Timeline for 2024-25 Enrollment

The new student application window for the 2024-25 school year will be open from January 3, 2024 until February 29, 2024. Admission applications for new ANCS students are submitted through the Apply APS Charter Website. Applications to schools after the lottery will be placed on the wait list if no spaces are available.

Info Sessions for Prospective Families

ANCS extends a warm invitation to prospective students and their parents or guardians to join our engaging Information Sessions. 

  • January 20th, 9am-10:30am, Elementary Campus
  • January 23rd, 6pm-7:30pm, Middle Campus
  • January 25th, 6pm-7:30pm, Elementary Campus
  • January 27th, 9am-10:30am, Middle Campus

Enrollment Fair: Part of the Pack

Discover the vibrant world of ANCS at our upcoming enrollment fair! Meet our dedicated educators and explore our diverse offerings & engaging programs. Open to all students in incoming grades Kindergarten – 8th.

  • February 24th, 11am-1pm, Middle Campus

Hands-on, Personalized Learning

The Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School (ANCS) is a K-8 charter school with two campuses formed by the merger of two successful charter schools that have been serving southeast Atlanta since 2002.

It all started with an acorn – a dream to plant a new kind of public school for children in southeast Atlanta. One that would improve academic achievement, foster extraordinary parental involvement, and strengthen the community in some of Atlanta’s most resurgent neighborhoods. As a result of an intensely motivated group of parents and educators, that dream came true with the opening of the Neighborhood Charter School (NCS) in August of 2002. Then, in 2005, many of the same parents and educators opened a second charter school to serve middle school students – the Atlanta Charter Middle School (ACMS). In 2011, the two schools merged to form a single, two-campus school – the Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School (ANCS) – to strengthen the educational experience for students and operate more efficiently with its resources.

The ANCS mission is to:

  • BUILD an empowered and inclusive community of students, parents, and educators
  • ENGAGE the whole child—intellectually, social-emotionally, and physically
  • HELP all students to know themselves and to be known well by their community
  • CHALLENGE each student to take an active role as an informed citizen in a global society
  • COLLABORATE with the larger community to advocate for student-centered schools

I wanted a school that, when my children walked up, they smiled. And the school smiled back. And that’s what we got.

ANCS Founding Parent

Teaching Students
Skills for Success in School and Beyond

Harvard and MIT researchers conducted studies of successfulcompanies – such as Ford,  Northwestern Mutual, IBM – and determined that consistently and across industries certain core skills are required by these companies:

  • The “hard skills” – these include basic mathematics and problem-solving abilities and fluency in technology
  • The “soft skills” – the ability to work in groups and to make effective oral and written presentations (Murnane & Levy, Teaching the New Basic Skills)

Portfolios and Exhibitions

ANCS uses student portfolios and public exhibitions of them as a way to gather a wider array of information about student learning and growth.

One of the more unique features of students assessment at ANCS is the use of portfolios and exhibitions. ANCS uses student portfolios and public exhibitions as a way to gather a wider array of information about student learning and growth. This system of assessment is tailored appropriately to match developmental and academic performance expectations at each grade level.

Diversity & Equity

ANCS believes in the power that comes from students learning with and from classmates of different backgrounds. Our school is affiliated with the Diverse Charter Schools Coalition, a collection of schools with racially, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse student populations with the following shared beliefs:
  • Diverse schools provide greater opportunities for students to learn from one another.
  • Diverse schools promote the celebration and understanding of other cultures and viewpoints.
  • Charter schools can and should contribute to solving the historic challenge of integrating our public school system.
  • Diverse charter schools promote equality by ensuring that students from different backgrounds have the same high quality educational opportunities.
  • Diversity is a cost-effective method of boosting student achievement.
  • Diverse schools invigorate and strengthen urban neighborhoods by bringing community members together.
  • Achieving diversity often requires deliberate efforts through recruitment, admissions policies and school design.

I like the fact that we work together in groups and learn from each other.

ANCS Student

New Student Enrollment - Frequently Asked Questions

Any K-8th grade student zoned for the Atlanta Public Schools may attend ANCS. The school has a primary attendance zone of Grant Park, Ormewood Park, and Summerhill, a secondary attendance zone of NPU-W, followed by the rest of the Atlanta Public Schools district boundaries.

The new student application window for the 2024-25 school year will be open from January 3, 2024 until February 29, 2024. Admission applications for new ANCS students are submitted through the Apply APS Charter Website.

Typically, there are more applications than spaces available, and, therefore, an admissions lottery is held. The lottery will take place on March 11, 2024 after the application period has ended. In the lottery, students are randomly selected to be offered admission to ANCS until all available spaces are filled. Once all spaces in a grade level are filled, the remaining students are selected to be placed on a wait list.

If there are more applicants than spaces available in a grade level, a lottery may be held based on priority attendance zones. Also, to achieve a diverse student body, ANCS weights its lottery for “economically disadvantaged” students. Please see the Admissions page for information on how this process works.

You will be asked to turn in some documentation to verify your residency from the enrollment application (the list of required documents can be found here). After that, you’ll be given information about the start of the coming school year at ANCS.

ANCS holds a number of information sessions for interested parents to learn more about the school (see our calendar for dates, times, and locations). You are highly encouraged to attend an information session. If you cannot attend a session but have questions about the school, visit our website and/or call us to learn more.

Students come to and from ANCS by carpool, bike, foot, or public transportation–we do not have daily school bus service. Students who need them can get subsidized MARTA passes from the school. We work with families to make sure their students can get to school at ANCS.

For the most part, yes. ANCS’s school year typically begins and ends around the same time as APS and breaks are closely aligned. The school day at the elementary campus begins at 8:00 (the building opens at 7:30 am) and students are dismissed at 2:40 pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday; 1:30 pm on Wednesday. At the middle campus, the school day begins at 8:30 am (the building opens at 8:00 am) and students are dismissed at 3:10 pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday; 2:00 pm on Wednesday. Free early care is provided beginning at 7:30am.

Yes, both campuses have an after school program that starts when students are dismissed every day of the week and runs until 6:00 at both campuses. Information about the after school program can be found on our website. Scholarships for the ANCS after school program are available. Also, other after school programs, such as the Boys & Girls Club and Study Hall, have vans that pick up students at ANCS at dismissal time each day for those after school programs.

How to Apply

The new student application window for the 2024-25 school year will be open from January 3, 2024 until February 29, 2024. Admission applications for new ANCS students are submitted through the Apply APS Charter Website.

APPLY HERE