Application Process for the 2026-27 School Year

You must be a resident of Lakeville Area Schools in order to be eligible for the equity pool.

Families who identify one of the following indicators in addition to residing within the Lakeville Area Schools district boundaries will qualify for the Equity pool.

• Students who identify a language other than English as their home language
• Families who qualify for Free or Reduced Lunch 

•  
• Sibling preference is granted when space is available.
• If the criteria for Equity Application Pool are not met, applications will be considered standard pool applications.
•  

1. Orchard Lake Elementary will determine the number of seats available per grade for the random selection process as designated in the Terms and Conditions.  Available spaces will be allocated to applicant pools based on alignment to the enrollment goal of having Impact program enrollment demographics that reflect the attendance area population as a whole.
2. Orchard Lake Elementary will determine the number of seats available per grade for outside of attendance area and open enrollment applications as designated by the Terms and Conditions.  Available spaces will be allocated to applicant pools based on alignment to the enrollment goal of having Impact program enrollment demographics that reflect the attendance area population as a whole.
3.  When determining the number of seats available results in a fraction, the equity applicant pool enrollment number will be rounded up.  Example: 26% of 24 available seats is 6.24 so 7 seats would be allocated to the equity applicant pool and 14 seats to the standard applicant pool.
4. Placements will occur using a random selection process.  Actual allocations will be determined on an annual basis.  A sample of typical statewide data for the application pools are:
   1.  26% of the available spaces for Equity Application Pool
   2.  74% of the available spaces for the Standard Application Pool
5. The equity pool applications selection process will be conducted first.  In the event that applications remain after all allocated seats have been filled, those applications will be moved to the standard application pool.
6. The standard applications selection process will be conducted after the equity pool is complete. There will be a ISD 194 Intra-district enrollment allocation and Open Enrollment allocation of open seats.
7. In the event that all the available spaces for Open Enrollment families do not fill after completion of step 7 and ISD194 residents remain on the waiting list, the waiting list will be used to fill any available spaces held for Open Enrollment families prior to the start of the 2026-27 school year.
8. In the event that all the available spaces for ISD194 families do not fill after completion of step 7 and Open Enrollment families remain on the waiting list, the waiting list will be used to fill any available spaces held for ISD194 families in prior to the start of the 2026-27 school year.
9. Waitlists will dissolve at a designated date, usually the end of the second week of school. Waitlist families are encouraged to apply again for the following school year.