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.
Hello everyone,
This is Jo Koerth, coming to you live from beneath the pile of supplemental materials forms that have come in since Saturday. I’m very grateful for everyone’s patience as I try to dig my way out.
If this is the first email you’ve gotten from me; I’m sorry it’s so long. I’m the person who looks through all submitted materials and make sure they follow guidelines and are accessible. You can find Info emails 1-7 on our Application Updates & Announcements blog. I do recommend reading them as they’re full of (hopefully) helpful information.
As we get closer to the deadline I know the anxiety is starting to ramp up. (Funnily enough, I think the parents are way more anxious than the students!) So before I go into the bulk of this email, I just want to remind you that LASA wants applicants to have the best possible shot at getting in. I will work with you if there are issues with anything you have submitted.
I know we handed out a physical checklist at our Info Nights, and we have an Application Checklist on the website. But I want to give you this more detailed checklist as a guidance as many of you are putting the final touches on the application.
I’ll start with the checklists (one for parents and one for students), and then below, I will go into more detail about each item.
PARENT CHECKLIST
[ ] Enroll Austin: Submit 2025-2026 School Year Priority Registration
[ ] Make sure to list and rank LASA
[ ] NEXT STEPS > Upload Documents
[ ] Proof of Residence: Utility Bill (electricity, gas, or water only)
[ ] Parent/Guardian ID: Driver’s License
[ ] Report Card: Non-AISD report card from previous and/or current year
[ ] NEXT STEPS > Teacher Recommendations
[ ] Enter email addresses provided by your student
[ ] Send
STUDENT CHECKLIST
[ ] Ask a core math/science teacher for a recommendation
[ ] Ask an English/social studies teacher for a recommendation
[ ] Give their email addresses to your parent/guardian for Enroll Austin
[ ] Fill out LASA Supplemental Materials Form
[ ] Upload Proof of Residence (electricity, gas, or water bill)
[ ] Write 3 Short Answers
[ ] Upload or Link Creative Work
[ ] Write Creator’s Statement
[ ] Upload Non-AISD report card from last school year (if needed!)
[ ] Upload Non-AISD report card from this school year (if needed!)
PARENT CHECKLIST: ENROLL AUSTIN
Accessing Enroll Austin
Parents who already have an AISD Parent Portal account should access Enroll Austin through the Portal.
> Go to austinisd.org/portal
> Click the Enroll Austin Tile
Parents who do not have an AISD Parent Portal account should not make one yet. Instead, access Enroll Austin through the website.
> Go to austinisd.org/enroll
> Click “Start Application”
> Enter the email address you used to first set up your Enroll Austin Account
> OR, if this is your first time in Enroll Austin, the email address you check
Submitting
If you have an AISD student, or you have already set up your Enroll Austin account, find the tile with your student’s name. (If you are brand new to Enroll Austin, you may have to add a student to your account first.)
There are three buttons you can press in that tile. For now I want you to IGNORE two of them (here’s a visual).
The top button is to register your student for this current school year. DO NOT CLICK IT!
The bottom button says “Complete Annual Forms”. DO NOT CLICK IT!
Annual forms are for registration which is a completely separate process from application.
(You’re actually absolutely free to get all your annual forms sorted while you’re in there. If you’re registering for an AISD school for next school year, they’ll be required. But they are NOT NEEDED to complete the application process.)
In the middle you’ll find the button for 2025-2026 School Year - Priority Registration. That’s the one!
If you haven’t done anything yet, the button will say “Start”. If you’ve started, or submitted, the button will say “Edit”.
Click the button if you haven’t yet started, or if you haven’t submitted yet, and follow the prompts.
(NOTE: If your student’s address is wrong, you won’t be able to change that in this view. You have to click “FAMILY INFORMATION” up on the blue ribbon at the top of the page and change the address there.)
Make sure you list all the schools/programs your student wants to attend (up to 7!) and rank them from 1-7 where 1 is the school your student most wants to attend. The dream school!
Do not worry about what you or your student may think are their chances of getting in. Safety schools are what rank 2-7 is for, depending on how many you are applying to! The system will automatically place students in the school they got into based on where they ranked it.
If a student gets into their first ranked school, the system will offer them a seat to that school. Students will then not be offered a seat at the schools/programs ranked 2-7 regardless if they qualified or not.
If a student got into their 2nd ranked school and their 1st ranked school put them on a waitlist (FYI, LASA does not have a waitlist!) they may be able to switch from 2nd to 1st if a spot opens up. But they would not be able to switch from 2nd down to 3rd.
So! How you rank the schools matters. There is no strategy or gaming the system. Just rank them in the order of most to least desirable to your student and your family. You can change the ranking as many times as you want until the deadline. After February 4, you will no longer be able to make changes. So sit down and talk through the options as a family, find the dream school and work down from there.
Back to the student tile: If you have already submitted the Enroll Austin application, you will see a little green check mark with the word “Submitted” after it. This means you did it!
Just below there’s a little eye icon and a link that says “View Summary”. If you click it, you can view the Enroll Austin application. Make sure LASA is listed as one of the schools/programs you’re applying to and that it’s ranked in the order your student would most like to attend it!
If you haven’t submitted yet, and all the information is correct, you should be able to click the submit button at the very bottom.
When we talk about submitting the Enroll Austin application this is ALL we mean! This is the part that, if not done, will keep us from being able to consider your student’s application.
Happily, you can see for yourself if it’s been submitted or not.
A successfully submitted Enroll Austin application for LASA:
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has the word submitted under the 2025-2026 School Year Priority Registration
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Shows LASA as one of the ranked school when you click “view summary”
PARENT CHECKLIST: NEXT STEPS: UPLOAD DOCUMENTS
There’s a “NEXT STEPS” button on the blue ribbon across the top of the Enroll Austin page. You must have submitted the Enroll Austin application before you can continue to the next steps. (Which is logical if you think about it!)
Once there, you will see a button to upload documents. (If you have more than one student, make sure you’re uploading the documents under the correct student’s name.)
There are several slots to upload different documents. You don’t have to upload all of them.
Specifically, you’ll see a slot to upload test scores. LASA does not ask for test scores. Other schools might, but we do not. If you’re only applying to LASA, you can safely leave that one blank.
Enroll Austin can only tell if there’s a document uploaded or not. It cannot tell which schools need which documents, or whether someone uploaded say a picture of a kitten or legitimate test scores.
So, unless you’ve uploaded something to every open slot, you will see that the Status below “Upload Documents” says “Incomplete” in a scary red. Don’t let it intimidate you! That simply means that there are upload slots that are empty. This is completely fine!
I collect everything we need and if there are issues, I will let you know. As a human being, I can tell an electricity bill from a picture of a puppy. Basically, what I am saying is that you should trust me, not the computer program.
PARENT CHECKLIST: UPLOAD DOCUMENTS: PROOF OF RESIDENCE
Everyone should upload their latest utility bill for electricity, gas or water. Make sure that the digital copy is easy to read. Remember, if you can’t tell whether a number on the bill is a 3 or an 8, I can’t either!
This will sound nitpicky, but I do need to see the entirety of the first page of your bill.
This means that you can’t take a picture of just the corner with your address, or a folded bill, or the bill still in its envelope.
It also means that if you normally tear off the bottom portion to pay the bill, I need you to make a copy of your bill before you do that. Again, I need to see the entirety of the first page of the bill.
So, to reiterate. The proof of residence should:
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be an electricity, gas, or water bill only
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be easy to read
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show the full first page
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be in the name of the student’s parent/legal guardian
Once your student has submitted their supplemental materials form you may be asked to resubmit proof of residence if it doesn’t follow guidelines, submit further documentation, or clarify if the name on the bill does not match the parent/guardian name in Enroll Austin. This is nothing to worry about. It’s just me checking all the boxes to verify your address. Just follow instructions and you’ll be fine.
Please do not preemptively submit further documentation or email me the second parent name. I may not need it and it will clog up my inbox.
PARENT CHECKLIST: UPLOAD DOCUMENTS: PARENT/GUARDIAN ID
Please upload the driver’s license of one of the parents. You can match it either to the parent in Enroll Austin or the parent whose name is on the utility bill.
Right now, there’s a “fun” little glitch that keeps me from accessing some of the Parent IDs uploaded to Enroll Austin. The IDs are there, they just don’t open for me. The vendor has been notified and they are working on a fix.
The only action I need from you right now is: If you see several upload slots for Parent ID, please upload the same document to all of them. I think that may solve it.
If I need anything else, I will let you know in the status email sent out after your student has submitted their supplemental materials form.
Before uploading your driver’s license make sure:
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It has not expired
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It is easy to read
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It shows the front(!) of the card
PARENT CHECKLIST: UPLOAD DOCUMENTS: REPORT CARD
Only students who have report cards from a non-AISD school have to upload report cards. For AISD students, I will get a report with the needed AISD grades after the deadline. (Enroll Austin must be submitted for the student to be included in the report.)
LASA asks for two report cards. One from last school year and one from this school year. Enroll Austin only has one upload spot for report cards.
There are two (three?) solutions to this!
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Merge two report cards into one file and upload that
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If you are not applying to a school requiring test scores, use that upload slot for the report cards
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Just one report card, and then upload both in the Supplemental Materials form that does have two upload slots
As for the documents themselves they should show the latest set of grades for the year they are from. I must be able to see the name of the student, the core courses, the year or grade level, and (obviously) the grades. Screenshots are fine if they contain all the needed information.
Before you upload a report card, go through the below checklists.
Report Card from Last School Year (2023/2024)
[ ] Is easy/possible to read
[ ] Lists student’s first and last name
[ ] Lists grade level or school year
[ ] Shows final year grades in core subjects
Report Card from This School Year (2024/2025)
[ ] Is easy/possible to read
[ ] Lists student’s first and last name
[ ] Lists grade level or school year
[ ] Shows semester 1 (or equivalent) grades in core subjects
Obviously some schools have different grading cycles. For those schools, submit the semester 1 equivalent report card.
PARENT CHECKLIST: NEXT STEPS: TEACHER RECOMMENDATIONS
Your student should give you the email addresses for two teachers. The teachers should be teaching them in core subjects. One teacher should be a math or science teacher, the other should be an English or social studies teacher.
Make sure your student indicates which is which, because you will be asked to enter the email address of the math/science teacher in the math/science teacher recommendation slot and so forth.
If you mix them up, it’s no big deal. They all get the same form. BUT, it makes my life immensely easier if they’re in the correct spot because I don’t have to manually switch things around on my end.
You will notice that there is a spot to enter the email address of a Fine Arts teacher. LASA does not consider recommendations from Fine Arts teachers. But other schools (Like McCallum) do.
Once you have sent the forms, you can come back in Enroll Austin and check if they’ve been completed or not. If they have been completed, the status will say complete. If not, the status will just say “sent”.
It’s a good idea to have your student check in with the teachers and make sure they’ve received the email and the link works. If it doesn’t, you can go back into Enroll Austin and resend the link to them. Before you do, make sure their email address is correctly spelled. (All the way through! Austinisd easily becomes Austinsid if you’re typing too quickly! And .com can come out .co or .con.)
Some teachers have trouble accessing the link. If they do, please ask them to go through the following steps:
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Try copying the link from the email (they may have to right-click the link and select “copy link” from the menu that appears) and then pasting it straight into the address bar of the browser.
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Sometimes the link has the words “about:blank” in front of it when it opens. Delete those two words in the address bar so the link starts with “austinisd”. That should do it!
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If not, try a different browser (like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, or what have you) or a different device (ie computer or cellphone) and repeat steps 1 and 2!
If they still can’t make the link work, send an email to LASAadmissions@austinisd.org
STUDENT CHECKLIST: TEACHER RECOMMENDATIONS
Hopefully, you have already asked two teachers to fill out recommendation forms for you. If not, that’s your first priority!
You’ll want to ask a teacher who knows you well. We prefer teachers from this school year, but you can ask someone from last year as well. Make sure it’s a teacher who has taught you in a core subject (English, math, science, social studies). You’ll need one math/science teacher and one English/social studies teacher.
Once they’ve agreed, get their email addresses and give them to the parent who is working on the Enroll Austin part of the application. Your parent will send them the form through Enroll Austin.
Remember, your teacher’s deadline is the same as yours and they may be providing recommendations for several students. Please be patient, kind, and grateful that they are doing this extra work for you.
STUDENT CHECKLIST: SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS FORM: PROOF OF RESIDENCE
Ask your parent/guardian to give you the document they uploaded to Enroll Austin. Hopefully, they followed all the guidelines I described above. But you may want to doublecheck that they did it right!
Make sure it’s:
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an electricity, gas, or water bill
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easy to read
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the full first page
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in the name of your parent/legal guardian
If your parent/guardian works full time for AISD, you can just upload a document with their employee number and district email address.
STUDENT CHECKLIST: SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS FORM: 3 SHORT ANSWERS
Answer the prompts and pay attention to the suggested word limits. Before you submit the form, have a trusted adult look them over. Check it against the Application Rubric.
STUDENT CHECKLIST: SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS FORM: CREATIVE WORK
Make sure your creative work follows the prompt in the form. You can either upload the work, or link to it. Do not do both.
If you are submitting a link to a google drive, make sure the share settings are set to “anyone with the link”. You may want to send it to a friend or trusted adult first to make sure it works on their device.
If you are having trouble with the creative work, you can sign-up for a help session on Saturday to have someone look over your application.
STUDENT CHECKLIST: SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS FORM: CREATOR’S STATEMENT
Make sure you follow the prompt and spend some time on this one. Before you submit, check it against the Application Rubric and let a trusted adult read it over.
STUDENT CHECKLIST: SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS FORM: REPORT CARDS
If you are in an AISD school, and you were in an AISD school last school year, you do not have to upload report cards. I will get access to AISD grades on the day after the deadline at the latest.
If you were in a non-AISD school last year and/or this year, you do have to upload report cards. Ask your parent/guardian to share the documents they already uploaded to Enroll Austin with you. Hopefully they followed the guidelines above. But please double check them!
Report Card from Last School Year (2023/2024)
[ ] Is easy/possible to read
[ ] Lists student’s first and last name
[ ] Lists grade level or school year
[ ] Shows final year grades in core subjects
Report Card from This School Year (2024/2025)
[ ] Is easy/possible to read
[ ] Lists student’s first and last name
[ ] Lists grade level or school year
[ ] Shows semester 1 (or equivalent) grades in core subjects
If your parents/legal guardians don’t have your report cards, you can go to your school’s front office and ask for them! We don’t need an official transcript. Report card or unofficial transcript are fine for application purposes.
AVAILABLE ENROLL AUSTIN AND APPLICATION HELP
Our parent organization is hosting two virtual help sessions this Saturday (Feb 1). You have to sign up in advance. They can help students:
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Edit short answers
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Proof or answer questions about the creative work
There will also be a representative from Enroll Austin on the Zoom call. If you are having any kind of trouble with Enroll Austin, I deeply deeply recommend getting that sorted out on Saturday!
Since this is organized by our parent organization, I do not have access to the Zoom link. They will send it out several times before the sessions so don’t worry!
COMMON QUESTIONS
Can you check if X/Y/Z was submitted correctly?
Not this minute. But once your student has submitted their supplemental materials form, I will go through and check everything submitted. You’ll receive an application status email showing what I’ve received (and checked). If something needs to be resubmitted, I will make a note in red.
We currently live in another school district. Can we apply to LASA and then move to AISD if we get in?
No. We cannot even look at the application of students who don’t currently live in AISD. We are a public school, funded by taxes. I’m sorry. If you move to AISD, we’d love to see your application for the 2026/2027 school year.
Do we have to upload the CogAT scores to Enroll Austin?
No. And if you took the test at LASA, you won’t receive the score report in time. We send the CogAT scores out to all eligible applicants with the decision letters.
Does an applicant have to submit report cards from AISD?
No. I get a report with AISD grades for all students who have submitted an Enroll Austin application listing LASA. I get them in batches. The next time I will get a report is on Friday, and the last time I get it is on Wednesday after the deadline.
The next steps are incomplete. Is something wrong?
No, it’s just Enroll Austin being dumb. It can just tell that some upload slots are empty. It can’t tell if you actually need to upload something or not. You can just ignore it. Or, if it’s really stressing you out, you can upload a blank document or a random file that you don’t mind other people seeing.
We resubmitted the document you asked for, did you get it and is it okay?
I absolutely understand the urge to ask. I do! But right now, I am working on checking the many (many) supplemental materials forms that were submitted since Saturday. I want to give as many applicants as possible a chance to correct issues before the deadline.
I will swing back around to everyone who resubmitted something, I promise! Thank you so much for your patience!
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That’s it for today! If you have questions, please try to answer them yourself first using the links below. This helps me focus on the families that have issues/questions they can’t figure out on their own.
If you end up with a question that you cannot answer yourself, the easiest way to get an answer is to email it to LASAadmissions@austinisd.org. I check it all day long. I’ll be honest, at this point, I scan it for any urgent questions and answer those first.
(When I say urgent, I mean from my point of view. Mostly this will be anything that is important to figure out for the application to be submitted on time. You may feel that something is urgent, and I might take a look and be like “oh that’s fine” and then you’ll have to wait a little longer for a reply. Sort of like going to the emergency room with a sprained ankle vs. a broken leg. Both are definitely medical events in need of treatment. But one can wait longer than the other.)
Note that I don’t accept materials submitted by email. It’s too easy for them to get lost in the inbox, and too hard to make sure they’re attached to the applicant’s record. There’s an upload form linked in the application status emails. Please use that to upload anything that needs to be resubmitted.
Why won’t I just give you the link? Well, if you haven’t submitted the Supplemental Materials form yet, just upload the materials to it. Too often, families want to make double-extra-sure that I’ve gotten everything and they’ll submit things ahead of time. This just creates extra work for me.
You are also welcome to call me at 512-414-5272 ext 5-6663. I am terrible at voicemails right now, so if you don’t get a hold of me please call again a little later.
Good luck everyone!
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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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