A Free Spreadsheet to Help You Choose Chicago Public Schools Kindergarten Programs
How kindergarten admission works at Chicago Public Schools, the key dates, and a free school fit score spreadsheet that scores programs on what matters to you.
Build my free Fit Score spreadsheet
Chicago Public Schools have many kindergarten programs, and each one fills its seats in its own way. We built a free school fit score spreadsheet that shows which programs may be a fit for your family.
Applications for the 2027–28 school year close on November 13, 2026, at 5 p.m. Chicago time. You apply to choice and magnet programs through the district's common application, called GoCPS. You enroll in your neighborhood school directly with the school.
How the Chicago Kindergarten Fit Score works
Leto's Chicago Kindergarten Fit Score tool is a free school fit score spreadsheet. It builds an editable spreadsheet of Chicago Public Schools kindergarten programs, each scored on the preferences you provide:
- How much distance from home matters
- The kind of school: neighborhood or magnet
- Which themes or focuses interest you, such as arts, science, technology, engineering and math, dual language or Montessori
- How big a school you would like
- Whether you need before-school or after-school care
- Whether a bus or train line near the school matters
- Which languages you would like to see in the classroom
- Optionally, the school an older child already goes to
You enter your home address and your email, and answer a short list of choices. 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 six tabs:
- Your Programs: each program's Fit Score, a note on why it fits and what to watch out for, and a link to the program's page on the district's website.
- Test-Decided Programs: programs where a test or the district's own ranking decides, 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, or to count something you left Neutral, build a new spreadsheet.
How kindergarten admission works in Chicago
Families apply to choice and magnet programs for the 2027–28 school year through the district's common application, called GoCPS. Neighborhood schools enroll directly. How a child gets a seat depends on the kind of program.
- Neighborhood schools. The district says families do not use the application for their neighborhood school. You enroll directly with the school, and should be ready to show proof of residency. To find your neighborhood school, use the district's School Locator. The spreadsheet also names the neighborhood elementary school it finds for your address on the district's 2026–27 attendance boundary map. Please confirm it in the School Locator.
- Choice and magnet programs. Many of these programs use a random lottery. The district's priority groups may apply, and the district decides which group, if any, applies to each child. Your spreadsheet shows the groups the district lists for each program, in the district's words. Tier is a group the district sets by address, and the spreadsheet does not work out yours. Some programs choose students another way, such as an audition, a portfolio or a points total. Each school's page explains how its program fills seats, and your spreadsheet links to it.
- Classical and Regional Gifted Centers. A test decides these, so the spreadsheet lists them on the Test-Decided Programs tab and does not score them.
Charter school lotteries are not in the spreadsheet, because each charter runs its own. Early entrance to kindergarten has its own page on the district's website.
Why Leto built this tool
There are many kindergarten programs to consider, and the details for each 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 it to choose 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 what you told it. 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 child could ride.
- When the district hasn't listed a detail, that program gets half credit for it. The spreadsheet says "not listed" next to the score, and never counts a missing detail as a zero.
- Your street address is not kept. Leto uses your home address to measure distance and to find your neighborhood school, 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. Leto is an independent planning tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by Chicago Public Schools.
When are Chicago kindergarten applications due?
Kindergarten applications for the 2027–28 school year are open from September 9, 2026, at 10 a.m., to November 13, 2026, at 5 p.m. Chicago time. Elementary offers come out on March 12, 2027. Check the current dates on the district's GoCPS page.
If you have a child starting kindergarten next fall, build your free school fit score spreadsheet. You can share the link with another family who has one too.