Learn more about the Great Hearts Texas academies
No. Great Hearts does not offer pre-Kindergarten.
We follow state guidelines which stipulate that a child must turn five years old on or before September 1st in the year in which they are enrolling for Kindergarten. Our academies do adhere to the state guidelines regarding the minimum age for Kindergarten, and exceptions are not made for early Kindergarten admittance. As a result, we do not offer early entrance testing for Kindergarten.
There is no tuition required at any of our Great Hearts academies. Full day kindergarten is offered at each Great Hearts Texas location with no fee or tuition and funded by the State of Texas and meets all state requirements.
Great Hearts is unable to determine your child’s chances of being offered a spot. Initial offers for the upcoming school year will be extended in mid-January after the Enrollment Lottery. If you do not receive an offer at that time, you will receive a waitlist position, which you may track via our Parent Portal. Additionally, offers will continue to be sent out through the school year as seats become available.
Great Hearts’ waitlist is ordered based on application type and any applicable priority status (e.g., sibling or transfer priority). When a seat becomes available it is offered to the first applicant on the waitlist. Applicants may move up or down the waitlist depending on application priority and/or application type.
Families with children on the Texas waitlist during the current school year must reapply for the upcoming school year during the Open Enrollment Period. Current waitlist numbers are applicable only for the current school year.
Great Hearts Academies does offer application priority status for siblings of students currently enrolled at a Great Hearts academy. A student is considered fully enrolled when s/he has accepted an offer of enrollment, and completed and submitted all required registration paperwork. Once a student is enrolled at Great Hearts, any sibling on a waitlist will be moved up the waitlist along with other applications with priority status. Sibling priority does NOT guarantee enrollment, but does significantly improve likelihood of enrollment.
Sibling priority only applies when the applicant has a sibling that is officially enrolled in that campus. Once you have completed registration of your child that has received an offer, sibling priority status will be applied to any siblings on that campus’ waitlist. They will then move to the top of the waitlist, in the order of the original lottery number. Offers are generally extended on a rolling basis, so completing your registration early is beneficial if you have other children on the waitlist.
No. Waitlists are run independently so your acceptance will not affect your status at another academy. We do ask, however, that if you accept an offer at another academy (or any other school), that you let us know as soon as you have decided on another school so we can offer your seat to the next child on the waitlist.
Great Hearts requests a student’s social security number during enrollment to use as a student identification number. Providing a social security number is voluntary and a decision not to provide the social security number will not keep your child from enrolling in or attending school. Social security numbers are used to identify students who are enrolled in Texas public schools. If you provide your child’s social security number on enrollment paperwork, Great Hearts will need to verify the number by reviewing a social security card issued for your child. If you do not have a social security card, you may request a new card (https://faq.ssa.gov/en-US-Topic/article/KA-02723). You may bring a request receipt to your registration appointment in the place of a social security card UNTIL the card arrives. Then you will need to bring the actual card in so we may verify the information provided during registration. Birth Certificate: You will need to request a new birth certificate (https://txapps.texas.gov/tolapp/ovra/). For out of state certificates, please find that state’s request procedure. You can then bring in the request receipt (or payment receipt) in place of the birth certificate UNTIL the certificate arrives. Then you will need to bring the actual certificate in for our records. Passports are also accepted.
We accept many forms of proofs – car insurance, bank statements, current parent transcripts, tax documents from current year, current mail from government agencies, LTC license, medical card, voter’s registration, etc. If you still do not have these documents, we have a form that you can have your landlord notarize for proof of residency.
We are open enrollment. We have no selection filters. We ask no questions of race, socio-economic status, intellectual ability or academic prowess prior to applying to our school.
It is possible to receive an offer to enroll at multiple academies. Each grade level’s waitlist at each academy is independent so you will receive a waitlist position for each academy that you apply to for your student. It is completely possible that you could receive an offer for enrollment from both academies if your student becomes number one on the waitlist.
