Media release from the Northwest Georgia Charter Academy:
The Northwest Georgia Charter Academy board conducted a public lottery on Monday, November 17, at 4:30pm at Cave Spring City Hall. The lottery was necessary because pre enrollment for several grades exceeded the school’s projected capacity for its opening in August 2026. The lottery was conducted by Dr. Dawn Williams, Superintendent/Principal for the NW GA Charter Academy.
“I am very happy to announce that we have concluded our first lottery for the NWGA Charter Academy”, reports Dr. Williams. “We conducted a lottery for Kindergarten, 2nd and 3rd grades due to having more pre-enrollment applications than we have seats available. Those students who were not selected via the lottery will go onto a waiting list in order of the date of their application submission, and they will be in line for a seat if selected students/families don’t complete the enrollment process over the next several days or change their minds before next August. For grades 1st and 4th, we are right at capacity and will build a waiting list with additional applications. There are a few seats available for 5th grade as well as some for 6th, 7th and 8th grades.”
Dr. Williams added: “We want to encourage interested families to continue to pre-enroll for all grade levels as it is possible that seats open between now and next August. We are hopeful that we will also open with 6th-8th graders, but we will not make that final decision until January based on the number of applications at that time. All interested middle school families should go ahead and pre-enroll in order to secure a seat before the waitlist starts.” According to Judy Taylor, Board President, they were pleased with the number of applications – but not surprised. “Over a four-year period, we conducted market research, collected K-12 data, and listened to parent and community concerns. Based on that process, we were confident that there was demand for school choice in the region – especially for a FREE PUBLIC charter school.” Taylor added: “It’s not unusual to have waiting lists. In fact, most public charter schools have wait lists, and the total statewide has been as high as 12,000 recently. I want to reiterate the importance of families submitting applications throughout the next year leading up to our opening in August 2026.”
The lottery was monitored by members of the NW GA Charter Academy board and audited by a representative from the Georgia Charter Schools Association (GCSA).