Capped Schools

Families must use the online application for their base school. Use the Address lookup tool to find your base school. You must apply to your base school, even if it is capped. 

The school will call you to set up an appointment to bring your paperwork. At this meeting, you will learn if your student has a seat or if they will be assigned to an overflow school and put on the waitlist.

A capped school is full. But this does not always mean your student cannot go there. Your student may still be eligible if they meet certain rules. (See "Important Notes" below.)
 

Note: If your base school has a seat, your student is enrolled. You are done!

If your base school is full, it will send your paperwork to the overflow school. The overflow school will enroll your student. Students at an overflow school get district bus service. At this time, your student is added to the waitlist for your base school.

If a seat opens, the capped school will call you. There are two call periods with different rules:

Mid-Year Call: This call happens at the end of the second quarter.

• You can accept the seat or choose to finish the year at your current school.
• If you choose to stay, your student keeps their bus service and stays on the waitlist.

Summer Call: This call happens before the new school year starts.

• You can accept the seat or choose to stay at your current school.
• If you choose to stay, your student loses their bus service and is removed from the waitlist.

• If a student leaves WCPSS or moves outside the base area, they are taken off the waitlist.
• Students who are not enrolled in WCPSS cannot be added to the waitlist.
   

Mills Park Middle School and Apex Friendship High School currently have a feeder pattern cap.  These caps work differently.

• Middle schools with this cap have waitlists for students coming from a feeder elementary school.
• High schools with this cap have waitlists for students coming from a feeder elementary or middle school.

Students can be added to the waitlist as early as kindergarten.

To get on the feeder pattern waitlist, families must:

• Live in the base area for the capped middle or high school.
• Enroll their student with WCPSS. Once enrolled, the student is added to the list.

Students may be eligible to go to a capped school if they meet certain rules, such as those who are:

• Rising 6th or 9th grade students who lived in the base area before the cap was placed. These students must pre-enroll before March 1 to avoid being sent to an overflow school.
• Rising kindergarten students who lived in the base area before the cap date. They must pre-enroll before March 1 to avoid being sent to an overflow school.
• Children of full-time WCPSS employees who work at the capped school.

If you have questions about your student’s eligibility, contact the Office of Student Assignment at (919) 431-7333 or studentassignment@wcpss.net.
 

Proving you live here (residency/ domicile) is different when enrolling at a capped school.

Families must be living in their homes when they enroll. Staff need to see proof that you live there now and proof of how long you have lived there. This is because we must confirm if you were living in the home before the cap date to meet certain rules.

Please bring one or more of the following:

• Current utility bills (gas, water, or electric)
• Closing papers for a home purchase
• A lease

Offers to buy a home or leases that show you are not yet living there will not be accepted.