The enrollment category refers to how students register to attend your public microschool. This process involves several components, including:

• determining if you will serve students within a specific geographic boundary, across the full school system, or outside of your system
• aligning with your system’s existing enrollment process and timeline
• finalizing the number of students you will serve
• clarifying any special population(s) you intend to enroll
• considering the transportation impacts of the above decisions
• marketing your public microschool

Careful planning will ensure that families are aware of this new option, have the necessary information to make an informed decision about whether to apply, and understand the process for doing so.

Guiding Questions

• What is the enrollment process in your system?
  • What is its timeline? Are there any exceptions?
  • What steps are required for a new-to-your-system student?
  • What steps are required for a student transferring within your system?
  • If more student enrollment exceeds available seats…
    • Can/will you hold a lottery?
    • Can/will you have a waitlist?
  • What rules exist for intersystem enrollment?
• Can/will you show preference to special populations, siblings of students, or families of staff?
• What is your recruitment plan (e.g., who you will target and what you will say)

Action Steps

Set enrollment goals. Microschools are intentionally small, and this is particularly true in their initial year. We recommend setting a goal for the number of students you will enroll, both a floor to ensure you recruit enough students for the school to launch, and a cap to prevent compromising the integrity of the microschool.

The goal is to create a small learning community where relationships are at the heart of the experience. Research has shown that under 150 is a good number to aim for, but, as described earlier, as long as the space is intentionally designed to be small and facilitate building relationships, it can be larger.

Determine whether your school will be part of an existing school’s enrollment or if you will enroll students separately. If you operate a school within a school, for example, the process you take to enroll students may be different than if you are launching a public microschool that is housed within a local business or in another separate facility. 

Understand your system’s enrollment timeline. We cannot overstate the importance of being clear on enrollment timelines, especially in your first year of operation. They will help you project plan effectively so you don’t miss opportunities to engage families before it is too late for them to enroll, while you iron out other pieces of the school’s design.

Understand the enrollment process and rules in your system. Developing an early understanding of these enrollment rules and requirements will ensure that these factors are integrated into your design and your recruitment strategy. Keep in mind that, as part of the public education system, most microschools cannot limit access based on student background or learning needs. Here are some areas to consider:

• Interdistrict enrollment: New schools often attract learners from other school districts and systems. Be clear on your state and system’s rules regarding interdistrict enrollment to prepare your team to support interested families during recruitment. 
• Transfer process: Determine whether students enrolling in your public microschool need to undergo a transfer process or can enroll directly. This knowledge will streamline the enrollment procedure and help manage family expectations.
• Student selection: If your school system uses a school choice mechanism, a lottery process may be necessary for student selection when the number of applications exceeds the available seats. This may also involve a waitlist. Familiarize yourself with how this lottery mechanism functions to manage timelines effectively and communicate clearly with all families involved.
• Preferential enrollment: Identify any existing rules that might prioritize specific student populations, such as family members of school staff, siblings of enrolled learners, or learners with particular needs. Ensure compliance with legal standards to avoid discriminatory practices.
• Geographic boundaries and open choice: Consider whether your microschool will serve students from a specific geographic area or offer open enrollment to students regardless of their location. This decision has implications for:
• Transportation eligibility: Open choice schools may need to address transportation logistics, especially if students from multiple areas are eligible to attend. Determine if your system will provide transportation support and what impact this may have on enrollment choices.
• Recruitment strategy: Geographic boundaries can influence your marketing and outreach strategies. Schools without boundaries may attract a broader demographic, while those with set boundaries might focus on community-specific needs and partnerships.

Note: If you are designing a school-with-a-school or similar model, you may not have to launch a system-wide enrollment process. 

Update your school’s enrollment details in the vision. You should regularly review your school vision to ensure it aligns with federal, state, and system regulations. If it doesn’t, you will need to update your vision or possibly seek a workaround, if it is meaningful and feasible. 

Ensure your school is included in your system’s enrollment process. Communicate with the system’s enrollment department to confirm that your new school is included in the enrollment process and verify that it appears as an option on the relevant enrollment platform. 

Note: If you are operating a school-within-a-school, your enrollment process may differ from that of a standalone microschool with its own school code. Be clear on how students are enrolled so you can accurately communicate next steps to families.

In addition to enrollment, microschools must also be prepared to meet all relevant accountability and compliance requirements, including tracking attendance, administering safety drills, maintaining student records, and generating reports for submission to the governing entity. Early coordination with your system’s operations and accountability teams is essential to ensure smooth implementation.

Plan a recruitment strategy, including steps, messaging, and timelines. Especially in your first year, you may be operating on a tight timeline, making it challenging to create a fully fleshed-out plan. Even so, it’s smart to consider these three components so you (a) create a smooth process for families that meets your goals, (b) have your pitch ready when you begin to engage families, and (c) accomplish these things before the school year begins!

• Steps: If your system already has a clear recruitment process, align with it while making adjustments to how the microschool will function within the school system.
• Messaging: You can likely refer back to the documentation you’ve already created regarding the purpose of your school to craft a “pitch” that you’ll use in media or conversations. Consider the following:
  • Audience (e.g., families, school counselors, learners, community groups)
  • School purpose
  • Tradeoffs (i.e., what the school will and will not provide students)
  • Ways to learn more
  • Application and enrollment process
• Timelines: Again, timing is everything. Be sure you work with system timelines for enrollment to map out your recruitment strategy before windows close. You want to ensure that families have ample time to learn about their options, including the microschool, and make decisions that feel right to them.

Tips and Examples

Be thoughtful about your enrollment goals for the short and long term. While it is likely to take time to enroll the “just right” number of learners, you should have a goal in mind that makes sense for your community, and that considers your school’s goals, your budget (e.g., how many students you need to enroll to justify staff expenditure), space, programmatic constraints (e.g., do you need to cap enrollment because every student will need a career-based internship?), and more.

The founder of a project-based microschool in Massachusetts told us that, in his experience, it is possible to enroll too few students. He said having at least 25 students ensures everyone finds friends and collaborators. It also helps to have a “critical mass” of learners to boost engagement so that students are pulled back into their projects if they become distracted or demotivated.

Consider partnerships to provide learners with access to extracurricular activities. Due to their size, microschools cannot independently offer many (or sometimes any) extracurricular activities, but they can partner with comprehensive public schools. This will take coordination and compromise, mainly on the part of the public microschool.

Learn what students and families value; use that to shape your recruitment strategy and messaging. To capture and hold people’s interest, you will want to be sure you understand your community and what drives their decision-making.

PPHS initially attempted to recruit students by entering classes in their comprehensive high school and presenting their unique offerings. They quickly learned that students selected schools based on their offerings (e.g., clubs, sports) even if they didn’t participate in them. Their microschool did not seem compelling because their offerings were few. This led them to adjust their strategy. They started to recruit from within the middle school instead of the high school, explaining the differences between students’ options and being candid that the smaller setting would not offer the same programs, but would offer something different. Being clear about tradeoffs helped.

Consider offering tours to families. People want to see their school options. You may need to be creative about how to do this if you’re recruiting students while also securing a facility. You might create a virtual tour that focuses less on the facility and more on a “day in the life.” You might also host virtual and/or live Q&A sessions with the teacher(s) so that families can build relationships and get a sense of the school’s culture. Another idea is to have your teacher(s) host an immersive recruitment event that showcases a part of the school’s innovative model through a hands-on session, such as a design sprint, if the school is focused on project-based learning anchored in design thinking.

Make enrollment clear and straightforward. An easy way to lose a potential student is if the enrollment process is complex or unclear. Regardless of what information is shared publicly, you can compile and disseminate information on your own. You can also set up events where you help parents enroll students in person.

At a public microschool in Tulsa, parents enrolled through the Tulsa Public Schools Enrollment System. While this occurred online, the school set up a table at their site to provide tours to parents and support them in enrolling their children.

Opportunity and Access

Transparent and inclusive enrollment processes are crucial for ensuring that all families, not just the most informed or connected, have a genuine opportunity to consider and access your microschool. While school system leaders may assume that families are familiar with enrollment processes, the reality is that timelines and requirements can be confusing or entirely unfamiliar, particularly for families new to the public school system or exploring alternative educational models. To create broader access, publicize timelines and steps alongside your recruitment materials, and ensure that information is clear, straightforward, and available in multiple languages where needed. Go beyond digital outreach by offering in-person enrollment support, especially for families with limited internet access or those who speak a language other than English. Host school tours and information sessions at varied times, including evenings and weekends, to accommodate working caregivers. Finally, be intentional about reaching out to underrepresented communities so that no single population dominates your applicant pool. When enrollment is thoughtfully designed, it invites broader participation and helps ensure that the microschool reflects the needs of the wider community.