New Castle County, Delaware

Choosing a school in Delaware

Every Delaware family is choosing among a handful of paths — your neighborhood school, a different public school, a charter, a magnet, private or parochial, or homeschool. Here's how each one actually works: how you get in, what it costs, and when to apply. We explain the process, parent-to-parent. We don't rate or rank schools — that's your call.

New Castle County–oriented; the mechanics are statewide. Last reviewed July 2026.

The 60-second version

Doing nothing is a valid path. Your neighborhood (feeder) school is assigned by your address — if you're happy with it, just register. Everything below is for families who want something different.
Want a different public school — another district's or a charter? That's "School Choice": one statewide application at SchoolChoiceDE.org, ranking up to three schools. For 2027–28 the window is expected to run Nov 2, 2026 → Jan 13, 2027 (our projection from the statutory formula — official dates post at SchoolChoiceDE.org this fall).
Private or parochial? You apply directly to each school, pay tuition (need-based aid is common), and the deadlines often come earlier than the public window. It's not on SchoolChoiceDE.
Homeschool? You register with the state and file two short reports a year. Delaware is a low-regulation state.

Your options at a glance

Six lanes. They're not mutually exclusive — you can register your neighborhood school, file a public choice application, and apply to a private school in the same season. Each lane gets in a different way, on a different calendar.

Your neighborhood (feeder) school

How in: Assigned by your home address. Just register — no application.
Cost: Free (public).
When: Register any time; one statewide online form.

The default. If you're happy here, you're done — choice is optional.

A different public school — “School Choice”

How in: One statewide application; priority order, then a lottery if the school is oversubscribed.
Cost: Free (public).
When: Apply early Nov → mid-Jan for the next school year.

Rank up to three public schools (district or charter) on one form.

Charter school

How in: Public; applied for on the same choice form. Admission by lottery plus each charter's own preferences (one, CSW, uses a test).
Cost: Free (public, no tuition).
When: Same Nov–Jan window; a test/assessment step or two fall just after.

Run by their own boards, not a district — each writes its own rules.

Magnet & vo-tech

How in: Public; apply via SchoolChoiceDE, then a skills assessment or a records review.
Cost: Free (public).
When: Same window; entry usually only at 6th or 9th grade.

Arts (Cab Calloway) and career/technical (NCC Vo-Tech) tracks.

Private & parochial

How in: Apply directly to each school. The school decides — no state lottery, not on SchoolChoiceDE.
Cost: Tuition; need-based aid is common.
When: Often earlier — Catholic highs test in mid-November; independents' deadlines cluster Dec–Jan.

Delaware has no voucher or tax-credit program — public funds don't follow your child here.

Homeschool

How in: Register your homeschool with the state (DDOE EdAccess), then report enrollment and year-end attendance.
Cost: Your own costs; no tuition.
When: Register in the fall; report attendance by July 31.

Low-regulation: no state testing, portfolio, or curriculum approval (except the district-coordinated type).

Open any section below to read it in full.

The year at a glance

The lanes don't share a calendar — private deadlines come before the public window even opens. Here's the whole season in order, for the year your child would enter. You can register any time; everything else is the recurring annual pattern.

September Diocese need-based tuition-aid applications open; private-school fall open houses begin.
Early Nov Public School Choice window opens at SchoolChoiceDE.org — register first, then apply.
Mid-Nov Catholic high schools give the HSPT entrance test (taken at your first-choice school).
Dec–early Jan Independent (private) application and financial-aid deadlines cluster.
Mid-Jan Public School Choice window closes — the hard wall for the public lane.
Late Jan Charter School of Wilmington assessment and Cab Calloway audition — just after the deadline.
Late Feb Public-choice decisions go out (last day of February).
Mid-Mar Accept your one public-choice offer (third Friday in March) — accepting declines the rest.

Exact dates shift year to year — confirm the public window on SchoolChoiceDE.org and each private school's admissions page once they post.

What should I do now?

Find the row that's closest to you and start there.

Heading to kindergarten

Register at your home district any time (your child must turn 5 by Aug 31). Want a non-feeder school? K choice runs later than the main window — you can apply up to the first day of school if seats remain. Start prep the winter before.

Entering middle school

Some magnets and charters take new students at 6th grade (Cab Calloway is 6–12). If you want anything other than your feeder middle school, file the public choice application in the Nov–Jan window.

Entering high school

The biggest fork. Your options: your feeder high, NCC Vo-Tech (9th-grade entry), Charter School of Wilmington (assessment), a Catholic high (HSPT mid-Nov), or an independent (ISEE/SSAT, Dec–Jan). The calendars don't line up — start in the fall.

Already in public school, want a different one

You're already registered, so just file the choice application Nov–Jan. Watch for good-standing conditions — some districts (e.g. Brandywine, Colonial) require academics/attendance/behavior in good standing to take or keep a choice seat.

Moving into Delaware

Register at your new home district. A qualifying move counts as “good cause,” so even a choice application filed after the deadline must be accepted and considered as if it were on time.

Considering private or homeschool

Private: apply directly to each school, expect earlier deadlines, and look at need-based aid (FACTS, FAST, or Clarity). Homeschool: register with DDOE EdAccess, then file two short reports a year. Neither is on SchoolChoiceDE.

The other decisions, every week

Tiny Weekends is two New Castle County parents helping other parents make the local calls — schools today, the weekend every week. Get our free Thursday email: the best things to do with the kids, chosen for their ages.

Public School Choice, explained

Registration, the timeline, the application, district vs. charter, the NCC charters, magnets & vo-tech.

"School Choice" is Delaware's process for attending a public school other than the one your address assigns you — another district's school, or a charter. It's one statewide application, it runs on a fixed annual calendar, and it's the lane most families find confusing.

Registration, choice, and kindergarten sign-up are three different things

This is where almost everyone gets tangled, so it's worth 30 seconds up front.

Registration is enrolling your child in the public-school system — proving who they are and where you live. You do it through your home district, and since 2023 it's a single statewide online form you can complete any time.
School choice is asking to attend a school other than your assigned one. It's the November–January application this section is about. By itself it does not enroll your child anywhere — it's a request.
Kindergarten sign-up is its own thing again, on the district's schedule (more below).

The order that bites: you have to be registered in your home-district school first, before a choice or charter application even counts. Apply to a charter without registering and your application is incomplete — and an incomplete application doesn't go in the lottery. Register first, then choice.

If your child has an IEP or 504 plan: the rules differ by lane — in public school your child's rights largely travel with them; in private school and homeschool the entitlement changes. We pulled the details into their own section: special education across every lane.

The choice timeline (for the 2027–28 school year)

Delaware runs choice on the same calendar every year — applications open the first Monday in November and close the second Wednesday in January. Below are the expected 2027–28 dates; confirm them on SchoolChoiceDE.org once the state posts them in the fall.

Nov 2026Applications open (expected Mon, Nov 2). Apply online at SchoolChoiceDE.org; list up to three ranked schools.
Jan 2027Applications close (expected Wed, Jan 13). This is the deadline that matters; miss it and your options narrow sharply.
Feb 2027You hear back by the last day of February. (Last year that date was Feb 27.)
Mar 2027You decide by the third Friday in March. You can accept only one offer — accepting it declines the rest. (Some districts use a slightly different date; check yours.)

Three ways the deadline bends: kindergarten can apply up until the first day of school; charters, vo-tech, and magnet schools may take late applications to fill open seats; and a qualifying life change (a move, a marriage or divorce, a guardianship, an adoption, a substantiated bullying situation) counts as "good cause" and must be considered as if you'd made the deadline.

How the application works

One statewide application at SchoolChoiceDE.org. After you've registered in your home-district school, you submit a single choice application listing up to three schools, ranked. You can apply to multiple districts and charters on that one application, and you may receive more than one invitation — but you can accept only one; accepting it automatically declines the others.

If a school is full, qualified students who aren't selected go on a ranked waiting list that lasts until the first day of that school year — it does not carry into the next year, so you reapply during the next window. A school counts as "full" for choice when its projected enrollment reaches 85% of capacity.

District vs. charter: two different machines

Both are public schools that take the same application, but they admit students differently.

District schools

Follow a priority order set by state law: returning students first, then families who live in that school's feeder pattern, then siblings of current students — and only then a lottery for the rest. Districts may add their own preferences (for example, weight for ranking them first, in-district residents, or staff children). Brandywine, for one, sorts by your choice ranking before the lottery — so whether ranking matters depends on the district. Check your district's policy.

Charter schools

Can't set academic admission requirements the way a private school can — state law (§ 506) admits charters by lottery when oversubscribed. But each charter may add preferences written into its own charter (siblings, sometimes a geographic radius, founders' or employees' children), and one — Charter School of Wilmington — runs a "specific interest" preference that functions a lot like academic ranking. That wrinkle is below.

The NCC charters, quick version

Charter School of Wilmington — the one with a test (starts at 9th grade)

Most Delaware charters admit by lottery. CSW doesn't, really. It fills seats in preference order and uses a random lottery only to break ties. Its top preference — "specific interest in the school's methods and focus" — is measured with a 383-point scoring rubric, most of it academic: a placement test in math and reading, 7th- and 8th-grade math and science grades, plus teacher recommendations, honors classes, activities, and an essay. Score 325+ (85%) and you've met the bar; below that you can request an interview.

What to know: you apply through SchoolChoiceDE, but the assessment is a separate step with its own date — easy to miss if you think submitting the application is the finish line. Confirm the current assessment subjects and dates with CSW.

Newark Charter — Lottery when oversubscribed, with its well-known 5-mile-radius preference (live within five miles and you're in a favored pool; the school posts a radius map). No test. Siblings of current students still have to apply during the window.

Odyssey Charter — Weighted lottery, in order: children of founders (capped at 5% of seats), then staff, then siblings of current students. It's a Greek-language school — every student takes Greek. No test.

MOT Charter — Lottery when oversubscribed (held in early February; families notified by the end of February). Every on-time application enters the draw, but seats are then offered in preference order — including a preference for Appoquinimink-district residents, and at the high school a limited specific-interest preference for its arts and science/tech academies. No test.

EastSide Charter — Lottery with preferences in order: siblings, then staff children, then siblings of lottery-accepted kids, then a 5-mile radius. No test.

Kuumba Academy — Grades K–8, applies through SchoolChoiceDE. It doesn't publish its lottery details online — ask the school directly.

Magnets & vo-tech (separate steps)

Cab Calloway School of the Arts (a Red Clay magnet, grades 6–12) — Apply through SchoolChoiceDE in the normal window, then there's a second step: a skills assessment in at least one of nine arts areas, held in the weeks after the January deadline. Applying isn't the finish line — book the assessment when you apply. (Current students with a B or better in their art major can skip it.)

NCC Vo-Tech (Delcastle, Hodgson, Howard, St. Georges — 9th-grade entry only) — Apply through SchoolChoiceDE in the standard window. These schools ask for 7th- and 8th-grade report cards, attendance, and discipline records, and they're explicit that it's not first-come, first-served — every on-time application gets equal consideration. They don't publish exactly how they choose; ask the district what weighs most.

Private & parochial schools

Apply directly, pay tuition, earlier deadlines — and no Delaware voucher.

This is a different machine entirely. Private and parochial schools aren't on SchoolChoiceDE — you apply directly to each school, pay tuition, and the school makes the call. There's no lottery and no statewide form. New Castle County has a dense cluster of both Catholic (the Diocese of Wilmington network) and independent schools.

How you get in. Apply directly to each school. Many require an entrance assessment: most Catholic high schools use the diocese-administered HSPT, given in mid-November and taken at your first-choice school; the independents use the ISEE or SSAT. Decisions come on each school's own timeline.

The calendar runs earlier. Fall open houses, a mid-November test date for the Catholic high schools, and application deadlines that cluster from December into early January — so if you're weighing private alongside public choice, the private steps often come first. Many schools also take later, rolling applications as space allows. Confirm exact dates on each school's admissions page.

Cost and aid. You pay tuition (it varies by school and grade). Need-based aid and scholarships are common — schools assess need through a third-party service, usually FACTS (the Diocese of Wilmington's platform), FAST, or Clarity, which you fill out alongside the application. The Diocese runs need-based tuition assistance with applications opening each September.

No Delaware voucher. Unlike some states, Delaware has no voucher, education savings account, or tax-credit scholarship for private tuition — state funds follow students only to public schools. Private school is an out-of-pocket choice (offset by whatever aid you qualify for).

The NCC landscape (examples, not a ranking or a complete list)

Catholic: Salesianum, Padua Academy, St. Mark's, Archmere Academy, Ursuline Academy — plus the Diocese of Wilmington's parish elementary schools across the county.

Independent: Wilmington Friends, Tower Hill, Tatnall, Sanford.

We don't rate or rank schools. Check each school's own site for grade span, tuition, deadlines, and whether it's the right fit — that's your call.

Homeschool

Delaware is a low-regulation homeschool state. You register your homeschool with the Delaware Department of Education; once you do, your child is exempt from the compulsory-attendance rules (which apply to ages 5–16). After that, the state asks for very little.

Three legal types (14 Del. C. § 2703A): a single-family homeschool (you teach your own children, you register); a multi-family homeschool (several unrelated families together, with one person acting as liaison to the state — this is the "co-op" structure); and a single-family coordinated with your district, where the local superintendent approves your curriculum.
What you owe the state. Register through the DDOE EdAccess "Nonpublic School" system, then file two short reports a year: an enrollment count in the fall and end-of-year attendance (by July 31). That's the whole standing obligation.
What Delaware does not require. No standardized testing, no portfolio review, no curriculum approval, and no teacher certification — the one exception being the district-coordinated type, which needs superintendent-approved curriculum.
Switching from public school. Register the homeschool and enroll your child before you withdraw from the public school, so there's no truancy gap in between.
Going back later. Grade placement and high-school credit on return to public school are decided by your local district, case by case — ask the district directly rather than assuming.
Co-ops. Organized homeschool co-ops and support groups operate across New Castle County; the multi-family type above is the formal vehicle for shared instruction.

Exact registration dates shift, so we don't print them here — start at the DOE's Homeschools & Private Schools page for the current window and forms.

If your child has an IEP or 504 plan

How special-ed rights change across public choice, charter, private, and homeschool.

Special education cuts across every lane on this page, and the rules shift depending on which one you pick. The short version: in public school — including charters and choice — your child's rights largely travel with them; in private school and homeschool, the entitlement changes a lot. We're parents, not special-ed attorneys, and this is general information, not legal advice — for your specific situation, Delaware's Parent Information Center (PIC) is the free, state-specific place to call.

Public choice & charters: the IEP travels

When you choice into another Delaware district or a charter and enroll within the same school year, the new school has to provide services comparable to your child's current IEP until it adopts that IEP or writes a new one (34 CFR 300.323; Delaware's rule, 14 DE Admin Code 925, says the same). A charter is "a public school for all purposes" under Delaware law — it's bound by IDEA and Section 504 just like a district, and charter students keep all their IDEA rights.

One caveat: a 504 plan doesn't carry the same automatic "comparable services" guarantee an IEP does — the new district owes its own 504 duties but runs its own process, so confirm 504 handling with them directly.

Admissions can't screen on disability

A charter can't discriminate by disability in admissions (14 Del. C. § 506) — it admits by lottery when oversubscribed, and disability is not one of the preferences a charter is allowed to use. (Federal civil-rights guidance goes further: charters generally can't even ask whether an applicant has a disability during admissions.) IEP and 504 records aren't required to register, and nothing lets a school turn your child away because of them. Bring the records anyway — they help the new school plan.

Entrance assessments: ask about accommodations

Cab Calloway publishes a pathway: if your child has an IEP or 504 plan, contact the Choice Office (302-552-3789) to have the documents considered for accommodations on the arts assessment. Charter School of Wilmington (placement test) and NCC Vo-Tech (records review) don't publish a testing-accommodation procedure — ask the school directly. Section 504 bars disability discrimination either way; whether a school has spelled out an accommodations process is a separate question worth asking up front.

Private & parochial: the entitlement changes

Enroll your child in a private or parochial school and, for special-ed purposes, they become a "parentally-placed private school child." That means no individual right to the special-education services they'd get in a public school — the district decides what, if anything, to offer from a capped pool, and the vehicle is a "services plan," not an IEP (34 CFR 300.130–300.138). Your district of residence does still have a duty to find and evaluate them. So ask the private school plainly what supports it provides in-house, and ask your home district about equitable services — don't assume the IEP simply comes along.

Homeschool: same footing as private

Delaware law treats homeschooled students as parentally-placed private school children for special-ed purposes (14 Del. C. § 2703A). Evaluation and Child Find still apply, and you may be able to get some equitable services through the district — but, as with private school, there's no individual entitlement to a full slate of services.

Coming back to public school later

Re-enrolling from private school or homeschool with a prior IEP, there's no special Delaware "re-entry" track. Bring the records and ask the district in writing for an IEP-team meeting and any evaluation you think is needed; the team — you included — sets placement and services.

Two things parents miss

Transportation can be a related service. If your child's IEP requires transportation, the responsible public school has to provide it — which matters when you're choosing a school outside your neighborhood (34 CFR 300.34).
"Stay-put." During a special-ed dispute, your child generally stays in their current placement until it's resolved (34 CFR 300.518). Delaware offers mediation, a state complaint, and due-process hearings (14 DE Admin Code 926).

Start here for anything specific: Parent Information Center of Delaware (the state's federally designated parent training & information center) and the Delaware DOE Special Education hub. This section is general information, not legal advice.

Kindergarten

The Aug 31 cutoff, district sign-up timing, and what to bring.

Your child must turn 5 by August 31 to start kindergarten that year.
Kindergarten registration runs on your district's own schedule (usually late winter/spring) — start preparing the winter before.
Kindergarten is never locked out of choice: even after the January deadline, you can apply for a kindergarten seat up until the first day of school, if seats remain.
To register, have ready: birth certificate, proof of residency, your photo ID, immunization records, a recent physical and TB screening, and custody paperwork if it applies.

How to choose between them — without rankings

We don't rate schools. Here's how to judge fit yourself.

A "best schools" list is someone else's ranking of someone else's priorities. The questions that actually predict whether a school works for your family are more boring — and more useful.

Visit — don't just read. An open house plus, if you can, a weekday drop-in tells you more about culture and feel than any score. Watch how the building runs at 9 a.m.
Pull the objective data yourself. The state's Delaware Report Card has enrollment, demographics, and program data for every public school. Read it as context, not a verdict.
The commute is a daily tax. Map the real drive at 7:45 a.m., not midday. Remember that for choice and charter seats, getting there is often on you (above).
Bell times and aftercare. Start/end times and whether before- and after-care exist shape your entire work day — check them before you fall in love with a school.
Special services. If your child has an IEP or 504 plan, or needs specific supports, ask each school how it actually delivers them — staffing, not just policy (see the IEP/504 section).
Fit beats prestige. Class size, the specific program your kid would be in, the vibe of the hallway. A "top" school that's wrong for your child isn't a top school for you.

What trips families up

The order-of-operations traps that cost families seats.

Registering ≠ applying. You must register in your home-district school first, or the choice application is incomplete and doesn't go in the lottery.
You don't need choice for your neighborhood school. Just register.
Private deadlines can beat the public window. Catholic high-school testing is mid-November and many independent deadlines fall in December — so if private is in your mix, its steps land before the January choice deadline. Don't wait on the public calendar to act on the private one.
Applying isn't always the finish line. CSW has an assessment and Cab Calloway an audition — both after the January deadline. Ask each school what else it needs, and when.
A sibling's seat can come with strings. At schools that admit siblings together, a child let in on sibling preference can lose the seat if the older sibling ends up not attending. Worth knowing if you're counting on it.
Don't assume there's a bus. For district choice, transportation is on the parents — the district only has to get your child to a point on one of its existing bus routes, and doesn't reimburse you (§ 409). True even for a non-neighborhood school inside your own district. Charters and vo-tech set their own transportation rules, so confirm the exact bus situation with the specific school before you commit.
"Accepted" can come with conditions. Some districts require good standing (academics, attendance, behavior) to take or keep a choice seat.
Waitlists don't carry over. They expire on the first day of that school year — reapply next window.
Missed the deadline? A move, marital-status change, guardianship, adoption, or substantiated bullying counts as "good cause" and must be considered as if on time — and kindergarten is never locked out.

What we'd do

How we'd run it if these were our kids.

Register at your home-district school the moment registration opens — it guarantees a seat and makes every other public application valid.
Decide which lanes you're actually running, then put each one's calendar on the fridge — they don't share a deadline. You can run public choice and a private application in parallel.
Apply early in the choice window and rank honestly. Early doesn't improve your odds (it's not first-come), but it gets the deadline off your plate.
If CSW or Cab Calloway is on your list, book the assessment or audition the day you apply. If a private school is on your list, check its deadline now — it may be sooner than you think.
Read each charter's own preference rules — they differ.
Treat mid-January as a hard wall for public choice, but know the exits if you miss it (kindergarten, late charter/vo-tech seats, "good cause" moves).

Quick answers

When does the Delaware School Choice window open for 2027–28?

Applications are expected to open Monday, November 2, 2026 and close Wednesday, January 13, 2027 — that's the statutory formula (first Monday in November to the second Wednesday in January). The state posts official dates at SchoolChoiceDE.org in the fall; confirm there before you plan around a date.

Do I need a choice application for my neighborhood school?

No. Your feeder school is assigned by your address — just register. School choice is only for attending a school other than your assigned one.

Can I apply to more than one school?

Yes — one statewide application at SchoolChoiceDE.org, listing up to three schools (district or charter) in ranked order. You may receive several invitations, but you can accept only one; accepting it automatically declines the others.

Does the order I rank schools matter?

It depends on the district. Brandywine sorts applicants by their ranking before its priority tiers, so ranking matters a lot there; other districts treat it differently or don't publish their policy. Check your district's choice office.

What happens if I miss the January deadline?

Three outs: kindergarten applications are accepted up to the first day of school where seats remain; charters, vo-tech, and magnet schools may take late applications to fill seats; and a qualifying life change (a move, marital change, guardianship, adoption, substantiated bullying) counts as good cause and must be considered as if on time.

What is the kindergarten cutoff in Delaware?

Your child must turn 5 by August 31 to start kindergarten that school year. Registration runs through your home district and kindergarten choice runs on its own, later window.

Official sources

For anything date-sensitive, go to the source:

SchoolChoiceDE.org — the public-school application portal + official choice dates.
Delaware DOE — School Choice — the state's overview.
Delaware DOE — Homeschools & Private Schools — homeschool registration + annual reporting.
Delaware Code, Title 14, Ch. 27 — compulsory attendance + the homeschool definitions (§§ 2702–2704, 2703A).
Diocese of Wilmington — Catholic Schools — parochial admissions + tuition assistance.
Parent Information Center of Delaware (PIC) — the state's federally designated special-education parent training & information center.
Delaware DOE — Special Education — IEP/504 rights, dispute resolution, and family resources.
Each private school's own admissions page — for that school's deadlines, testing, and tuition.
Your district's choice office — for that district's specific priorities and dates.

How we made this: we explain the process for every lane — we don't rate, rank, or recommend schools; that's your call, and the official data is linked above. Public-choice mechanics trace to Delaware statute and SchoolChoiceDE; the private/parochial and homeschool facts trace to the Delaware DOE, the Delaware Code, and the Diocese of Wilmington. The 2027–28 choice dates are our projection from the statutory formula (first Monday in November to the second Wednesday in January) and last year's calendar — confirm the official dates on SchoolChoiceDE.org when they post. Per-school tuition and exact deadlines drift year to year, so we link the source rather than print numbers that go stale. Last reviewed July 2026.