Enrollment Lottery Information
Lottery Results
Applicants who did not receive a spot in the lottery are automatically placed on a waitlist, and will remain on the waitlist until September 30th, after which RMSEL does not enroll new students. As openings occur, RMSEL will contact the next applicant on the waitlist. If your student did not receive an enrollment spot in the lottery, and you want to try again for the next school year, you must submit a new application each year; waitlists do not carry from one year into the next.Lottery Policy
Because of the complexity of the Intergovernmental Agreement among the districts, and in order to have a fair lottery process, RMSEL has developed the following enrollment policy.
Initial enrollment at RMSEL shall be determined by a lottery process which is described in the Lottery Enrollment Administrative Procedure. Some applicants are given priority in the lottery. This policy describes the order of preference for the enrollment lottery.
The following categories are in order of priority:
I. Staff - children of staff members will be enrolled with first preference in accordance with grade and district availability. If a staff member terminates their employment at RMSEL, their student(s) will be allowed to remain enrolled in accordance with the out-of-district policy (see VI below).
II. Sibling - applicants who have a sibling who is attending RMSEL and has been continuously enrolled from October 1st of the previous year will be enrolled with next preference in accordance with grade and district availability.
III. BOCES - children of RMSEL’s BOCES Directors will be enrolled having next preference in accordance with grade and district availability.
IV. Alumni – children of a RMSEL graduate will be enrolled having next preference in accordance with grade and district availability
V. General - all other applicants will be enrolled having next preference in accordance with grade and district availability. When a new family has more than one child in the lottery and one of the children has been accepted, the remaining sibling(s) will be given next preference in accordance with grade and district availability.
VI. Out-of-District - these applicants will be enrolled only if there are no other applications on file for that grade level from any of the member districts. Out-of-district students will be allowed to continue to be enrolled.
Grounds for Denial of Admission
Subject to the school's responsibilities under the Exceptional Children's Educational Act and applicable federal, state and local laws, the following will constitute grounds for denial of admission to the school:
- Failure to meet age requirement.
- Having been expelled from any school district during the preceding twelve months.
- Having engaged in behavior in another school during the preceding twelve months that is detrimental to the welfare or safety of other students or of school personnel.
- An applicant who is not a resident of one of our five sponsoring districts, unless otherwise entitled to attend, is not eligible for the initial lottery.
- Failure to comply with the immunization provisions. (Families who choose not to immunize their children must sign an immunization waiver.)
- Falsification of application or failure to upload required application documents.
- A determination by RMSEL's administration that the Expeditionary Learning model or the school's culture would not contribute to the applicant's success as a student or that the school is unable to meet the student's special needs. In this case, administration will advise the family of other options.
Student Fees
Because RMSEL is an Expeditionary Learning school and our students do numerous off-campus trips and expeditions, each student is required to pay annual fees.
The fees for the current 2025-2026 school year are as follows:
- Kindergarten - 5th Grades - $1,267
- 6th - 8th Grades - $1,499
- 9th - 12th Grades - $1,716
The fees above include transportation fee ($94), instructional support supply fee ($375), and technology fee ($125).