You are receiving this email because we believe you are intending to apply to LASA. This email is the first of several designed to help you make sure you have all of the necessary pieces to submit your LASA application by the deadline at 11:59 PM on Tuesday, February 4, 2024. If you have changed your mind or don’t wish to receive these emails, please fill out this form.
Good evening everyone,
Jo Koerth (principal’s secretary and 50% of the non-existent admissions department at LASA) here with the latest application information email. If you missed emails 1 through 5, you can find them on our website under Application Updates & Announcements.
I hope that everyone stayed warm and safe yesterday. Personally, I enjoyed the unexpected four day weekend. But now I am trying to work through the resulting backlog of emails and submitted materials. Thank you all for your patience!
Though I am still performing all my regular job duties to the best of my abilities, during application season my most important job is helping applicants make sure their application is submitted and complete by the deadline. LASA wants all applicants to have the best opportunity possible. I am literally rooting for all of you!
You’re not imagining things. This is a complicated process with many moving parts. Which is why I am here, trying to help you navigate it.
Unofficially, I am also here to help reduce your anxiety a little bit. I know this is huge for many of you. Any little roadblock can easily feel like a mountain dropped in your way. But I promise you, it’s way less catastrophic than your mind makes it out to be.
This email is going to be a little different from previous ones. Just because I want to take this moment to go through what seems to be causing the most anxiety right now: Enroll Austin
First of all, what can make LASA not consider an application at all?
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The applicant’s primary residence is not zoned to AISD. (Unless they have a parent/legal guardian who works for AISD. Remember, this is the only exception to the residency requirement.)
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The student has not submitted the supplemental materials (google) form.
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An Enroll Austin application has not been submitted for the student.
The first one is easy enough. If your homeschool is an AISD school - you live in district. If your homeschool belongs to Del Valle / Eanes / Hutto / Leander / Manor / Round Rock or any other Independent School District you live out of district and are ineligible to apply. (Unless your parent/legal guardian works for AISD, of course.)
(The school your home is zoned to is what we refer to as your homeschool. It may not be the same as the school you are currently attending.)
The second one is easy too. Without the supplemental materials form (and specifically the three short answers and the creative work + creator’s statement) we won’t be able to score the application because it’s missing, well, the application.
But, how do you know if your Enroll Austin application is officially submitted? That can feel trickier.
For the answer, we have to turn to Enroll Austin itself.
To access Enroll Austin:
Parents who already have an AISD Parent Portal account should go to portal.austinisd.org. Once logged in, select the Enroll Austin tile.
Parents who DO NOT have an AISD Parent Portal account do not need to make one. Instead, go to www.austinisd.org/enroll and press “Start Application.”
Once logged in, find your student on the home screen. You’ll see their name, the current school year information, the priority registration information and a blue “Complete Annual Forms” button.
(Here’s a visual example! Please don’t judge my graphics skill!)
To apply to LASA, make sure you are looking at the middle portion that says: “2025-2026 School Year
Priority Registration”
If, right underneath that, you see a green checkmark and the word “Submitted” - Congratulations! You have successfully submitted the Enroll Austin application.
Then, click the “view summary” link right beneath that. Scroll down to “Selected Schools/Programs”. LASA must be listed and ranked or we can’t see the application.
(When we say that an Enroll Austin application must be completed/submitted in order to request a shadow date, that is what we mean. Priority registration must say “submitted”, and LASA must be listed and ranked on the summary.)
If the priority registration says submitted, but LASA isn’t listed under “Selected Schools/Programs” click the EDIT button and click the blue “continue” button until you get to the “Intent to Enroll” page.
Select “Your student would like to apply to another school or to a different application-based program (e.g. magnet, fine arts academy, dual language, P-TECH, etc.)” if it isn’t already selected.
Hit continue again. A little pop-up window will open, reminding you that you can return to the page anytime. Select OK.
The next page is called “Select Your Schools”. Here, you should add any schools/programs your student would like to attend. If LASA is one of them, please click the checkbox in front of it in the list.
Click “Continue”
The next part is where you rank the schools/programs. Remember, you have to rank the absolute dream school first! It doesn’t matter if it’s LASA. It has to be the one the applicant most wants to attend!
If a student is accepted to the school/program they ranked first, they won’t be offered a seat at a school they ranked lower. There is no way to game this system. List the schools from most desired to least desired.
Once you’ve done that, click continue until you get to the summary. Make sure you’ve check the “Accept Terms and Conditions” checkbox (after reading the terms and conditions!) and then you can click “Submit”!
If the priority registration says “Started” or the button says “Start” rather than edit, you will have to complete and submit the Enroll Austin application in order. No skipping ahead!
NEXT STEPS
LASA is one of the schools/programs that require next steps. On the Enroll Austin home page, you can select NEXT STEPS from the blue ribbon on top of the page.
Note: Your Enroll Austin application must be submitted before you can move on to Next Steps!
Scroll down to see your student. You’ll see two buttons (you may need to have submitted the Enroll Austin application before they show up for you). One to upload documents and one for teacher recommendations.
Upload Documents asks you for four things:
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Parent/Guardian Photo ID (driver’s license that has not expired)
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Report Card (AISD students do not have to upload these!)
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Test Scores (not required for LASA)
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Proof of Residency (upload full first page of latest electricity or gas bill)
If any of these are left blank, when you return to the NEXT STEPS page, you will see that the status says “Incomplete” in red scary letters. This is because Enroll Austin has no idea whether you need to upload everything or not. It’s just a computer program. It’s not that smart.
This isn’t something you should worry about! I’ll be making sure that you’ve submitted everything we need and update it on my end. You can safely leave upload spots blank.
Actually, it makes my life a little easier if you don’t upload anything you’re not required to upload.
But I understand that it may get stressful to see that “Incomplete” or you may be tired of getting the oh-so-helpful Enroll Austin emails reminding you that something you don’t have to do is incomplete. So, feel free to upload blank documents or pictures of cute kittens or whatever in the test score and/or report card slots.
Honestly, since majority of the required documents (aka everything but parent/guardian ID) is uploaded to the Supplemental Materials form, I just check them there. It’s way easier for me to access them there.
Students who only have grades from AISD do not have to upload report cards. Every Friday, I receive an updated grade report for all AISD students who have submitted the Enroll Austin application by the time the report is run.
Teacher Recommendation asks you to provide email addresses for three teachers.
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English or Social Studies Teacher
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Math or Science Teacher
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Fine Arts Teacher (not required by LASA)
It makes my life much easier if you make sure to add the email addresses under the right category. Like, the English teacher’s email address goes in the English or Social Studies Teacher slot.
Also, make sure to double check that the email address is correct. Both the teacher name and the domain name after the @ symbol! From here, you can also re-send the recommendation form if a teacher tells you they didn’t get it.
Until a teacher has completed their form, you can change the address to another teacher if needed.
Once a teacher has completed the form the status will update from “Sent” to “Complete”. At this point, you can no longer send the form to another teacher.
LASA does not consider recommendations from a Fine Arts teachers, but other schools or programs might.
Annual forms - do or don’t?
You’ll notice that one option under your student in Enroll Austin is “Complete Annual Forms”.
It hasn’t been made especially clear but priority registration and annual forms are used for different purposes.
The priority registration is used to apply for a seat at a certain school or program.
The annual forms are everything needed to register a student with AISD.
The annual forms DO NOT have to be submitted for us to consider the application!
If your student gets in (to any AISD school/program) the annual forms must be completed before they’re officially registered to the school. So it’s a good thing to get them over with now. BUT. It’s not required for the application itself. I will not be looking at the annual forms. (But our registrar will when she starts registering our incoming students.)
In conclusion…
Parents - you can see in Enroll Austin whether it’s been submitted or not, which schools/programs your student is applying to, and whether or not a teacher has submitted their recommendation.
The only documents you must submit in Enroll Austin for the application are:
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Valid Parent/Guardian ID (non-expired driver’s license)
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Proof of Residence (electricity or gas bill)
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Report Card(s) from non-AISD school (students who currently attend an AISD school and attended one last school year do not have to submit report cards.)
Once your student has submitted the supplemental materials (google) form, I’ll send an application status email. (Likely the following Friday depending on number of submissions.) You do not need to wait for this email to request a shadow date!
As long as Enroll Austin has been submitted, and your student has received the link to the shadow request form, they are good to go!
Now, take a deep breath. You’re doing great. You’ve got this!
All LASA Info Emails will be available on the Application Updates & Announcements blog within 24 hours of being sent.
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES
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Jan 25, 2025 - CogAT Admissions Test & “Find Your Fit”- parent panel (sign-up for parent panel) & Enroll Austin Help
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Feb 1, 2025 - Virtual Help Sessions by our parent organization, PFLASA (sign-up required)
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Feb 4, 2025 - DEADLINE! Also, last day to shadow at LASA, and last day to make any changes in Enroll Austin
IMPORTANT LINKS
Jo Koerth (she/her/hers)
LASA ADMISSIONS