The Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s school choice portal opens today, allowing families to pick the schools they’d like to enroll their K-12 students in next year.
Parents can login to the portal to submit their top choices for schools. The district will release school assignments on Jan. 17, 2025. Students will get into their top picks as long as seats are available.
CMSD will also host two high school fairs so students can learn more about the high school options.
The first, on the East Side, will take place today at 5 p.m. at the Arnold Pinkney East Professional Center located at 1349 E. 79th in Cleveland.
The West Side’s high school fair will be on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 5 p.m. at Max Hayes High School located at 2211 W. 65th St. in Cleveland.
What to know about picking a CMSD school
CMSD is an open enrollment school district, so students can attend almost any school. Some schools have admission requirements, though. The three high schools at the John Hay academic campus, for example, require students to have certain grades and proficient state test scores. Cleveland School of the Arts also requires students to submit a portfolio or audition. A few schools in the district are single gender.
Sometimes, schools don’t have enough open seats for all the students who want to enroll. In that case, students are assigned to schools based on a number given to them when they make their choices. Students who live outside of Cleveland can also apply for CMSD schools, but Cleveland residents are given priority admission.
Parents and students can read up on all the district’s options from a few different sources.
- CMSD’s high school guidebook, available in both English and Spanish, covers different programs, extracurricular options and more offered at the district’s high schools. CMSD keeps lists of all its high schools and elementary schools with links to their individual websites.
- The Cleveland Transformation Alliance’s School Quality Guide, for both elementary and high schools, breaks down each school’s demographics and performance.
- The state also grades each school through its report card system. Signal Cleveland also mapped schools’ report card grades and more.
