Student Assignment Policy

BPS has adopted a Home-Based student assignment policy to assign students to kindergarten through grade 8. All of our high schools remain citywide options for our students.

The Home-Based plan uses a student’s home as the starting point. 

• BPS will offer a customized list of school choices for every family based on their home address. It includes every school within a one-mile radius of their home plus, as needed, nearby high-quality schools based on BPS's School Quality Framework (SQF) system of measurement. This ensures that every family has access to high-quality schools, no matter where they live.
• The list may also grow, as needed, to include additional programmatic offerings and to ensure we can offer every child a seat in a school on his or her list. These are called “Option Schools.”
• Families may also select any citywide school. And some families may have regional options, as well.
• Most families will have somewhere between 10 and 14 school options on their choice list.
• The Home-Based plan uses an algorithm, similar to a lottery; therefore we can’t guarantee an applicant will be assigned to one of his or her top choices.
• Due to limited seating, we cannot guarantee an assignment to K0 or K1.
• Students who apply for grades K0, K1, K2, 6, 7, and 9 in January have the best chance of assignment to their top choice schools.