2024-25 Admissions

Admissions Requirements 

BATON ROUGE OCHSNER DISCOVERY HEALTH SCIENCES ACADEMY, INCLUDING DISCOVERY FUSION, IS AN EQUAL-OPPORTUNITY EDUCATIONAL PROVIDER. WE DO NOT DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, SEX, NATIONAL ORIGIN, DISABILITY, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, AND/OR AGE IN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OR ACTIVITIES THAT IT OPERATES.

Who Is Eligible

  1. All Louisiana residents are eligible.

  2. Discovery Fusion will accept applications for students entering grades 5th through 8th for the 2024-2025 school year.

  3. No Admissions Test. Discovery Fusion is an open-enrollment school and does not test students to gain admission.

Discovery Fusion Application Period

Priority Application Period: October 10, 2023 - February 2, 2024 @ Noon (application must be submitted by 11:59 AM on the date of closure). 

Regular Application Period: February 5, 2024 - March 15, 2024 @ Noon (application must be submitted by 11:59 AM on the date of closure). 

Ongoing Enrollment: Student applications can be submitted at any time until January 31, 2025 for the 24-25 school year.

How To Apply

Our application is online. The online application allows parents to save and finish the application later if needed. All supporting documents must be submitted online with the application. We encourage applicants to apply early so that if there is a document missing the admissions team can notify the parent. Applications with missing required documents will not be eligible for admission.

Start Application

Supporting Documents

We suggest gathering the following documents before you start your online application.

Tips for attaching documents to your child's application:

If you do not have access to a scanner to scan documents, you can use your smartphone or tablet.

  1. Place the document on a solid background for good contrast

  2. Find good lighting, avoid shadows across the document

  3. Hold your smartphone or tablet flat, keep it as square to the document as possible

  4. Make sure the image is not blurry and the information is legible

If you are completing the application from your mobile phone, you can attach the document directly from your phone. If you are using a desktop you will need to email the images of your documents to your personal email account. Then save them to the desktop computer you are using to submit your application. 

Required Student Documents

  • Birth certificate

  • most recent report card or annual test scores (to verify grade placement)

  • TWO (2) proofs of residency - must be in the parent/guardian's name and at the same address as the student

Requested Student Documents

  • Economically Disadvantaged status documents (if applicable)

  • Current IEP if applicable

  • Current IAP/504 plan if applicable

LOTTERY & WAITLIST

If the number of applicants exceeds the number of seats available for any grade level, a computer-generated, random lottery will be run in order to determine who is offered a seat at the school. Students not offered a seat will be added to the 2024-25 school year waitlist. The waitlist remains active until January 31, 2025. All applications submitted within the application period will have an equal opportunity for admission, regardless of whether they are submitted on the first day or the last day of the application period. 

In year 1, sibling preference will be administered for siblings applying. The lottery will be run for 8th grade first. Lotteries for each grade level will then be run in reverse chronological order (8th, 7th, 6th, 5th). If a sibling is accepted in the lottery at the previous grade level, then sibling preference will apply to eligible applicants during the current grade level lottery.

If a lottery is needed, it will take place in March of 2024.

LOTTERY PREFERENCES

Per our Charter Operating Agreement, 50% of open seats are designated for qualified Ochsner employees’ children (dependents) living in Louisiana.

Discovery faculty students have preferential placement for open seats. In year 1, sibling preference will be administered for siblings applying. The lottery will be run for 8th grade first. Lotteries for each grade level will then be run in reverse chronological order (8th, 7th, 6th, and 5th). If a sibling is accepted in the lottery at the previous grade level, then sibling preference will apply to eligible applicants during the current grade level lottery.

All preferences shall be considered in the following order:

  1. Children of Discovery faculty

  2. Current Discovery siblings

  3. Siblings of applicants who have been awarded a seat in the 24-25 lottery. Siblings must have the same biological parent(s) or legal guardian(s) by court-ordered foster or adoption AND reside at the same address as each other. Provisional Custody by Mandate does not qualify a student for this preference.

  4. Applicants who are dependents of qualifying Ochsner employees (as determined by Ochsner Human Resources).

LOTTERY RULES AND PROCEDURES

  1. Lottery refers to the selection of applicant names by a random method in a computer-generated process.

  2. A lottery shall be conducted by the school to include all grades in which the number of applicants exceeds the number of expected seats available.

  3. If the number of applicants is less than the number of seats anticipated to be available, seats will be awarded and no lottery shall be conducted for that grade.

  4. All applicants participate in the lottery.

  5. Only completed applications received prior to the end of the application deadline are eligible to participate in the lottery.

  6. All applicants offered a seat shall be required to confirm their enrollment status within the designated time.

  7. All preference categories shall be published prior to the lottery being conducted.

  8. All applicants entitled to receive a lottery preference shall be identified PRIOR to the lottery.

  9. Preference status applicants are entitled to a percentage of open seats ahead of applicants without a preference status.