Timeline for 2025-26 Enrollment

The new student application window for the 2025-26 school year will be open from January 6, 2025 until February 28, 2025. 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 Session for Prospective Families

Prospective families interested in learning more about Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School are invited to visit during one of the time slots listed below. We look forward to showing you all that ANCS has to offer!

  • November 16th, 8:30am – 9:30am, Elementary Campus
  • November 16th, 10:00am – 11:30am, Middle Campus
  • February 4th, 6:00pm – 7:00pm, Elementary Campus
  • February 4th, 6:00pm – 7:30pm, Middle Campus

CLICK HERE TO RSVP FOR INFO SESSION

    Enrollment Fair

    Date: January 11, 2025
    Time: 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
    Location: ANCS Elementary Campus, 688 Grant Street, Atlanta, GA 30315

    Join us for the 2025 ANCS Enrollment Fair to learn what makes Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School (ANCS) unique! Discover how we “do school differently” through our IB-MYP curriculum, constructivist teaching methods, Conscious Discipline approach, and emphasis on social-emotional learning (SEL). Explore our farm-to-school program, related and performing arts opportunities, and small class sizes with a 12:1 student-teacher ratio.

    For more information:
    Contact NaTasha Woody-Wideman, Ed.D., Director of School Services and Community Outreach, at nwoody-wideman@atlncs.org.

    CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR ENROLLMENT FAIR

    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.

    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 2025-26 school year will be open from January 6, 2025 until February 28, 2025. 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 in March, 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 2025-26 school year will be open from January 6, 2025 until February 28, 2025. Admission applications for new ANCS students are submitted through the Apply APS Charter Website.

    APPLY HERE