Admissions

PCPS Open Application Priority Information

Polk County Public Schools will soon begin accepting school choice applications for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year.

This is an opportunity for families to apply for their students to attend a variety of PCPS programs, including: International Baccalaureate at Bartow Families must submit their applications online via Parent Portal during the application window from January 13 to February 21, 2025. IB has academic requirements.

PCPS is hosting a series of School Choice Showcases, each showcase will highlight the options available at PCPS schools in the surrounding community. The following locations are for IB Bartow from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

• Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025 - Lakeland Square Mall - Hosted by Lakeland Square Mall
• Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025 - Bartow Civic Center - Hosted by the City of Bartow

For more information about High school IB, questions should be directed to 863-534-0631 ext. 794.

Prospective Students Eligibility Profile for IB at Bartow High School

In order to attend IB, a student must apply, and qualify, for one of the limited seats during the District Open Application Priority Period during his/her eighth or ninth grade year.

IB Application Requirements

Current 8th grade students can apply for the IB program during the Open Application period. A link to the electronic application will be posted here when the application period opens.

For a student to be accepted in this specific program, the parent must apply during the Application period, and the student must be registered to take a computerized district assessment in February (if the student has not already earned an Achievement Level score of 5 on the 7th grade English Language Arts state assessment, and an Achievement Level score of 4 or 5 on the Algebra 1 state assessment). Students need to score high enough on the state or district assessment to qualify into this program.

After completing the electronic application, parents will then be able to register for one specific assessment session for their child through Parent Portal. A list of some of the available assessment dates and locations is provided below.

Additional details:

• The application window is only for magnet schools, career academies and high school programs such as IB and Cambridge.
• In April we will begin taking applications for Controlled Open Enrollment (COE), which allows you to apply to any school (excluding magnet schools) that still has seats open for next year. We'll have more info once COE begins.
• If you're new to PCPS, you can create a Parent Portal account and add a student who is not yet enrolled in our schools. However, this option will NOT be available until after the school choice application period begins.

District Assessment Dates and Locations: