2024-25 Apply Philly Charter Data Show An Increase in Applications, Applicants, Seat Offers and Seats Accepted Compared to Last Year

By Elana Galli, Apply Philly Charter Manager

In Philadelphia, it is the norm for families to apply to multiple schools to find one that best meets the needs of their children. In fact, nearly two-thirds (62%) of students attend a school other than their designated neighborhood school—82% in high school and 54% in K-8th grade.* 

While a majority of families participate in the school selection process, they have historically expressed frustration with having to navigate the different application systems. This is why in 2018 Apply Philly Charter (APC) launched to streamline the public charter school application process by designing a family-friendly platform that facilitates the required accountability measures for charter schools to run lotteries, as well as issue and accept seat offers.

The APC application data provides a snapshot of family interest in seats at the 76 participating charter school campuses, and demonstrates a continued upward trend in each cycle after the pandemic.

Data

For the 2024-25 cycle, there were 137,300 applications and 29,233 applicants. Of those 29,233 applicants:

When comparing data from the 2024-25 cycle to the 2023-24 cycle, there were increases of:

The applicant numbers for the 2024-25 cycle, reached the highest point in the last four cycles, but still remains below the pre-pandemic applicant numbers.

As expected, the traditional entry grades of K and 9th continued to receive the most applicants (K – 5,297; 9th – 4,435), seat offers (K – 4,324; 9th – 1,77) and accepted offers (K – 2,321; 9th – 939). In fact, the 6,101 seat offers for K and 9th grades combined were 23% higher than the 4,725 seat offers for the other 11 grades (1st-8th; 10th-12th) combined.

When looking at the offers by region, the North, Lower Northeast and West Philadelphia produced the most offers. However, when comparing data from the 2024-25 cycle to the 2023-24 cycle, we see double-digit percentage increases in offers across four regions (North, West, Greater Northeast and Center City). 

Process

The application window for the 2024-25 application cycle opened on September 22, 2023 and closed on January 22, 2024. All applications submitted on or before January 22 were considered pre-deadline applications and could be included in each schools’ lottery—unless the application was deemed ineligible (for example: the student’s address was outside Philadelphia).

Schools ran their lotteries on February 7, 2024 using the parameters dictated in their official charter agreements and notified their applicants of the status of their application—either extending a seat offer or placing them on the waitlist—on February 9, 2024. Applicants that received a seat offer then had until February 23, 2024 to accept or decline the offer. If no action was taken by the applicant for their seat offer, the offer expired.

After accepting a seat, applicants would then follow the instructions provided by the school to submit enrollment paperwork and finish securing their seat. If an applicant is offered a seat by a charter school at any other point (i.e. off of the waitlist), they must also accept that seat in Apply Philly Charter by the deadline communicated and visible in their account.

Families can find more info about the APC process in the Family User Policy Manual. 

*The data source is from the School District of Philadelphia.