New Students

Application for Admission

Parents of children interested in enrolling at Bear Creek Community Charter School will be given the opportunity to apply for admission. The date the application for admission process begins and ends will be determined by the school administration each year and will be posted in the school office as well as on the school's web site. Information may also be distributed via social media and through local media outlets.

Parents of children interested in applying for admission must complete and submit an accurate online Application for Admission using the Enrollment Express web site by the deadline provided by the school. Only children who are residents of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are eligible to apply for admission – proof of residency may be required upon submission of an Application for Admission.

Preference in Enrollment

As permitted by the Pennsylvania’s charter school law, Bear Creek Community Charter School will give preference in admission to the following categories of students, as long as there is availability, in the following order:

1. Existing Bear Creek Community Charter School students.
2. Children of parents who actively participate in the development of the charter school, including children of permanent Bear Creek Community Charter School employees.
3. Siblings of students currently enrolled in the school. For the purpose of this policy, a sibling is defined as a child who is related to an existing student by blood or adoption and who share a legal tie to at least one common parent;
4. Holdover Students from the prior school year;
5. Students residing in the Community in which the charter school is located. For the purposes of this policy, Community is defined as Bear Creek Township, Buck Township and Bear Creek Village Borough;
6. Students residing in the school district in which the charter is located (Wilkes-Barre Area School District);
7. Students residing outside the school district in which the charter school is located (all other school districts within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania).

Random Lottery

In the event the number of applicants for any given grade or section exceeds the number of enrollment slots (seats) available, the school will admit students using a random selection process. The school will grant admission preference according to the criteria identified in Section V – Preference in Enrollment. A public lottery will be held, as necessary, to determine admission. The date, time and location of the public lottery will be advertised in a newspaper of general circulation at least one week prior to the lottery being held.

Wait List

After all available enrollment slots (seats) are filled, wait lists will be created and maintained for each grade. The initial wait list will be created randomly as part of the public lottery. Following the lottery, additional students will be added to the end of each wait list on a first come/first served basis, through December 31st of that calendar year.

When an enrollment slot becomes available in a grade, a parent/guardian of the first student on the wait list will be contacted and given twenty-four hours to accept the slot. Acceptance is determined by a parent/guardian completing and hand delivering an accurate Student Enrollment Notification Form to the school office within twenty-four (24) hours of being notified by the school. If the enrollment slot is declined, if no response is received, or an accurate Student Enrollment Notification Form is not hand delivered to the school office within twenty-four hours of being notified, the enrollment slot will be forfeited and the next student on the wait list will be contacted. Once all vacant enrollment slots for each particular grade and section are filled, enrollment will be closed. The last day Bear Creek Community Charter School will enroll students each year is December 31st of that calendar year. The wait list shall expire on December 31st of each year.

Other

A sworn statement attesting to the accuracy of the information and documentation provided to the school as part of the enrollment process. This sworn statement must be provided by the student’s parent or guardian at the new student/parent workshop to complete the enrollment process and for the student to be successfully enrolled. This document will be notarized, so the parent/guardian must present current and valid photo identification to the Notary at the workshop.

A sworn statement attesting to whether a student has been or is suspended or expelled for offenses involving drugs, alcohol, weapons, infliction of injury or violence on school property must be provided by the student’s parent or guardian at the new student/parent workshop to complete the enrollment process and for the student to be successfully enrolled. This document will be notarized, so the parent/guardian must present current and valid photo identification to the Notary at the workshop.

All students seeking first-time admission in a school shall be given a home language survey in accordance with the requirements of the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

Any student who does not attend school on the first day of scheduled classes will be dropped from the rolls (lose spot) as an active student, unless the student’s parent or legal guardian provides the school advance notice of the excused absence.

Any student who has ten consecutive days of unexcused absence will be dropped from the rolls as an active student (lose spot).

Classes shall not exceed twenty-six (26) students in any class without advance approval by the Board of Trustees.

In compliance with federal and state guidelines under the McKinney/Vento Act, Bear Creek Community Charter School is committed to removing barriers to education that face students experiencing homelessness.

The Board of Trustees reserves the right to amend the Student Admission Policy at any time.

Apply online - Application for Admission for the 2024-2025 school year.