Make Open Enrollment & Student Choice Work for Every Family
Avela is an end-to-end school district open enrollment and student choice platform. Families can explore schools, apply for transfers, and receive fair lottery assignments in one place—while your district manages policies, compliance, and registration with confidence.
Trusted by School Districts Modernizing Open Enrollment
Impact at a Glance
80% Faster Application Processing Time
9/10 Students Placed in a Top-Three Choice
Five-Star
Parent Satisfaction
Districts use Avela to run open enrollment, magnet admissions, intra-district transfers, and student choice programs at scale—while improving transparency and family satisfaction.
Open Enrollment Is More Than A New Form
Moving from “you go to your zoned school” to open enrollment and student choice is a major policy and operations shift. Families suddenly have options, and school districts suddenly have to manage those options fairly, transparently, and at scale.
Common challenges school districts face:
Families are confused about school options.
Without a clear school finder, families depend on PDFs, flyers, and word-of-mouth.
Lotteries are manual and hard to explain.
Spreadsheets and ad-hoc processes make it difficult to prove that your school choice lottery is fair and policy-compliant.
Applications are fragmented across programs.
Magnet programs, transfers, and special programs each use different paper or online forms and deadlines.
Enrollment doesn’t end when a seat is offered.
Confirmations, document collection, SIS updates, and waitlist backfilling keep staff stuck in manual work.
Avela was built specifically to solve these open enrollment and student choice problems for K–12 school districts.
One Suite for the Full Open Enrollment Journey
Avela’s end-to-end school choice and enrollment platform connects and covers the entire open enrollment lifecycle.
Families explore and compare schools
Avela Explore
School navigator with rich profiles, robust search, and bookmarks to empower families to find schools for their children.
Families apply to and request transfers
Avela Apply
Application system with parent portal for streamlined applications and admin portal for workflow management.
The district runs fair lotteries & assignments
Avela Match
World-class student assignment and admission lottery service leveraging Nobel Prize algorithms for accuracy and equity.
Families complete enrollment & registration
Avela Enroll
Easy-to-use online registration, transfers, and enrollment platform with document collection and enrollment workflows.
Each module is part of a unified K–12 enrollment management platform designed for school district open enrollment and student choice, not just basic registration.
Step 1 – Explore: Help Families Understand Their School Options
Help Families Navigate School Choice With a Modern School Finder
For districts moving to open enrollment or expanding student choice, the first question is simple:
“How do families even understand their school options?”
Avela Explore is a school finder and choice navigator where families can:
View rich school profiles (programs, services, languages, grades, transportation, and more).
Search and filter by location, program type, grade level, special services, and other criteria.
Bookmark or compare schools they’re interested in before they apply.
Instead of a maze of PDFs and flyers, Explore gives families one clear, mobile-friendly place to understand every open enrollment opportunity in your district.
Step 2 – Apply: One Application for Transfers, Magnets, and Choice Seats
Simplify the Open Enrollment Application Process
Once families understand their options, they need a simple way to request a different school or program. Avela Apply is the online application system for your open enrollment, magnet programs, and intra-district transfers.
For families, Apply offers:
One common application instead of dozens of forms.
Ranked school choices (1st, 2nd, 3rd choice, etc.) across schools and programs.
A mobile-first experience that works on any device.
For school districts, Apply provides:
A single hub where families can request transfers, magnet placements, and other student choice options.
An admin portal to review applications, manage eligibility rules, and route approvals.
Tools to communicate with families via email or SMS, send reminders, and keep everyone informed.
Step 3 – Match: Fair, Transparent School Choice Lotteries
Run Policy-Compliant Lotteries and Student Assignments
Avela Match is built specifically to power school choice lotteries and student assignment at scale.
Match allows districts to:
Encode local priority rules and enrollment policies directly into the system.
Run student assignments with algorithms based on Nobel Prize–winning research in school choice and matching.
Produce consistent, auditable, strategy-proof assignments so families do not need to “game the system.”
With Avela Match, your open enrollment lottery system is both technically sound and easy to explain to families, boards, and regulators.
Step 4 – Enroll: From “You Have An Offer” to “You’re Enrolled”
Complete Online Enrollment & Registration for Assigned Students
Avela Enroll allows districts to complete the the open enrollment process with:
Online registration and re-enrollment for new and returning students.
Configurable transfer and enrollment workflows, including approvals and routing.
Centralized document collection and review using secure uploads.
Integrations with SIS and state systems via CSV, API, or custom connections.
For your district, that means fewer incomplete registrations and fewer data errors when moving students into core systems.
Why Districts Choose Avela for Open Enrollment and School Choice
What’s good for families is good for administrators—better communication and transparency lead to smoother processes, happier families, and stronger outcomes for schools.
Purpose-Built For School Choice and Open Enrollment
Designed for magnet and theme schools, intra-district transfers and student choice policies, district-wide open enrollment and common applications, ESA/voucher programs and community-based seats
Grounded in MIT and Nobel Prize-Winning Research
Built on award-winning research in market design and school choice, with a focus on well-documented, transparent, and equitable assignments that families and regulators can trust.
Accessible , Family Friendly User Experience
An emphasis on equity and accessibility at every step: mobile-first design, support for 100+ languages, and a centralized process with simple document uploads so families don’t have to visit multiple offices or track multiple websites.
One Source of Truth for Open Enrollment and School Choice Data
Instead of juggling multiple vendors, Avela offers a single, integrated suite that results in fewer integration headaches and IT tickets, a consistent, branded experience for families, and cleaner data for state reporting, equity analysis, and strategic planning
School Choice Policy Expertise and Practical Guidance
Open enrollment is a policy and change management project, not just a software implementation. Avela’s implementation team is a proven partner on policy design, communication, and rollout.
Flexible Integration Options With Student Information Systems
Integrate seamlessly with student information systems through CSV, API, or custom solutions, ensuring security, compliance, and compatibility with your existing tech stack.
FAQ: School District Open Enrollment & Student Choice
What is open enrollment in a school district?
Open enrollment is a policy that allows students to attend schools outside of their assigned neighborhood or zoned school. Families can choose among district schools (and sometimes cross-district options), and districts must manage applications, priorities, and lotteries for oversubscribed schools.
How does Avela support school district open enrollment?
Avela provides a unified platform—Explore, Apply, Match, and Enroll—that supports the entire process: school discovery, applications, policy-based lotteries, waitlists, and final enrollment. Districts get transparent, research-backed tools to run student choice and open enrollment efficiently.
Can Avela handle magnet programs and intra-district transfers?
Yes. Avela is built for magnet and theme schools, intra-district transfers, district-wide school choice, and other program-based enrollment models. All of these can live in a single common application and lottery system.
Is Avela compatible with our SIS and state reporting requirements?
Avela integrates with student information systems and state reporting through CSV, APIs, and custom connections, helping districts keep open enrollment data accurate and consistent.
How does Avela promote equity in student choice?
Avela’s mobile-first, multilingual design, along with centralized communication and clear school information, lowers barriers for families who might otherwise be left out of open enrollment. The matching engine focuses on fair, transparent, strategy-proof assignments that support equity goals.
