Admissions

WHY A LOTTERY?

The short answer is: EQUITY! As you know from our values page, equity is one of our core values! We work very hard to keep our policies and practices in line with our core values. We’re a very small school with a high re-enrollment rate, so our open spots are very limited each year. We often don’t have enough spots to meet demand! Thus, we use a lottery system to fill our spots so that everyone gets a fair chance to attend Prairie Song.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR THE 2026 LOTTERY?

Any student whose birthday is on or after August 1st, 2021, and is entering kindergarten – 12th grade.

Students who will be younger than five years old on August 1st, 2026, are NOT eligible for attendance at Prairie Song. We recommend looking at the Kirksville Child Development Center for those children!

STEP 1: Fill out our online application form. Please note that it must be completed all at once; there is no option to save your progress and return to it later. (Link to application at the end of this section explaining the whole lottery process!)

We welcome applications from all students and do not discriminate on any legally protected basis (race, religion, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.). The only students not eligible for consideration of their application are any whose families have an outstanding tuition balance with Prairie Song, or students who will not be five years old on August 1st, 2026.

STEP 2: Just click “submit” to send us your application! Applications need to be submitted by the deadline, April 18th, to be considered.

STEP 3: Ask someone who has worked with your student in an educational environment to fill out our digital educational reference form, and have them return it directly to Prairie Song as indicated on the form. It must be received before we can consider your student’s application. We DO NOT request these for you; YOU are responsible for asking for a reference in time for the educator to turn it in. Please do not stress them out by waiting until the last minute to ask!

Educational references must be received by the same deadline of April 18th in order for the student to be considered for inclusion in the lottery. You will need to request them well before that date.

STEP 4: We will confirm receipt of your application via email, and receipt of your student’s educational reference when it is sent to us. We will generally schedule a phone call with caregivers at this point as well.

Additionally, students and a caregiver are REQUIRED to attend our Open House for potential students on Sunday, April 12th, to be considered for the Fall 2026 Lottery.

The Open House will be held from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. at the school, at 26178 Eagle Lane. If you have extenuating circumstances that prevent you from attending, please contact us to discuss alternative options.

STEP 5: Our admissions committee will review your application and educational reference, and contact you for any clarification necessary. We review applications to determine if we can serve the student well; if we can, then we approve them.

As a result of being a microschool with limited resources, we do sometimes determine that we would not be able to meet a student’s needs given our current levels of staffing and the needs of students we are already serving, and thus recommend a different educational environment for them.

We accept and celebrate neurodivergent students and build accommodations for them directly into our curriculum and classroom structure, but at this point we unfortunately cannot serve students who need intensive support, as we’re not currently able to hire enough staff to support those students well. We wish we could serve all students who apply! Unfortunately our space and resources do not currently allow this.

STEP 6: If our admissions committee approves the application, we will add the student’s name to the lottery for their age group.

On the lottery date, April 23rd, we will hold our lottery and names will be drawn at random from each age group bucket. Students are offered enrollment in the order in which they are drawn.

Once available spots have been filled in this way, we continue to draw names and offer students places on the waitlist in the order in which they are drawn. We DO often pull students from the waitlist!

Families will be notified of lottery results by April 25th, and offered spots in the Fall 2026 class or on our waitlist.

STEP 7: Confirm your acceptance of your student’s place in their classroom at Prairie Song or on our waitlist (which remains active throughout the academic year) or reject the offer if your family determines another educational environment would better suit your student.

STEP 8: If you accept your student’s place in a classroom, you must complete the enrollment agreement and the tuition contract within two weeks of our email offering enrollment. Both of these must be completed to confirm their enrollment; if they are not, the student will forfeit their spot at Prairie Song and we will offer their spot to the next student on the wait list.

Additionally, a one-time new-student enrollment fee of $100 per student (only $50 for each additional student being enrolled from the same household) is due within two weeks of acceptance of a spot in our Fall 2026 class.

Fall tuition will be paid on the 5th of each month July through December; you must begin paying in July to keep your student’s spot.

STEP 9: Once the enrollment agreement and tuition contract are submitted and the enrollment fee is paid, you’re officially part of the Prairie Song family!

If your student is on our wait list for Fall 2026, we will keep you updated and let you know immediately when a spot in their age group opens up!

STEP 1: Fill out our online application form linked below after step 9! Please note that it must be completed all at once; there is no option to save your progress and return to it later.

We welcome applications from all students and do not discriminate on the basis of any legally-protected status. The only students not eligible for consideration of their application are any whose families have an outstanding tuition balance with Prairie Song. We prioritize enrollment for families who live within a 15-mile radius of Prairie Song in order to best serve our local community who consistently supports us!

STEP 2: Just click “submit” to send us your application!

STEP 3: Ask someone who has worked with your student in an educational environment to fill out our educational reference form online. It must be received before we can consider your student’s application.

We DO NOT request these for you; YOU are responsible for asking for a reference in time for the educator to turn it in. Please do not stress them out by waiting until the last minute to ask!

STEP 4: We will confirm receipt of your application and your student’s educational reference via email.

STEP 5: Our admissions committee will review your application and educational reference, and contact you for any clarification necessary. We review applications only to determine if we can serve the student well; if we can, then we approve them.

As a result of being a microschool with limited resources, we do sometimes determine that we would not be able to meet a student’s needs given our current levels of staffing and the needs of students we are already serving, and thus recommend a different educational environment for them.

We accept (and celebrate!) neurodivergent students and build accommodations for them directly into our curriculum and classroom structure, but we unfortunately cannot serve students who need intensive support, as we’re not currently able to hire enough staff to support those students well.

STEP 6: If our admissions committee approves the application, we will then either offer immediate enrollment or a spot on the wait list, depending on availability. This decision will be communicated to you within two weeks of a complete application.

STEP 7: Confirm your acceptance of your student’s place in their classroom at Prairie Song or on our wait list, or reject the offer if your family determines another educational environment would better suit your student.

STEP 8: If you accept your student’s place in a classroom, you must complete enrollment forms and the tuition contract as well as pay the first month’s tuition within two weeks of our email offering immediate enrollment.

Both of these steps must be completed to confirm their enrollment; if they are not, the student will forfeit their spot at Prairie Song. Please note that we do ask you to commit to an entire semester’s tuition in the tuition contract, and you are responsible for that tuition even if you withdraw your student from Prairie Song prior to the end of that semester for any reason.

STEP 9: If your student was offered an open spot, you completed their enrollment paperwork and tuition contract, and paid the first month’s tuition, congratulations! You’re now part of the Prairie Song family!