Out-of-Attendance Area

An Out-of-Attendance Area (OAA) application is required whenever a parent wishes their student to attend a regular enrollment district school that is not in their home transportation area. Visit http://busstop.k12northstar.org/elinkrp/search.aspx to determine the area schools for your home address. Several district schools have strictly lottery-based enrollment: there is no OAA enrollment at these schools.

For the best chances, an Out-of-Attendance Area application should be submitted using the district's online CAP (Centralized Application Portal) in the spring semester of the current school year to request OAA enrollment in the fall of the next school year. For elementary and secondary OAA seats, , the application window will open in January and close in Mid-March. Check your parent CAP account for more specific date and time information. 

Spring OAA enrollment: Students who join the district at an out of area school in the spring, or whose family moves out of area during the school year, may submit a paper application to the OAA school to complete the current year. Admission under these circumstances is not considered to be placement via the CAP system and thus does not imply continuing placement at the OAA school for subsequent years. To continue at the OAA school in the next year, spring OAA enrollees must apply through the CAP and be offered a seat.

Parent fills out the OAA application online during the application window, or submits a paper copy during that time frame to the school they want their child to attend in the fall. 

Each school will try to make a determination on OAA applications as early as possible in the spring after the window closes, but some schools may need more time to determine availability due to class sizes at that school. 

Parents should enroll their child at their neighborhood school if the family needs a “guarantee” of placement to make child care arrangements, or if the family needs an immediate answer to placement questions.

• Available space at the requested school and grade level.
• Placed on waitlist through the online process.

• Once granted enrollment through the online OAA application process, your child may remain at the school through the highest grade level unless: you withdraw, transportation or attendance become an issue, or the next grade level is only available by lottery.
• If an OAA application is unsuccessful for a given year, the parent must submit a new OAA application each subsequent year that the parent continues to seek OAA enrollment for the child. Applications do not roll over from one application year to the next.

If your child is on the waitlist, the school will contact you when it is able to determine numbers at the grade level for which you are seeking OAA status. Once contacted, you have 48 hours or 2 days to accept or decline the offered seat. 

Provided that your child obtained their OAA seat through the CAP system, s/he may remain at the school through the highest grade level offerred unless: you withdraw, transportation or attendance become an issue, or the next grade level is only available by enrollment lottery.  Attendance at middle school is based on where you physically live, but several K-8 options schools offer enrollment in grade 7 & 8 through their enrollment lotteries for those grade levels.

Not necessarily. Siblings of a student who is admitted or enrolled though the CAP will have a preference in placement on the waitlist through the CAP process that establishes the waitlist order. Applications submitted after the initial opening are added to the waitlist in the order in which they are submitted, without regard to sibling status.

• Any time residency is in question and when newly enrolling a student in school, the parent will be asked to produce proof of residency in the form of a rental agreement or utility bill (i.e. phone, water, electric, etc.).
   
• Different documentation may be required of military families who live in military housing.