Richmond's school lottery is getting more competitive

The big picture: RPS saw a nearly 40% increase in open-enrollment applications for 2026-27 compared with two school years ago, according to an Axios review of RPS data.

• But the number of open seats inched up by fewer than 20 over that period.
• Meanwhile, overall RPS enrollment is projected to rise 1% for the upcoming school year after increasing 0.6% for the year that just ended, per the district.

How it works: Each fall, city residents — unlike their suburban counterparts — can apply to send their kids to any RPS school, including ones outside their residential zone.

• The process is open at every grade level and to all but a handful of specialty schools and programs within the city.
• Students can select up to three preferred schools, and placement is determined through a lottery.

By the numbers: For the upcoming school year, RPS received nearly 3,450 applications for 766 open seats, per data shared with Axios.

• For 2025-26, the district received almost 2,830 applications for 763 seats.
• The 2024-25 school year: About 2,460 applications for 749 seats.

Flashback: A decade ago, RPS had 1,400 open-enrollment applications, Richmond Magazine reported at the time.

What they're saying: RPS's decision to expand its application period is a major driver of the surge, district director of enrollment Luke Hostetter tells Axios.

• The district lengthened the application period in 2021 to around four months, up from just over a month in 2020.
• It also ramped up outreach and support efforts around that time, Hostetter notes, to ensure families were aware of the option.

Context: Many families that apply to out-of-zone schools through open enrollment ultimately end up enrolling in their zoned schools, Hostetter says.

• And "the majority of RPS families ... attend their neighborhood school," he adds.

The intrigue: Not all schools are equally popular. A handful draw outsized interest — especially at the elementary level.

• Elementary schools typically account for more than half of total annual open-enrollment applications.
• A number of factors drive interest in specific schools, says Hostetter, including school culture, leadership, extracurriculars, athletics and word of mouth.

Here's where schools rank for the 2026-27 school year:

Reality check: Some of Richmond's most coveted schools have long been competitive to get into.

Between the lines: Open enrollment has long been tied up in a bigger challenge for the district: equity.

• A 2021 district report found racial segregation in RPS schools had increased by 42% over the previous two decades, driven partly by open enrollment, which the district found disproportionally benefited families with the resources and time to explore school choice.
• The disparities were most pronounced at RPS's selective-admission high schools — Open High, Richmond Community and Maggie L. Walker Governor's School.
• Such schools require a more rigorous application and selection process and consistently post higher reading and math proficiency scores and graduation rates than the district overall.

Case in point: In 2020, 90% of the students RPS sent to Maggie Walker, which ranks among the best high schools in the state, were white, despite white students making up about 20% of the district's overall enrollment, the Times-Dispatch reported.

• Economically disadvantaged students were also underrepresented: They made up about 60% of RPS enrollment in 2023 but comprised 8% of Maggie Walker's RPS students that year, per the district.
• And a third of the Richmond students who attended Maggie Walker had gone to a private middle school before applying.

In response, RPS overhauled specialty school admissions for the 2024-25 school year, guaranteeing spots for RPS middle schoolers and reserving half of the seats for economically disadvantaged students.

The result: Acceptance rates for economically disadvantaged students jumped dramatically:

• Maggie Walker: From 8.8% economically disadvantaged students in 2023-24 to 33% in 2025-26.
• Open: From 29% to 45%.
• Richmond Community: From 29% to 52%.

Yes, but: Specialty school applications are up only slightly since 2023, nowhere near RPS's open-enrollment surge.

Meanwhile, for parents trying to land a spot at one of RPS's most in-demand schools, the process has become a nerve-racking part of the school year, per comments that flood social media groups.

• "Let's just say it's brutal," Lana van Essen tells Axios.
• Both of her elementary school kids have been waitlisted year after year for Patrick Henry and Mary Munford. One year, she says, her "son was somewhere in the hundred something."
• Her rising fifth grader finally got a slot at Munford for the upcoming school year, but she declined because it would have meant taking him away from the private school friends he's grown up with.

Tim Barry, who has one daughter at Holton Elementary and another in private school, describes the high school application process as a "hurricane."

• "Kids are transferring to public middle schools just to improve their chances at getting into Community or Open — or the queen of them all, Maggie Walker," he tells Axios of his neighbors.
• One neighbor moved out of the city and into Chesterfield when their daughter didn't get into any of the RPS high schools she wanted, he says.
• The part that gets to Barry the most: the college-admissions-level stress for seventh-graders preparing for high school. Though he says his family is fortunate to have choices, including private school.

The bottom line: "Any parent just wants their kid to be healthy and be in an environment to thrive," Barry says.

• And while RPS has made big equity gains in recent years, the swell of open-enrollment applications suggests its next challenge may be ensuring more families feel they can thrive at the school closest to home.

Go deeper: Richmond's most competitive public schools, ranked