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What you need to know if you are interested in enrolling your child at Robert Treat Academy Charter School.
Welcome to Robert Treat Academy Charter School's virtual community. Through our website we hope to provide you with all of the information you will need to understand our enrollment process. Our Parent Coordinator is also available to answer all of your questions either in person, by telephone (973-482-8811) or by email at (BrennanS@RobertTreatAcademy.org).
Robert Treat Academy is an elementary school with two school buildings. At our North Ward Campus at 443 Clifton Avenue we have grades kindergarten through eight. Our enrollment there is limited to 450 students and there are two classes of 25 students on each grade level. At our newly opened Central Ward Campus we have grades kindergarten, one and two this year. We will be adding third grade in 2011-12 and an additional grade in each subsequent year. (See schedule for grades available.) There is one class of 25 students on each grade level at RTA Central.
The number of incoming kindergarten students at RTA North is determined by the number of eighth graders who will be graduating from that site each year (typically 50). There will be 25 kindergarten openings at RTA Central. Once a student is enrolled in the Academy they are eligible for reenrollment in each subsequent grade through grade eight.
New Jersey's Charter School Law requires all charter schools to select their students through a random process if there are more applicants than space available. Ever since the Robert Treat Academy opened in 1997, a lottery has been required to fill our classes.
In order to be eligible for the lottery, a child must be five years old on or before October 1st of the year they begin kindergarten. This is a New Jersey State Regulation that governs all public schools. They must also be residents of the City of Newark.
The Charter School Law allows schools to provide preference in enrollment to siblings (defined as: brothers or sisters who live in the same household) of existing students. Kindergarten slots are assigned first to eligible siblings; then the remaining openings are filled through the lottery process.
Each November, the Academy holds a series of Community Orientation Meetings for Newark residents who are interested in participating in the Kindergarten Lottery for the upcoming school year. At these meetings, parents are introduced to the policies and procedures that govern the Academy. They are provided with an opportunity to meet the Academy's administrators and learn about our curriculum and the programs we offer. Parents must attend any one of these meetings to be eligible to participate in the lottery.
Beginning in the last week October through the first week of November, the Orientation Meetings are advertised on our website, in the Star Ledger and in the El Nuevo Coqui, the local Spanish Language newspaper. The meeting dates also appear on the Community Access Channel of Newark's cable television station.
You can also find out when our Orientation Meetings for the upcoming school year will be held or register to attend one of these meetings by contacting us during the first week of November in the year prior to your child's eligibility for enrollment in kindergarten.
Lottery Procedure
Parents or guardians who attend one of the Orientation Meetings will receive an application for the lotteries which are held on the first and second Fridays in January. Prior to the drawings, parents must provide their child's original birth certificate and proof of Newark residency. A list of acceptable documents will be provided at the orientation meeting.
All eligible children are entered in the lotteries which are conducted by a certified public accounting firm. Students are selected one-by-one until all three classes have been filled. After the classes have been formed, all of the remaining children are selected and are assigned a number, in order, on a waiting list.
Kindergarten registration is done early so the Academy can comply with the State's reporting requirements for the upcoming school year. Parents who do not attend an orientation meeting or who fail to provide proof of age or residency are not included in the drawing.
