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Pre-K & LA 4

DR. JOHN OCHSNER DISCOVERY HEALTH SCIENCES ACADEMY IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EDUCATIONAL PROVIDER. WE DO NOT DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, SEX, NATIONAL ORIGIN, DISABILITY, SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND/OR AGE IN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OR ACTIVITIES THAT IT OPERATES.

The application period for the 2024-25 school year will open on October 10, 2023, and close on February 2, 2024, at NOON (applications must be SUBMITTED by 11:59 a.m.)

Note:

• Anyone on the wait list from the previous application period must re-apply.

• The wait list does not carry over from year to year.

• Current students do not need to re-apply.

All Jefferson Parish residents are eligible to apply.

Dr. John Ochsner Discovery will accept open applications for students entering grades Kindergarten through 8th.

The PreK 4 application is separate and only Discovery faculty and dependents of qualified Ochsner employees are eligible to apply for this tuition-based program. 

Dr. John Ochsner Discovery is an open enrollment school and does not test students to gain admission. 

Our application is online. The online application allows parents to save and finish the application later if needed. All supporting documents must be submitted online with the application. We encourage applicants to apply early so if there is a document missing the admissions team can notify the parent. Applications with missing required documents will not be eligible for the admissions lottery. No pupil shall be admitted during the application period.

Link to Online Application

We suggest gathering the following documents before you start your online application.

Tips for attaching documents to your child's application:

If you do not have access to a scanner to scan documents, you can use your smartphone or tablet.

1. Place the document on a solid background for good contrast

2. Find good lighting, avoid shadows across the document

3. Hold your smartphone or tablet flat, keep it as square to the document as possible

4. Make sure the image is not blurry and the information is legible

If you are completing the application from your mobile phone, you can attach the document directly from your phone. If you are using a desktop you will need to email the images of your documents to your personal email account. Then save them to the desktop computer you are using to submit your application. 

If the number of applicants exceeds the number of seats available for any grade level, a computer generated, random lottery will be run in order to determine who is offered a seat at the school.

Since Discovery is a high demand school with a 96 percent student retention rate, we expect to conduct a lottery for all grade levels with open seats. Applicants applying to grades with zero open seats will be entered in the lottery to determine the number on the wait list. The wait list remains active until January 31, 2025. All applications submitted within the application period will have an equal opportunity for admission, regardless of whether they are submitted on the first day or the last day of the application period.

Applications submitted for the 2023-24 school year will not be valid, rolled over, or processed in the 2024-25 lottery. A new application must be submitted during the application period in order to be considered for a 2024-25 seat.

The 2024-25 school year lottery takes place in March 2024, and details will be communicated to families closer to the lottery dates.

Per our Charter Operating Agreement, 50% of open seats are designated for qualified Ochsner employees’ children (dependents) living in Jefferson Parish.

Faculty students and siblings of current students have preferential placement for open seats. Siblings who are applying for the first time will receive preference only after one of the siblings has attended for one year. 

The DJOD preference area map can be found here; students living in this area will have preferential admissions for 20% of available seats. 

Louisiana state statutes require all Type 1 charter schools to enroll a certain percentage of economically disadvantaged students. If your student is classified as economically disadvantaged you will need to provide supporting documents with your student's application and upon admission if awarded a seat. The section with Economically Disadvantaged will ONLY be considered if the school has less than the specified percentage of ED students and is NOT a lottery preference for the 2024-25 school year.

All preferences shall be considered in the following order:

1. Children of Discovery faculty

2. Siblings of current DJOD students. Siblings must have the same biological parent(s) or legal guardian(s) by court-ordered foster or adoption AND reside at the same address as each other. Provisional Custody by Mandate does not qualify a student for this preference.

3. Applicants who are dependents of qualifying Ochsner employees (as determined by Ochsner Human Resources).

4. Applicants who reside in the neighborhood preference area.

5. Applicants who are residents of Jefferson Parish.

1. Lottery refers to the selection of applicant names by a random method in a computer generated process.

2. A lottery shall be conducted by the school to include all grades in which the number of applicants exceeds the number of expected seats available.

3. If the number of applicants is less than the number of seats anticipated to be available, seats will be awarded and no lottery shall be conducted for that grade.

4. All applicants (students not already attending school, including siblings of those already attending) participate in the lottery.

5. Only completed applications received prior to the end of the application deadline are eligible to participate in the lottery.

6. All applicants offered a seat shall be required to confirm their enrollment status within the designated time.

7. All preference categories shall be published prior to the lottery being conducted.

8. All applicants entitled to receive a lottery preference shall be identified PRIOR to the lottery.

9. Preference status applicants are entitled to a percentage of open seats ahead of applicants without a preference status.

According to the district, 5th through 8th grade students who enter a Jefferson Parish Public School from a non-public school/setting will need to take a summer Placement Test in English Language Arts and Math before being admitted. Details on the placement test will be issued by the district. Test results may impact grade level placement, but not enrollment.