A Free Spreadsheet to Help You Choose Chicago Public Schools High School Programs
Chicago high school applications close November 13, 2026. How admission works, and a free spreadsheet that scores ninth-grade programs on what matters to you.
Build my free Fit Score spreadsheet
Chicago Public Schools has many high school programs, and they pick students in different ways: a lottery, a test, an audition or a points total. Leto built a free school fit score spreadsheet that shows which programs may be a fit for your family.
Applications close on November 13, 2026, at 5 p.m. Chicago time. You apply through the district's common application, called GoCPS.
How the Chicago High School Fit Score works
Leto's Chicago High School Fit Score tool is free. It builds an editable school fit score spreadsheet of up to 50 Chicago Public Schools ninth-grade programs, each scored on the preferences you provide:
- How much distance from home matters
- How big a school you would like
- Which themes or focuses interest you
- The kind of school: district, charter or contract
- Whether you need early drop-off
- Whether you need after-school hours
- Which ways of getting to school would work for you: bus, the El (train) or Metra
- Which languages you would like to see in classes
- Whether it matters that a school lists bilingual services
You enter your home address and your email, and answer a short list of choices. Leto adds your email to its email list, and you can unsubscribe anytime. There's no account to create, and the tool never asks for your child's name or birth date.
What's in the spreadsheet
Download the spreadsheet straight from the page. It opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers, and it's yours to keep. Save it when it downloads: the download link works for an hour after it's ready, or for 30 minutes after your first download, whichever comes first.
The spreadsheet has 6 tabs:
- Your Programs: each program's Fit Score, a note on why it fits and what to watch out for, a plain line on how the program picks its students, and a link to the school's page on the district's website.
- Programs Not Scored: programs that a test, an audition, a points total or a special education plan decides, and programs where the district's list doesn't make the selection clear. They are listed for your information and not scored.
- About This Spreadsheet: where the data comes from and how to read it.
- My Priorities: the choices you made, with a priority for each that you can change.
- Scoring Settings: the distance bands and other settings behind the scores.
- Sources: where each piece of data came from and when it was read.
Change a priority you marked Important, or a scoring setting, and the Fit Scores recalculate. The list of programs stays the same, and the rows don't re-sort on their own. To change which programs are on the list, build a new spreadsheet.
How does high school admission work in Chicago?
Families apply to high school programs for the 2027โ28 school year through the district's common application, GoCPS. How a student gets a seat depends on the kind of program.
- Neighborhood schools. The spreadsheet names the neighborhood high school or schools it finds for your address on the district's 2025โ26 attendance boundary map, if there is one. Please confirm it in the district's School Locator, and ask the school or GoCPS how to enroll.
- Choice programs. Many of these programs use a random lottery, and the district's priority groups may apply. Your spreadsheet gives a plain line on how each program picks its students, and links to the school's page on the district's website.
- Selective enrollment schools. Tests and grades decide, so the spreadsheet lists them on the Programs Not Scored tab and doesn't score them.
- Auditions, portfolios and points programs. Some programs choose students this way. They are listed and not scored.
- Minimum requirements. Some programs ask for a minimum score, a minimum grade average, or both, and some ask only of applicants from outside the school's attendance area. The Minimum Requirement column says which kind. A blank cell means the district lists no minimum.
The district's entrance test is not part of the spreadsheet. A charter school with its own separate application is not in it either. Charter schools that take part in the district's application are.
Why Leto built this tool
Each high school program picks its students in its own way, and the rules, minimums and school facts live in different places. Parents need help with this.
The spreadsheet starts from what matters to your family and shows which programs line up with it. It keeps your research in one place that you can edit.
It's the same idea behind everything Leto makes. Leto helps parents keep up with school: it reads the school emails in your inbox, from the school, the parent association, teachers and activities, and pulls out what you need to do and when. The spreadsheet is free, and there's no account to create.
How to use the spreadsheet to choose high school programs
Use it to decide which programs to look into, not to decide for you. Start near the top of the Your Programs tab, open the promising ones on the district's website, visit schools, and talk to families who know them.
A few things to keep in mind:
- A Fit Score measures how well a program fits the choices you made. It is not a school-quality rating, and it doesn't predict admission or tell you what to rank first.
- GoCPS is where you apply. The program list is the district's 2026 data. Confirm each program, and the current deadlines and rules, on GoCPS. List programs on your application in your family's own order of preference.
- Distance is straight-line distance from your home, not travel time. The district sets its own bus rules, so ask the school whether your teen could ride.
- When the district hasn't listed a detail, it is left out of that program's Fit Score. The spreadsheet says "Not listed," and a missing detail never counts as a zero.
- Your street address is not kept. Leto uses your home address to measure distance and to find your neighborhood school, sending it once to the U.S. Census Bureau's free address service, then deletes it once your spreadsheet is built. Leto keeps your ZIP code.
- The data is the district's own, with its dates on the page and in the spreadsheet's Sources tab. The Chicago High School Fit Score is an independent planning tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by Chicago Public Schools.
When are Chicago high school applications due?
High school applications for the 2027โ28 school year close on November 13, 2026, at 5 p.m. Chicago time. Check the current dates on the district's GoCPS high school page.
If you have a child starting ninth grade next fall, build your free school fit score spreadsheet. You can share the link with another family whose child is starting ninth grade.