Admissions

Union Academy is a K-12 tuition-free NC public charter school. Admission is lottery based and is open to any school-aged student in North Carolina. Please see our Admissions page for more information about the lottery process.

To define what makes Union Academy an important place to so many is not an easy task. It may have been the special spirit of starting a new venture that so many experienced in the spring and summer of 2000. Or it may be the challenge of being a part of helping to make everything happen on a daily basis. Or it may be the spirit of collaboration and trust that has become ever so apparent as the school has developed.

One thing is for certain, UA is a special place because it is populated by special people. One of our UA Board members put it this way, “The spirit of Union Academy is embodied in people who are willing to do whatever needs to be done.” That spirit of collaboration and selflessness together with an extraordinary emphasis on academic challenge, community service, and the development of strong character certainly defines UA.

Welcome and thank you for your interest in becoming a part of the Union Academy (UA) family. Union Academy is a K-12 tuition-free NC public charter school. UA enrollment is based on the lottery system. Students will be considered for enrollment without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, or physical disability.

Applications for the 2026-27 Admissions Lottery will be available on the UA website homepage beginning January 14, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. The online application process will close at 10:00 a.m. on February 27, 2026. The lottery will be held on March 9, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Families will be notified that night about their application status.

Union Academy may give enrollment priority in certain instances as stated in G.S. 115C-218.45(f). The School has decided to offer the following enrollment priorities and will implement them in the order listed below:

1. Children and Grandchildren of school’s full-time employees (minimum of 30 hours a week). 
   (The law limits the amount of staff and/or board children to no more than 15 percent of the school’s total enrollment.)
2. Siblings of currently enrolled students who were admitted to Union Academy in a previous year. For the purposes of this subsection, the term “siblings” includes any of the following who reside in the same household: half siblings, step-siblings, and children residing in a family foster home.
3. Children and Grandchildren of the Board of Directors. 
   (The law limits the amount of staff and/or board children to no more than 15 percent of the school’s total enrollment.)
4. Pre-Kindergarten: Limited to up to 25% of the School’s total Kindergarten enrollment, a student who was enrolled for at least 75 consecutive days in the prior semester in a preschool program operated by an entity other than the School and the School has a written enrollment articulation agreement with the program operator to give the program's students enrollment priority. 
   1. The Head of School or designee shall develop a list of criteria for eligibility and an application for Pre-Kindergarten schools to apply to partner with the School. The Head of School or designee will manage this application process. The Board shall approve, at the recommendation of the Head of School and at the Board’s sole discretion, all partnership agreements with any eligible Pre-Kindergarten school. A partnership agreement must be approved by the Board prior to the opening of the lottery application in any given year for preferential enrollment to apply for that year’s lottery. Any approved partnership agreements must be renewed every three years in the same manner as the original application process.
5. Opportunity Preference – At the Head of School ’s discretion, enrollment preference can be granted if a former student was enrolled in our charter school within the last two academic years, but left due to an academic study abroad program, competitive admission residential program, or vocational opportunities of the parents. Enrollment depends upon availability and must be before the 20th day of school.
6. Legacy Preference
   1. Siblings of students that have graduated from Union Academy and were enrolled at least four years at the school may receive preference at Head of School ’s discretion.
7. Applicants of the general public

Students accepted into the lottery will be given a maximum of five business days to make a decision on the offer. Accepted students must submit all online enrollment forms and registration paperwork by midnight on the 5th day. 

If the offer is denied or not claimed by submitting the completed online forms within the five-day period, the seat will be offered to the first student on the waitlist. 

Kindergarten students will complete all online enrollment forms and attend a Kindergarten screening. More information will be emailed to you if accepted.

If one child in a family receives an admissions offer, other siblings are not automatically included in the offer. Other family siblings will only receive an offer if their wait list number moves up to an offer for the grade they are applying for. If no offer is made, they will be considered “siblings” for the next year (after one child in the family is attending) and must apply to the sibling lottery for the following academic year. 

Please note: Acceptance into the lottery and completion of enrollment forms and registration paperwork does not constitute enrollment.  A student is not enrolled until they have met all requirements for enrollment (as determined solely by Union Academy), including but limited to proof of residency,  completion of all courses by the first day of the Union Academy school year for the grade level he/she was accepted into, and other requirements as determined by Union Academy.  Any student who does not meet these requirements will not be allowed to enroll.

In order to enroll, students accepting enrollment spots must meet grade level requirements for the grade they applied for and are accepted into. This also includes high school requirements with required credits for the grade level they applied for and are accepted into. 

Enrollment: Once enrolled, students remain enrolled until a parent withdraws a student by contacting the UA main office. When a student withdraws, space becomes available in that grade and a call or email is placed to the next person on the waitlist. 

The calls/emails continue until the position is filled or the 20th day of school passes. If a student is called close to the school starting or after school has started, students accepted into the lottery will be given a maximum of five business days to make a decision on the offer and start school as soon as possible once school has started. 

Multiple Birth Siblings: Siblings with shared birth dates (twins, triplets, etc.) will be pulled in sequential order for all priority levels of the lottery. For example, when twins apply, our computer script identifies the twins prior to the lottery. If one is pulled as waitlist number 43, the other twin will be automatically numbered waitlist number 44. Then the random ordering of the names will continue. The same applies to acceptance. If one twin is pulled for acceptance, the other is automatically accepted, also.

The lottery drawing is generated by a computer program. The computer program will randomly select applications for admission at the lottery drawing on 

• Monday, March 9, 2026, at 5:00 p.m.

Parents may attend the live, public lottery on March 9, 2026, but attendance is not required. Attending the lottery does not improve or lessen the chances of admission. 

Open seats will be offered to eligible student applicants following the lottery. Families will be notified by email regarding their acceptance or waitlist number within 24 hours of the lottery. 

Parents may also log onto the account they created to check the results of the lottery and the wait list number per grade level following the lottery. 

If there are no spaces available at the grade level for which the student is applying, the lottery will generate a wait-list number for each grade applied for. 

Following the lottery, families will be notified by email regarding their acceptance or waitlist number. Parents may also log onto the account they created to check the results of the lottery and the wait list number per grade level following the completion of the lottery.

Parents who miss the online application window (January 14 through February 27), may still apply online after the lottery on April 1 and complete a post-online application. 

Applications will be numbered in the order they are received and assigned wait list numbers after the last wait list number from the computer-generated lottery.

We welcome perspective families to tour our campus. Please sign up to schedule a tour. If you have any questions, contact Amanda Watkins (awatkins@unionacademy.org).

Pre-K Enrollment Priority Lottery Procedure

• Pre-K enrollment priority is limited to 25% of the School’s total Kindergarten enrollment.
• The lottery will be conducted according to the following procedure:
  • If the number of Pre-K priority applicants is at or below the 25% limit:
    • All Pre-K priority applicants will be included in the School’s regularly scheduled lottery and processed under the standard lottery procedures with Pre-K enrollment priority.
  • If the number of Pre-K priority applicants exceeds the 25% limit:
    • A separate Pre-K Priority Enrollment Lottery will be conducted prior to the regularly scheduled public lottery.
    • Applicants selected in this Pre-K Priority Enrollment Lottery, up to the 25% limit, will be placed in the Pre-K priority tier.
    • Remaining Pre-K applicants who are not selected will be placed in the general public lottery tier.

Current Pre-Ks with Enrollment Priority

• UA Private Pre-K

Pre-Ks Interested in Enrollment Priority

• If you are a Pre-K interested in Pre-K enrollment priority please email Christi Bramhall, cbramhall@unionacademy.org.