2025-2026 Enrollment is Open

Important Dates

  • Lottery Registration Opens: Tuesday, November 12, 2024 at 9:00 am (English | Spanish)

  • Lottery Registration Closes: Friday, February 7, 2025 at 10:00 pm

🗓 25-26 Enrollment Calendar

For any enrollment questions, please email: enroll@dtechhs.org or call: (650) 517-7677

Student Information

Registration & Enrollment Process

Thank you for your interest in Design Tech. The school offers an innovative and engaging high school experience, solid preparation for college and post-graduate opportunities, and an environment that fosters self-efficacy, kindness, and teamwork.

Lottery Registration Information

  • Design Tech accepts registrations for enrollment in grades 9- 12.

  • Please note grades 10-12 are enrolled as space permits each year.

  • The registration and enrollment process is described below. Pay close attention to the address verification requirements and deadlines.

  • Priority is given to students whose parents/guardians prove residence in the Sequoia and San Mateo Union High School districts.

  • Students living outside those districts are placed on a waitlist that is only accessed if the school fails to enroll from the waitlist of priority students.

  • Scroll down to see details regarding Lottery Priorities.


Lottery Registration Steps

Step 1 • Register for Lottery ➝

Step 2 • Address Verification ➝

Prospective students and families must be current California residents.

  • Enrollment priority is extended to students who prove residency in the Sequoia Union High School District, and the San Mateo Union High School District. From November each year, residents of those districts can complete address verification. (see below for links to the Districts). Priority is not a guarantee of an offer to enroll, but it is to the student’s advantage to have it if eligible.

  • Those living outside the San Mateo and Sequoia Union High School Districts are placed on a separate waitlist.

  • d.tech applicants will need to complete the Address Verification (Online Registration) with their home school district beginning November 12, 2024. The district will provide a confirmation page once the address has been verified through the online registration process (OLR). This confirmation page will need to be sent our enrollment office.

  • Please note d.tech deadlines may be different than district deadlines, so please follow deadlines listed on our website.

  • Districts can take several weeks to process the online registrations/address verification so please allow yourself enough time to meet our submission deadline of February 20, 2025.

  • Residents who are not verified by the d.tech lottery registration deadline are added to the out-of-district lottery waitlist.

  • Address verification (Online Registration) for prospective 9th graders in the Sequoia and San Mateo UHS districts must be completed even if an older sibling is already enrolled in that district.

  • Address Verification - San Mateo Union High School District - 650 N. Delaware Street, San Mateo, CA 94401 Tel. (650) 558-2299

  • Address Verification (OLR)- Sequoia Union High School District - 480 James Ave, Redwood City, CA 94062 Tel. (650) 369-1411 ext. 22209

Step 3 • Lottery & Campus Visits ➝

  • Families who registered for the lottery will be contacted via email with details of the February lottery. Offers are emailed the same evening to the parent/guardian listed on the registration.

  • If a family declines an offer of enrollment, the school will make an offer to the first person on the waitlist until the school is fully enrolled. Offers are still possible in the days and/or weeks after the lottery has run.

  • It is impossible to predict when a seat may open.

  • The majority of families wait for lottery results to be emailed or texted to them in the privacy of their home although the lottery is public.

  • Prospective families will have the opportunity to sign up for a school visit in February.

Lottery Priorities

In accordance with Education Code section 47605(d), the following lottery priorities shall be included within the DESIGN TECH charter:

Lottery priority in the case of a public random drawing shall be given to the following students in the following order:

PRIORITY 1 – Children of Design Tech employees.

PRIORITY 2 – Children of Design Tech founding team members as identified in the initial charter.

PRIORITY 3 – Siblings of students that currently attend Design Tech, and siblings of pupils who graduated from Design Tech, not to exceed ten such pupils.

PRIORITY 4 – Children who reside within Sequoia Unified High School District or San Mateo Unified High School District boundaries. The drawing for this category of applicants shall be a separate drawing such that only applicants residing within the boundaries of the two school districts will be included. Children that qualify for FRL programs within those school districts will receive a preference of 2:1. A copy of the guidelines for eligibility for the federal National School Lunch Program (“FRL”) shall be attached to the registration for admission to DESIGN TECH. Applicants shall be asked to verify whether their household is eligible for the FRL Program by checking a box marked “Yes” or “No.” No other information will be requested. However, the registration will state that DESIGN TECH reserves the right to confirm eligibility in the event that the student accepts an offer of enrollment.

PRIORITY 5 – All other children, provided they are California residents. Students that reside outside of Sequoia Unified High School District or San Mateo Unified High School District boundaries will be placed on a separate lottery list.

What Happens to Students Already on the Waitlist From Last Year?

The waitlist does not carry over from year to year. New registrations are necessary: students who were on the waitlist for grade 9 during the previous enrollment season are invited to submit a new lottery registration for grade 10.

Offers for grade 10-12 are based on attrition, which may or may not be known by the time the lottery runs: attrition can occur when school reopens in the fall. While there are relatively few spots, there are also fewer students on the grade 10-12 waitlist.