JCPS Magnets Give No Sibling Preference. JCPS elementary magnet schools do not give siblings of children attending magnet schools preference for admission. Elementary magnet school families can be divided between magnet schools and cluster schools depending on the results of the random lottery. This has created family challenges with drop off, pick up, busing, parental involvement, and navigating multiple school schedules and administrations. In turn, schools have divided financial and parental support. 

Magnet School Lottery, Equity, and Family Engagement. Magnet school enrollment is by lottery to ensure all families have access. Diversity in our magnet schools is imperative to school success. The inflexible lottery can discourage single-parent households and families with multiple children from applying. Moreover, stu­dents whose par­ents stay involved in school have bet­ter atten­dance and behav­ior, get bet­ter grades, demon­strate bet­ter social skills and adapt bet­ter to school. Let's give families a chance to attend the same magnet elementary school to support family engagement and give schools a chance to build and sustain relationships with families, especially since JCPS already gives preference to twins and multiples.

Solution is Sibling Waitlist Preference. To balance equity with sibling preference, the solution is to keep the open lottery and give sibling preference on the waitlist. Siblings will then have a greater likelihood of remaining together. Magnet programs already have sibling preference for twins and multiples. We are asking JCPS to give other siblings a more than a random chance of being at the same elementary school. 

Automatic Sibling Preference. A great question is why are we not fighting for automatic sibling preference for magnet school families? In speaking with JCPS Student Assignment and JCPS School Board Members, we do not have their support for automatic sibling preference because it reduces equity in the open lottery; sibling waitlist preference is the compromise.