Sylmar STM Magnet - Application Information

All Magnet schools use the same application, which can be found in the Choices Website. This site is published in the beginning of October and can be accessed online at echoices.lausd.net. Parents will first complete a LAUSD Parent Account. They will then enter the information about their children. After that, they can apply for magnet schools and other programs. Choices Brochures can also be obtained at LAUSD Schools, LAUSD Local District Offices, LAUSD Central Office, the Parent Community Services Branch, and all Los Angeles City Libraries. If you need help with the application, please visit this site: Step-by-step Guide to the Magnet Application. 

 

The application window for the 2024-2025 school year was from October 2, 2023 to November 17, 2023. Parents who complete the application online will receive an immediate e-mail confirmation. Parents who mail a paper application (or hand-deliver it to the Student Integration Office,) will receive a confirmation letter in mid-December. The office is at 333 S. Beaudry Ave, 25th Floor, Los Angeles, 90017. Since the district receives an average of 60,000 applications each year, it is best to complete the application online. If you do mail your application, it is advisable to do so via registered mail to verify the mailing date. The district cannot be held responsible for lost applications. Late applications are processed and placed on a separate Late Waiting List. All applications need to be sent to the Student Integration Office, not the Sylmar Charter High Science Tech Math Magnet.

 

Applying to a second and/or third choice magnet school:  You have the option to apply to a second and third choice school on the magnet application.  You should only do this if you would be happy to accept a position at the second or third choice school.  If you apply to a magnet that has more applicants than spaces, you may be accepted to your second or third choice.  When that happens, you WILL NOT be on the waiting list for your first choice school. Please do not list a second or third choice school that you do not want your child to attend. If you only indicate one choice, you will be on the waiting list for that school if you are not selected.  

In March, you will be notified whether your child was accepted or placed on a ranked waiting list. If space becomes available, students are taken off the waiting list in order. Students on the Late Waiting List will be accepted ONLY if the On-time Waiting List is exhausted. 

The application window for the 2024-2025 school year was from October 2, 2023 to November 17, 2023. Late applications will be available February through mid-September, 2024. You may submit a LATE APPLICATION for the 2023-2024 school year at echoices.lausd.net. However, we do have a waiting list at this time. (No students will be accepted after the second week of the semester.) You can find help with creating the Parent Account in the document below titled Parent User Guide or by clicking on the echoices website.

 

The only way to get a child into the Sylmar Charter High Science Tech Math Magnet is through the Magnet Application Process. The only selection criteria is the number of priority Magnet points earned (described below.) NONE of the following are factors in selection: being identified gifted, earning good grades, working in the area, living in the area, knowing someone at the school, being able to volunteer, or being able to donate funds. The Sylmar Charter High Science Tech Math Magnet can only take students off the lists generated by LAUSD in the order outlined above. We do not have the authority to make acceptance decisions at the school site.

Students are assigned priority points in several areas:

• Ninth grade applicants who have completed middle school in a magnet program, and apply to a magnet high school, receive 12 points. These points are assigned only for the ninth grade and only at the time of matriculation from middle school.
• Applicants placed on a valid on-time Magnet waiting list will receive 4 points per year for up to three years. This is a maximum of 12 points. Students currently enrolled in a Magnet cannot earn waiting list points. Only the last three years are counted in the waiting list tally.
• Applicants with a resident LAUSD school that is designated as overcrowded will receive 4 points. (These are schools that bus students out to relieve over crowding OR schools that are on a year round calendar to relieve over crowding.) These points are not cumulative. They are assigned annually.
• Applicants with a resident LAUSD school that is designated as Predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Other Non-White (PHBAO) receive 4 points. These points are not cumulative. They are assigned annually.
• Applicants that apply to the same Magnet School in which a sibling will be continuing that year will receive 3 points. Siblings must reside at the same address at the time of application.

Applicants are sent a letter in December or January confirming receipt of their application and the number of magnet points assigned. Parents who completed the application online will receive their confirmation letter via email. Questions regarding priority points should be directed to Student Integration Services, at (213) 241-4177.

Every year this varies. We cannot anticipate how many points applicants will have nor how many applications the district will receive each year. 

The Sylmar Charter High Science Tech Math Magnet accepts about 92 ninth grade students every year. We accept only a few students in grades 10-12 to fill the spaces of students who have move away from our school. We do not know how many openings we will have in grades 10-12 until those students notify us that they will not be returning. Sometimes, we do not have any openings in the upper grade levels.

The list is usually published in late March.

Once an applicant receives a letter of acceptance, parents should visit the Sylmar Charter High Science Tech Math Magnet to obtain an enrollment packet. Please return this packet promptly so that we can program you child into the courses they desire. Ninth grade students will take a placement exam that will help us program the student into the proper courses and provide teacher support. This placement test is NOT used to deny acceptance to our Magnet.

Once applicants enroll in the Sylmar Charter High Science Tech Math Magnet, they do not need to reapply unless they want to change schools. Current Magnet students who apply, and are accepted into another Magnet program, will be automatically dropped from our Magnet school. If applicants are accepted into a Magnet school, and decline placement, they lose all previous accrued waiting list points.

Each on-time applicant is assigned a computer generated sub-priority random number. Once the applicant’s information is verified magnet priority points are assigned as outlined above and in the Choices brochure. Students not selected into a school are placed on a waiting list. The student’s rank on the waiting list is based on the number of priority points generated and the sub-priority points assigned by the Office of Student Integration Services.

The only information the school is authorized to provide is the page number of the waiting list where the applicant appears.