How the MATES Lottery Works

Following the open enrollment period ending on February 20, 2026, applications are counted to determine which grade levels have received a quantity of applications that exceed that grade’s capacity. In the event that there are more applications for a grade level than available positions, MATES will hold a public random drawing to determine enrollment for the impacted grade level. Returning MATES students who notify the school before the end of the open enrollment period are guaranteed enrollment the following year and are exempt from the public random drawing.

Students will be admitted at the time of the public random drawing according to preference group as space permits. If there is insufficient capacity to fully enroll a specific preference group in its entirety, a random drawing of the applicants within the preference group will be performed to determine which applicants within that group will be offered enrollment.

Applicants not offered enrollment due to insufficient capacity will be placed on a waitlist, in order, according to their draw in the lottery. Applicants who complete the enrollment process after the open enrollment period are considered post-lottery applicants and will be offered enrollment only after all waitlisted applicants from the open enrollment period have been exhausted and on a first come first serve basis. The waitlist will remain active until the close of open enrollment for the following school year at which time no further students will be enrolled. Waitlisted applicants may re-apply for the following year.

For the 2026-2027 school year, you will be applying for the lottery through the  Lotterease website. Lotterease manages the lottery application, lottery, and waitlist that is created during and after the lottery.

Lotterease Lottery Process

The lottery will be held on March 26, 2026 at 6:00 pm. You are welcome to watch the lottery in person at MATES, or livestream on Zoom. The results will available in your Lotterease account.

You will be notified by Lotterease for each applicant by email with lottery results. This email should be delivered to your inbox within hours of the lottery being run. This system-generated email from Lotterease will either offer you a seat to accept or decline, or it will give you your waitlist number.

When you receive your official notice from Lotterease, please open the email and follow the instructions to confirm or decline the official offer. It is the responsibility of the parent/guardian to check your junk/spam folder for notifications from Lotterease. You can also log into your Lotterease account to directly accept or decline the seat.

After accepting the seat, you will be emailed information for completing the student enrollment for the new school year. This will involve re-entering your contact information into the Q Parent Connect student information system. If you accidentally decline the spot, the system automatically notifies the next student on the waitlist immediately. MATES is not responsible for incorrect intentions.

You can monitor your student's progression on the waitlist via the Lotterease website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Lotterease system sends automated emails to notify you when your student has moved into the top 5, as well as each time your student moves into a ten position (i.e. 30, 20,10) on any waitlist. Once you are in the top 5, you will get notifications with each step of movement. Once open enrollment begins for the next year, you will need to enter the lottery again if you do not secure a seat for the 2026-2027 school year.

Proceed to the How To Apply page for instructions to Register and Apply in Lotterease 

Once you've created your Lotterease Parent account, you will be able to:

1. Monitor your student's application or waitlist status 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
2. Edit your account (update email address and/or phone number, etc.) - It is the parent/guardian's responsibility to keep this information up to date, this is the only way we have to contact you if your child is offered a seat
3. Remove your student from the lottery if you change your mind
4. Accept or decline if your student is offered a seat in the lottery
5. Please enter [email protected] and [email protected] to your contacts to ensure that all emails from Lotterease are not marked as spam

If you have any questions, please contact Brenda Miller at the school office at 805-495-7037 or [email protected]