School choice and lottery-based admissions are built on trust:
- Families trust the process is fair.
- School boards trust policies are followed.
- District teams trust the system will hold up under scrutiny, especially when your community questions enrollment decisions.
That’s why, as of December 18, 2025, SchoolMint Enroll features a new enhancement: the ability to run priority-based and score-based lotteries together — as one unified process and with no custom workarounds or manual sorting required.
The Challenge: Real Policies, Rigid Systems
Many schools and districts rely on lottery processes that must account for both priorities and student performance. For example:
- In-district vs. out-of-district applicants
- Sibling or employee preferences
- Program eligibility requirements
- Academic, audition, or rubric-based scores
Historically, enrollment teams often had to choose between:
- Honoring priority groups
- Or ranking students by score
…but not both at the same time.
The result? Manual workarounds, disconnected spreadsheets, or post-lottery adjustments that are difficult to explain and even harder to defend to skeptical or frustrated families.
The Solution: Priority + Score Lotteries in One Process
With this new capability in SchoolMint Enroll, schools can now:
- Group students by district-defined priorities first
- Order students by score within each priority group
- Run a single, transparent lottery that mirrors official policy
This approach aligns enrollment mechanics with how policies are written, approved, and communicated — without sacrificing fairness or clarity.
What This Means in Practice
1. Lotteries That Match Real-World Policies
Schools no longer have to compromise between policy and practicality. You can now run lotteries that:
- Reflect board-approved guidelines
- Respect priority groupings
- Incorporate student scores in a structured, defensible way
The result is a lottery process that looks (and operates!) the way families, auditors, and oversight bodies expect it to.
2. Clearer, Easier-to-Explain Outcomes
Enrollment decisions often come with questions:
- Why did this student receive a seat?
- Why is another student on the waitlist?
- How were priorities and scores applied?
With priority + score lotteries, school teams can clearly show:
- How students were grouped by priority
- How scores were used within each group
- How seat offers were generated step by step
This makes it easier to communicate outcomes to families, school boards, and community partners without ambiguity or guesswork.
3. More Consistent and Scalable Enrollment Processes
This capability was initially developed through close district partnerships to solve complex, real enrollment challenges. It’s now available as a standard feature in SchoolMint Enroll. That means:
- No custom builds
- No manual sorting
- No one-off exceptions
Districts and networks can apply the same rules consistently across programs, schools, and years, supporting long-term scalability and operational confidence.
Why This Matters for Equity and Trust
When enrollment systems don’t reflect stated policies, trust erodes, especially among families navigating high-stakes school choice decisions.
By aligning enrollment mechanics with local education agencies’ priorities and performance criteria, this update supports:
- More equitable access to programs
- Stronger trust with families and communities
- Clearer, more defensible enrollment decisions
- Reduced administrative burden for school teams
In short, it helps schools run lotteries that are not just technically fair but are also perceived as fair.
SchoolMint Enroll was built to handle complexity — because real enrollment management is complex.
This latest enhancement reinforces a core principle: schools and districts shouldn’t have to bend their policies to fit their software.
If your district or school runs lottery-based admissions and needs a process that reflects real-world rules, priorities, and accountability, SchoolMint Enroll is designed to meet you there.
Want to see how SchoolMint Enroll’s priority- and score-based lotteries could work for your school(s)?
Book time with our team to walk through your specific enrollment model and needs in a K-12 student application and lottery system!
