Admissions FAQs

Enrollment can be completed by following these 3 easy steps:

Step 1: Please visit https://sms.dpi.wi.gov/ChoiceParent/ to fill out the required application for the Milwaukee/Racine Parent Choice Program.

Step 2: Once the application has been completed please gather the necessary documents to submit to the school in order to verify proof of residency and proof of income if required. Those documents can either be brought to the school for in person verification, emailed or texted to your School Admissions Manager. 

Step 3: Connect with the School Admissions Manager to verify documents and complete enrollment for the academic year. 

For continuing students in the Choice Program, parents are required to complete the online Parental Choice Application and submit a proof of residency to the school. The most commonly used residency documents are a We Energies bill, government letter,or a pay stub. For the full list of acceptable residency documents, review pages 4-5 here:

Acceptable Residency Documents

For new students to the Choice Program, parents are required to complete the online Parental Choice Application and submit a proof of residency to the school. In addition, parents must also prove their income. If you filed taxes, then you can use the Department of Revenue method and input your social security number into the application, and you will find out immediately whether or not you qualify. If you did not file taxes, you can use the Department of Public Instruction method. Through this method, you can provide a Foodshare letter or your W2. For a full list of acceptable income documents, please refer to the income documentation bulletin here:

Acceptable Income Documents

Online Parent Choice Application

Once your scholars’ application and verification documents have been reviewed and accepted your School Admissions Manager will notify you by phone as well as send an official acceptance letter by the end of the last day of that month’s enrollment window. If you child has been waitlisted due to limited seat offerings you will be notified of that as well.

If there are no more available seats at the school of your choice your scholar will be waitlisted and offered a seat based on the meeting of certain criteria during that application period. 

Families who do not qualify for free tuition through the Milwaukee or Racine Parental Choice Programs can pay tuition to attend HOPE schools. The cost is $8,400 for K4-8th. If you are interested in having your scholar attend and setting up a tuition contract, please contact your School Admissions Manager. We offer monthly, semesterly, or yearly payment options.

Student eligibility, established by state law, is a combination of where the student resides at the time the parent applies to the program, income (if applicable), and age. Generally, for the RPCP and WPCP, students must also be applying to certain grades or have met a prior year attendance requirement. Each year, all students must apply at dpi.wi.gov/choice and provide the required documentation to the school.

• Students for all programs must be ages 4 - 20 on or before September 1 are eligible to apply for the Choice program. A student must be at least the following age on or before September 1: 4 years old for K4, 5 years old for K5 and 6 years old for grade 1.

• Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP): The student must reside in the city of Milwaukee (this does not include the other cities in Milwaukee County). A new student must have a family income less than or equal to the MPCP income limits in Table 1 below. Continuing students and students on a MPCP prior year waiting list are not required to meet income limits.

• Racine Parental Choice Program (RPCP): The student must reside in the Racine Unified School District. A new student must have a family income less than or equal to the RPCP income limits in Table 1 below. Continuing students and students on a RPCP prior year waiting list are not required to meet income limits.

The student must also (1) be applying to grades K4, K5, 1 or 9, OR (2) meet one of the following prior year attendance requirements: (a) attended a public school in Wisconsin, (b) attended school in another state, (c) was not enrolled in school (includes homeschooled students for the entire prior school year), (d) participated in the MPCP, RPCP, or WPCP, (e) been on a MPCP, RPCP, or WPCP waiting list, OR (3) applying to the WPCP and on any prior year WPCP waiting list in 2015-16 or later due to a school district enrollment cap.

Family income includes the income of the student’s parent(s) that reside in the same household as the student applicant. Family size includes parent(s) on the application and their children by birth, marriage, or adoption, who reside in the same household as the student applicant(s).

Students must be age eligible for four-year old and five-year old kindergarten (K4 and K5) and first grade.  By September 1 of the school year the student is applying for, K4 students must be four (4) years old, K5 must be five (5) years old, and 1st graders must be six (6) years old.  Additionally, student applicants may not be 21 as of the date they apply or September 1, whichever is later.

The Online Parent Application determines if a student meets the age requirement based on the student’s date of birth entered in the application.

Yes. All students that would like to participate in any Choice program must apply every year using the Online Parent Application, available at dpi.wi.gov/choice. This includes students that participated in the Choice program in the prior school year.

We offer free bus transportation on a first come, first served basis at all 5 of our Milwaukee K-8 locations and HOPE Via in Racine. We have created a geography-based transportation plan that works for the majority of our families, as follows.

HOPE Via offers satellite stops throughout the city of Racine. Parents are welcome to sign their scholars up for one of the designated stops.

We do not have an in-house special education department within our schools, but we will work with your family to connect with Child Find which is a service offered through Milwaukee Public Schools to have your scholar assessed to determine what special education accommodations they may need. We cannot promise that we will be able to offer the necessary services your scholar may need so it is best to have this process completed before enrolling.

For more information, please visit this link:

https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/en/Programs/Special-Education/child-find.htm

Here is the child find office phone number:

Phone: 414-874-8493

If your child has a recent and current IEP we are more than happy to have our Administrative staff review that IEP and confirm what services we may be able to offer.