Attention, Philly parents: The special admissions school deadline is Wednesday. Here’s what to know.

The deadline for families to apply to any Philadelphia School District special admissions school — or any school outside their neighborhood — is approaching.

Applications are due Wednesday at 11:59 p.m.

Here’s what to know about the process:

Every child who lives in Philadelphia is eligible to attend a district school. Neighborhood schools — the district calls them “catchment schools” — are assigned based on home address. Families can apply to have their children attend a criteria-based admissions school, or one outside their catchment, if that school has room and is accepting applications.

» READ MORE: A lawsuit alleging the Philly School District’s special admissions policy was race-based has been dismissed

For decades, principals had significant say over who gained admission to their schools. In 2021, the district overhauled the special-admissions process in the name of equity; some district schools had demographics that did not match the city’s. The system moved to a centralized lottery process that removed principals from the equation and gave preference to students from certain underrepresented zip codes at several top public schools.

That process has proven controversial. Some parents sued the school system, alleging that the new process was race-based and unconstitutional. A federal judge recently dismissed that suit.

The district has tweaked the process every year since the overhaul, eliminating an essay component and, most recently, moving to ranked choice, which is new this admissions cycle, with students not just listing five schools to which they’d like to apply, but listing them in order of preference.

Officials said their aim was to ensure that more students get offers; in the past, some students qualified for multiple schools but received initial admissions offers to none. They also said using ranked choice would help reduce the time it takes to fill empty seats.

Criteria vary by school. Only one district high school requires students to have taken Algebra I. (Many district elementary schools do not offer Algebra I). All criteria-based middle and high schools require at least 90% attendance and have PSSA score requirements. Other schools mandate an audition or a presentation.

Other schools, like career and technical schools such as Mastbaum and Swenson, are citywide admissions — no child is assigned to these based on their address, and the schools do not have academic criteria, but students must apply for entry.

Parents can apply via the district’s online parent and family portal. Non-district families can apply here.

The district has held several “application assistance labs” where staff offer in-person help with the process. The final one is Tuesday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the district’s Office of Student Enrollment and Placement at its Center City headquarters, 440 N. Broad St.

Students living in zip codes 19140, 19133, 19132, and 19134 who meet criteria for Academy at Palumbo, George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science, Central High, and Masterman get automatic admission to those schools and do not need to go through the lottery process, though they must still apply for admission.

Students in zip codes 19121 and 19139 previously had zip code preference to those schools but do not have preference this year.

After the Wednesday deadline, officials will release student eligibility sometime in November or December; an appeal window will also open and later close in that time.

Next, in December and January, appeals will be reviewed, presentations will occur, and applications of students with disabilities and of English learners who qualify will receive individual reviews.

Families will be notified of students’ final eligibility, the computerized lottery will occur, and offers, acceptances, and waitlist offers will be made — also in January, officials said.

Students will receive only one offer during the first phase of acceptances; offers can continue in the second phase, based on the order students ranked their choices, their eligibility, and available seats. Students will remain on the waitlist only for higher-ranked schools for which they qualified but did not receive an offer.

Students have seven days after an initial offer to accept; if they do not accept within that seven days, the offer expires. Offers expire after three days during the waitlist phase.