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LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Nearly 700 students are on waiting lists for two Lafayette charter schools.
Gifford Briggs, secretary of the Lafayette Charter Foundation board, says about 650 students are on a waiting list for Acadiana Renaissance Charter Academy, located in Youngsville.
Another 65 students are on the waiting list for Lafayette Renaissance Charter Academy, located in north Lafayette.
Briggs said more than 1,400 students have been accepted at the two schools for next year. Both schools will have classes in kindergarten through seventh grades next year.
In an interview Tuesday, Briggs told The Advertiser (http://bit.ly/1G3wZtr) Acadiana Renaissance Charter Academy "is not really accepting applications any longer" because of the long waiting list. Briggs said there are waiting lists for all grades at the school.
Lafayette Renaissance Charter Academy still is accepting applications, although Briggs said most grades do have waiting lists.
The two schools enrolled about 1,200 students for the current year, he added.
The charter schools opened in August 2014 after receiving approval from the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The Lafayette Parish School Board had denied the charters' requests to open.
Both schools are operated by Charter Schools USA and managed by the Lafayette Charter Foundation, based in Lafayette.
Meanwhile, there is a waiting list of 67 students for slots in first through sixth grades at Willow Charter Academy, said Jennifer Hoff, a spokeswoman for National Heritage Academies, which operates the school.
According to state data, there were 456 students enrolled at Willow Charter as of February 2015. The school's capacity is about 492 students.
Willow Charter Academy, located in north Lafayette, also has a local board. The company had announced plans to open a charter school in Broussard this year, but that effort has been delayed because of state officials' concerns about data at other NHA schools in Louisiana.
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Information from: The Advertiser, http://www.theadvertiser.com
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