Lottery Process
The application window for the 2020-21 school year is January 1-31.
If there are more applications than space at any particular grade level, Highline will hold a lottery including all students with completed applications. Students not accepted in the lottery will be placed on a waitlist in the order they are chosen from the pool of remaining students.
- The lottery will take place on March 3.
- Families will be notified immediately via SchoolMint.
- Full results will be posted March 6.
All qualified applicants will fall into one of three separate priority groups and a waitlist.
Priority Group #1
51% of the seats for each freshman class (55 seats) are reserved for students who live within the boundaries of Highline Public Schools. Students who fall into this category were placed in lottery priority group #1 and chosen first. Students in lottery priority group #1 not chosen in the initial lottery were placed on a waitlist in the order their names were drawn. If Highline students who are chosen in the lottery choose not to enroll in RAHS, their seats will be filled through the Highline waitlist until there are no students left on that waitlist. Any additional openings will be filled by the waitlist for lottery priority group #3.
Priority Group #2
20 seats are reserved for students who reside within the boundaries of Seattle Public Schools. Students who fall into this category were placed in lottery priority group #2 and chosen second. Students in lottery priority group #2 not chosen in the initial lottery were placed on a waitlist in the order their names were drawn. If Seattle students who are chosen in the lottery choose not to enroll in RAHS, their seats will be filled through the Seattle waitlist until there are no students left on that waitlist. Any additional openings will be filled by the waitlist for lottery priority group #3.
Priority Group #3
All students from other districts will be placed into lottery priority group #3. The 30 remaining seats were filled by pulling names from lottery priority group #3. Students in lottery priority group #3 not chosen in the initial lottery were placed on a waitlist in the order their names were drawn. If students from lottery priority group #3 chosen in the lottery choose not to enroll in RAHS, their seats will be filled through the priority group #3 waitlist.
Waitlist Process
If a student who received a seat at RAHS through the lottery process chooses not to attend RAHS, their seat will be filled from the appropriate waitlist. For example, if a Highline resident chooses not to attend RAHS, that seat will be filled by a student from the Highline waitlist; a Seattle seat will be filled from the Seattle waitlist; an ‘other district’ seat will be filled from the ‘other district’ waitlist. If either the Highline or the Seattle district waitlists are depleted, any additional students will be chosen from the ‘other district’ waitlist. If the ‘other district’ waitlist is depleted, students will be chosen first from the Highline waitlist; then if no names remain on the Highline list, from the Seattle list