<p>EmeraldKitty – virtually all charter schools are enrolled by lottery with absolutely no screening allowed. Exceptions are allowed to automatically enroll siblings of current students and children of staff and founders, though the staff/founders exemption must be under 10%. Any remaining spaces must be filled first-come, first-serve. Schools that fail to follow the federal guidelines are not eligible for federal start-up funds, which are pretty much a necessity for most charter schools. On the other hand, district or state operated magnet or Governor’s schools are allowed to use tests, interviews, auditions, and screening for selection of students, but these aren’t charter schools. A small number of charter schools that were either founded before the start-up grant era or that elected to forego federal start-up funding may use some other criteria, but that would depend on state law and their contract with their authorizing entity. In general, charters are free public schools of choice – but the choice is intended to be that of the family, not the charter school. (And sometimes a charter school violates the law or the federal provisions – this happened this June back east, and the charter school has now had to offer admission for next year to every student they turned away.)</p>