep entrance criteria. | No promise of a seat. A ride is up to the district unless the law requires one, so ask. |
| A school in another districtA permit, a parent’s job, or a District of Choice | Permit: both districts must agree, with limited exceptions such as military families. CDE says so. Parent’s job: the district where a parent works may admit your child. It doesn’t have to. District of Choice: that district, which must accept everyone who applies until it is full, within limits the law sets. | Permit: your district’s window. LAUSD takes outgoing requests February 2 to April 30. San Diego Unified starts March 1, 2027. District of Choice: apply before January 1, 2027. Parent’s job: ask the district. | Permit: the two districts’ terms. San Diego Unified asks for good standing in academics, behavior and attendance. District of Choice: a public drawing if it is full. Siblings go first, then children eligible for free or reduced-price meals and foster or homeless youth, then military children. | Your home district can say no to a permit. It may also limit how many of its students transfer out to a District of Choice. A ride is up to the district unless the law requires one, so ask. A seat from a parent’s job depends on a parent still working in that district. |
| A charter schoolIts own application | The charter school. San Diego Unified says charters “operate independently” of the district. LAUSD’s affiliated charters are the exception: families outside their boundary use the district’s Choices form, and families inside it enroll directly. | Each independent charter sets its own date. The earliest we found closes in late November. LAUSD’s affiliated charters close with Choices on November 6. | Room first: a charter “shall admit all pupils who wish to attend.” If it is full, a public random drawing. Current students keep their seats, and district residents usually get preference. | One application for each school or network. Rides vary by school, so ask. |
| A magnet program or schoolA theme such as science or the arts | The district. Its governing board establishes magnets. | Your district’s choice window. LAUSD: November 6, 2026. | The district’s own rule. LAUSD uses priority points, racial balance and available space. | The district sets the rule on outside students. LAUSD magnets need LAUSD residence, with one limited exception, and a second-choice magnet seat ends your first-choice waitlist. |
| A dual language programA program inside a school, not a kind of school | The district or school that runs the program. LAUSD lists dual language under its Multilingual Multicultural Programs. | With the school’s or district’s application. LAUSD: Choices, November 6, 2026. | The program’s own rules. LAUSD uses no points, though some schools use their own process, and it puts families who would need a permit in its last two priority tiers. | Class time in two languages. CDE says these programs are “typically found in kindergarten through grade eight”, so ask what comes after. |
Can we switch schools inside our district?
State law lets you ask. A move to another school in your own district is an intradistrict transfer. CDE, the California Department of Education, writes the pair as “intradistrict/open enrollment,” so you will see both words for it. Under Education Code § 35160.5, the parent of a school-age child who lives in the district “may select the schools the child shall attend,” wherever in the district the family lives. Whether you get a seat depends on room.
When a school is full, the district has to choose by “a random, unbiased process” that doesn’t weigh grades or athletics. Families who live in the school’s attendance area, the neighborhood it serves, “shall not be displaced” by students transferring in. A district may also give priority to siblings and to children whose parent or guardian is “assigned to that school as their primary place of employment.” The same section lets a district keep entrance criteria for “specialized schools or programs,” which is why some district schools test or audition. Our charter guide explains how those screened schools work.
“Open enrollment” gets used for three different things. Here it means the in-district request above. LAUSD runs its own program called K-12 Open Enrollment, covered below. And a state law called the Open Enrollment Act is a third thing, which CDE no longer runs.
Is a seat at our assigned school promised?
That depends on where you live. CDE says transfer policy “is the responsibility of each local district governing board.” It also says “the law does not guarantee that a student can attend the school of his or her choice, or even the neighborhood school.” San Diego Unified’s FAQ says the opposite for its own families: “your child is guaranteed enrollment in the neighborhood school.” LAUSD’s enrollment FAQ says: “Every child that lives within Los Angeles Unified boundaries can enroll in their assigned neighborhood school at any time.”
The first is a statement of state law, and the other two are district statements. Your district decides whether it promises you a seat at your assigned school, so ask.
LAUSD: Choices and K-12 Open Enrollment
LAUSD’s FAQ lists several ways to ask for a different LAUSD school. The two we cover here are Choices and K-12 Open Enrollment. The FAQ also lists intra-district permits, which start with your assigned neighborhood school (“LAUSD school to LAUSD school”), and Learning at Home, which covers the district’s virtual academies and independent study. Choices is the district’s online application for programs your address doesn’t assign: magnets, dual language and others. The Choices guide covers the rules. On-time applications for 2027–28 run October 1 to November 6, 2026.
K-12 Open Enrollment is the other route. LAUSD’s page calls it “a state mandate allowing students anywhere in LAUSD to apply to any regular, grade-appropriate Los Angeles Unified public school with designated open enrollment seats.” The 2026 on-time window ran April 13 to May 4, and the page showed no 2027 dates when we looked on October 27. If more students apply than there are seats, a random computer drawing decides, and the district “does not guarantee transportation.”
The Choices brochure says Open Enrollment applications usually open in the spring. If that holds, it comes after Choices letters go out February 8 to 12, 2027, so it can be a second try at schools that still have room.
San Diego Unified: School Choice
San Diego Unified’s 2027–28 School Choice priority window runs October 5 to November 15, 2026. The district says “This is not a first-come, first-served process” and “Selecting more than one school does not affect your first-choice priority.” It also says “The order of your selections matters,” so list the school you want most first.
Waitlists stay active “until the Friday before school starts.” The district’s own pages disagree on when the lottery runs, January or February, and its FAQ says notification comes in the first week of March. Charters sit outside Choice: “charter school applications are separate and kept at the charter school.”
Elsewhere in California: what to ask
Dates vary a lot. San Francisco’s main application is due February 1, 2027. Long Beach’s high school choice window runs November 3 to December 11, 2026. Oakland, San José and Fremont had not posted 2027–28 dates when we looked on October 26. If your district is one of those, check its page again in December. Whichever district you’re in, these are the questions to put to its enrollment office:
- Is there a transfer or open enrollment window for 2027–28, and when does it close?
- If I apply elsewhere and don’t get a seat, does my assigned school still hold a place for us?
- What decides a seat at a full school: a random draw, siblings, a test?
- Will the district provide a ride to a school I transfer to? CDE says districts’ participation in home-to-school transportation “is wholly voluntary.”
- Does a waitlist carry over to next year? San Diego Unified’s does not.
If every school in your district is one you’d rather avoid, the next door is another district.
Can we transfer to another district?
An interdistrict transfer, also called a permit, lets a child who lives in one California school district attend school in another. For 2027–28 it usually takes two yeses: the district you live in must release your child, and the district you want must accept. CDE says both must approve. For a request for a future school year, state law (§ 46600.2) gives the district until 14 calendar days after that school year starts to answer. If a district says no, you can appeal to your county board of education within 30 calendar days of the final denial (§ 46601). Once your child is enrolled on a permit, they don’t have to reapply unless the two districts’ agreement sets different standards (§ 46600). LAUSD asks for a new permit when a child changes school level or school. A district can’t rescind a permit after the June 30 that follows 10th grade. Windows differ: LAUSD takes outgoing requests February 2 to April 30, and San Diego Unified starts processing 2027–28 permits March 1, 2027.
That 14 days is an outer limit, and a district may answer after school has started. If the date matters to you, ask the district for its own target.
What decides whether a permit is approved?
The two boards can sign an agreement for up to five school years. It “shall stipulate the terms and conditions under which interdistrict attendance shall be permitted or denied.” So the rules come from your district and the one you want, and they differ.
San Diego Unified shows how specific they get. Its permit form, the county office of education’s Form 341, goes “to the district of residence, not to a school site.” The district requires students to be “in good standing with academics, behavior, and attendance” for approval. A family from outside the district applies to School Choice first and files the permit “If and when your child is offered enrollment.”
LAUSD’s permit page gives dates. It says the outgoing window “opens on February 2nd and closes on April 30th for the following school year.” The page prints no year, and it gives the start as both February 2 and February 1. Incoming requests are “open all year round, starting on February 2nd.” For a request outside the window, the page says parents “will need to file an appeal with the LACOE,” the Los Angeles County Office of Education. It lists parent employment as the exception.
Some LAUSD doors need no permit. Its affiliated charters say “No permit is required to attend.” Apart from one limited ninth-grade exception, its magnets require living in LAUSD. Its FAQ says families outside LAUSD need a permit for Multilingual Multicultural programs, which include dual language, and LAUSD’s dual language priority tiers put those families in the last two.
Do bullying or military service change the odds?
State law gives two groups extra weight. A student whom district staff have determined to be the victim of bullying by a pupil of the home district “shall, at the request of the parent, be given priority for interdistrict attendance” (§ 46600). “Shall” makes it a requirement on the districts. For a move inside the district, the district “shall approve an intradistrict transfer request for a victim of an act of bullying unless the requested school is at maximum capacity.” If it is at capacity, the district must accept a request for a different school. For that route the law defines a victim as a child found to have been bullied through the district’s complaint process, after the parent has filed a written complaint. Ask the district how to file one.
A district also “shall not prohibit the transfer” of the child of an active duty military parent, if the district you want approves. A military family still needs the new district’s yes, and the home district can’t block it.
Can a parent’s job in another district get us in?
Sometimes. Under § 48204(b), a district “may deem a pupil to have complied with the residency requirements” if a parent works in the district. At least one parent or guardian must be “physically employed within the boundaries of that school district for a minimum of 10 hours during the school week.” The law adds that this “does not require the school district … to admit the pupil.” The district chooses.
If it does admit your child, they don’t have to reapply the next year, and the board must let them attend “through grade 12” if the parent or guardian chooses and a parent continues to be physically employed in the district. Ask the district for its process and any deadline. We found no statewide window for this route.
What is a District of Choice?
A District of Choice is a district in a separate state program that takes transfer students from other districts. It “shall accept all pupils who apply to transfer until the school district of choice is at maximum capacity,” and it can’t weigh a child’s grades or athletics. If more apply than it has room for, it holds a random drawing in public.
Apply before January 1 of the school year before you want to start. For 2027–28, that means before January 1, 2027. The two districts can agree to waive that deadline, and it doesn’t apply to a child of a military parent relocated by the military less than 90 days before applying. The district must send notice by March 1 and can make waitlist offers until May 1. The transfer renews automatically each year unless the District of Choice resolves to stop accepting transfers. High school students already in can stay until they graduate. The law sets the priorities: siblings first, then children eligible for free or reduced-price meals and foster or homeless youth, then children of military personnel.
Your home district can’t adopt policies that “block or discourage” you from applying, but it may limit how many of its students transfer out to a District of Choice. A district with more than 50,000 students in average daily attendance may limit it to 1% a year. A district with 50,000 or fewer may limit it to 3% a year, with a 10% cap over the life of the program. A home district may also block a transfer that would hurt its desegregation plan, but it can’t block the child of an active duty military parent.
The program is still authorized, with no end date. A 2024 law, SB 897, repealed the 2028 sunset. The chaptered bill says it extends the program “indefinitely.” CDE’s District of Choice FAQ still quotes the old July 1, 2028 date. Where the two disagree, we follow the statute.
CDE’s list for 2026–27 names 41 districts. Eight are in Los Angeles County: Charter Oak Unified, Covina-Valley Unified, Glendora Unified, Gorman Joint, Hughes-Elizabeth Lakes, Lennox, Valle Lindo and Walnut Valley Unified. San Diego County has one, Borrego Springs Unified. Neither LAUSD nor San Diego Unified is on the list.
What happened to the Open Enrollment Act?
The Open Enrollment Act is still in the Education Code. Section 48352 tells the state Superintendent to create each year a list of 1,000 schools ranked by Academic Performance Index score. CDE moved its Open Enrollment page to its archive in June 2019. It says the program “is no longer administered by the California Department of Education.” It also says “the CDE can no longer identify lowest-achieving schools under the provisions of the Open Enrollment Act.”
We read that as no current list to apply from, so we wouldn’t count on it as a route. If you searched “open enrollment california” hoping for this one, the in-district transfer and the permit above are the routes we could document for 2027–28.
Permits and Districts of Choice change which district’s schools you can reach. Magnets, charters and dual language change what kind of school it is, and each has a different gatekeeper.
Magnet, charter or dual language: what’s actually different?
A magnet is a district program or school built around a theme. CDE says it “usually focuses on a special area of study, such as science, the performing arts, or career education,” and that district governing boards establish them. A charter is a public school that takes its own applications, and the charter guide covers how. Dual language is a way of teaching in English and a second language, which a school can offer.
| Magnet | Charter | Dual language | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | The district. | The charter school. San Diego Unified says charters “operate independently” of the district. | The district or school that runs the program. |
| Whose application | Your district’s. In LAUSD, Choices. | The school’s or its network’s own. LAUSD’s affiliated charters use Choices for families outside their boundary. | The school’s or district’s. In LAUSD, Choices. |
| What decides a seat | The district’s own rule. In LAUSD, priority points, racial balance and space. | If there’s room, everyone who applies gets in. If not, a public random drawing. Current students aren’t in the drawing. | The program’s rules. In LAUSD, no points, though some schools use their own process. |
| Who can apply from outside the district | In LAUSD, residents, with one limited exception. Elsewhere, ask. | Generally yes. District residents usually get a preference in a drawing. | In LAUSD, families who need a permit are in the last two tiers. Elsewhere, ask. |
For magnets, we found no state admission rule. That leaves the rule to each district, so read yours. LAUSD’s brochure doesn’t publish how it breaks ties within a point total. The Choices guide walks through the points that do exist. LAUSD magnets require living in LAUSD, apart from a limited number of ninth-grade seats at King-Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science, which are open only to Compton Unified residents.
For charters, a charter “shall admit all pupils who wish to attend,” and a public random drawing decides when applicants outnumber seats (§ 47605). Current students keep their seats and aren’t in the drawing. Living in the school’s district usually earns a preference, so a family from another district can apply but may sit behind residents. One exception, in § 47614.5, concerns some charters in a state facility-grant program that give a neighborhood preference. LAUSD’s affiliated charters say “No permit is required to attend,” and families who live inside an affiliated charter’s attendance boundary enroll directly instead of applying. To see which charters are near you, use the Los Angeles or San Diego charter finder.
Dual language is a program, not a school type. The Education Code lists “dual-language immersion programs” among language acquisition programs. They teach “native speakers of English and native speakers of another language” together. CDE says these programs are “typically found in kindergarten through grade eight,” so ask what happens after the last grade. LAUSD groups dual language with its Multilingual Multicultural Programs.
Ask any school which grades its program covers. State law also gives parents a lever. When parents of 30 or more students at a school, or 20 or more in a grade, request a language acquisition program, the school “shall be required to offer such a program to the extent possible” (§ 310). Dual-language immersion is first on the law’s list of such programs, but the list can include other kinds, so a request doesn’t by itself bring a dual language class.
The labels also overlap. CDE’s school list marks a school as a magnet if it “is a magnet school and/or offers a magnet program,” and it flags Grover Cleveland Charter High in LAUSD as both a charter and a magnet. Whichever label a school has, check the calendar for the door you are using.
When are the 2027–28 deadlines?
Two dates come first: November 6, 2026 for LAUSD Choices and November 15 for San Diego Unified.
The District of Choice deadline follows, and the permit windows come after that. Here are the dates we found, in order.
| Date | Door | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| October 1 to November 6, 2026 | LAUSD Choices | On-time window for magnets, dual language, affiliated charters and other Choices programs. Late applications open December 1 and join the end of each waitlist. |
| October 5 to November 15, 2026 | San Diego Unified School Choice | The priority window. |
| Late November 2026 and after | Independent charters | Each school sets its own date. The earliest we found closes November 30, 2026. LAUSD’s affiliated charters close with Choices on November 6. |
| December 18, 2026 | LAUSD Choices | Last day to email or mail a correction or a withdrawal. |
| Before January 1, 2027 | District of Choice | Last day to apply for 2027–28. |
| February 2 to April 30 | LAUSD outgoing permits | “For the following school year,” as the page puts it. Incoming requests are open all year, starting February 2. |
| February 8 to 12, 2027 | LAUSD Choices | Selection and waitlist letters. The accept-or-decline date on the district’s timeline is March 5, 2027. |
| March 1, 2027 | San Diego Unified permits | The district begins processing outgoing and incoming 2027–28 permits. |
| By March 1, 2027 | District of Choice | The district’s notice is due. Waitlist offers run until May 1. |
| Not yet posted | LAUSD K-12 Open Enrollment | The 2026 window ran April 13 to May 4. |
The charter calendar lists the independent charter dates we found. San Diego Unified’s pages disagree on when its lottery runs, so check its Choice page for your results date. We found no statewide window for a parent’s-job request.
The District of Choice deadline falls before LAUSD’s letters and San Diego Unified’s lottery results, so you’ll file it without knowing how those turn out. Among the Los Angeles charters we read, most deadlines fall from late January to February, after the fall district deadlines. You’ll file some applications before any answer arrives, which raises the question of how many to file.
How many applications should we file, and in what order?
We looked for how many applications families file and found no published count. For LAUSD we found no per-school odds either. One parent wrote on Reddit in October 2026, “I applied to 6 schools near us,” which is one family, not a rate. So we won’t give you a number. The rules point to a plan anyway.
Different doors can run in parallel. Inside one form, read its ordering rule.
A district’s choice form, each independent charter’s own application and a permit are separate applications. San Diego Unified’s Choice doesn’t cover charters, and LAUSD’s independent charters sit outside Choices. Inside LAUSD’s Choices form, magnets, dual language and affiliated charters share one application of up to six programs. Accepting one placement leaves your waitlist spots in the other programs alone. A child already in a magnet who is selected at another magnet loses the current seat, and being selected at one magnet ends the waitlists for your other magnet choices.
Read each door’s ordering rule before you rank. San Diego Unified’s FAQ says the number of schools you list “is not a factor in the selection process,” and “You may be offered a second or third choice. If this occurs, your student remains on the waitlist for any higher choices.” The district also says listing more than one school does not affect your first-choice priority.
LAUSD magnets work the other way. “If selected to any one of their choices, the applicant will not be on the waiting list for the other choice(s).” So list only magnets you would attend. If you’re thinking about collecting waitlist points for later, read how that can backfire first.
Apply inside the priority window. LAUSD says “Late applications will be added to the end of the waiting list.” San Diego Unified calls its window the priority window and enters every application received in it into the lottery together.
Keep your assigned school as the backup. Waitlists run late. San Diego Unified’s stay active until the Friday before school starts. LAUSD says a Choices waitlist seat may be offered until the fourth week of the first semester or the second week of the second semester. Multilingual Multicultural Program and affiliated charter applicants stay on their waitlists to the end of the school year. A registered backup means your child has a school on the first day while you wait.
What do San Diego Unified’s own numbers show?
San Diego Unified publishes a report of first choices offered a seat, by school and grade, for 2023–24. By our count it has 1,124 school-and-grade rows. The middle value is about 86.5% of first choices offered a seat. 505 rows are at 100%, and 175 are at 0%.
The report has no applicant or seat counts. A 0% could mean no one ranked that school first at that grade, or that it had no seats there, so it can’t be read as “impossible.” It is also from 2023–24, and we didn’t find a newer one.
Even a careful plan can come back without the seat you wanted. Here is what happens next.
What if we’re turned down?
For a permit, state law gives you an appeal to the county.
You have 30 calendar days from the district’s final denial to appeal to the county board of education. The county decides within 30 days after you file, or up to 60 in some counties (§ 46601). Some districts add a step first. LAUSD’s page describes an appeal to LAUSD “within 14 calendar days from the date of the denial letter,” then to LACOE “within 30 calendar days” of the appeal denial. That appeal right is written for interdistrict transfers. If your own district says no to an in-district transfer, ask it for its appeal steps.
For a lottery, the waitlist is the next door. A waitlisted LAUSD family takes no action: “The school will notify you if a space becomes available.” LAUSD also encourages them to “submit late applications to other programs,” which open December 1. San Diego Unified’s waitlists run to the Friday before school and “are not carried over from the previous year.” In LAUSD, the FAQ says a student who stays on a waiting list should reapply the next year.
For offers, answer on time. In LAUSD, “No response is considered a decline. All declines are final.” The brochure also says a child who is “not enrolled and attending school by the first week” loses the Choices seat. We read that as applying to a seat you have accepted, so have your child there on the first day. The brochure doesn’t say how it applies to a waitlist offer that arrives later.
Some doors are still open after February’s letters. Permit windows run through the spring, a District of Choice can make waitlist offers until May 1 if you applied before January 1, and LAUSD Open Enrollment usually opens in the spring. Whether any of them is worth chasing depends on how the other school compares with yours.
Is the other school actually better for our child?
Compare schools at the same level: elementary with elementary, middle with middle, high with high.
Compare puts two to four schools side by side at one level, your assigned school included.
Our advice: if the school you want is well ahead of your assigned school at the same level, the extra applications are probably worth filing. If the two are close, the commute, the hours and your child’s friends may matter more. Charter, magnet and dual language are labels for how a school admits and teaches. They aren’t quality ratings.
If your assigned school scored low, our guide to what a low score does and doesn’t mean can help you read it. Scores also leave out most of what a school is like: whether a teacher notices a quiet kid, how the front office treats you when you call. Visit before you decide, and keep every school and date in one list.
Rules come from the California Education Code, CDE pages, and LAUSD and San Diego Unified pages read October 26 to 29, 2026. Confirm every date with the district or school before you apply.
