DOE’s ‘rigged’ waitlist numbers

In another admissions snafu, the city Department of Education has walked back a promise to give new lottery numbers to students on certain high school waiting lists — frustrating their hopes of getting in.

“They’ve completely changed the rules in the middle of the game,” angry mom Deborah Roberts told The Post.

The DOE first assured parents that kids on waiting lists would get new “random numbers” that might improve their chances. The numbers determine the order in which students are selected.

“For waitlists, each applicant receives a new random number for each waitlist they are on,” the DOE website stated.

But families found they are stuck with the same numbers that indicated low odds before, and the DOE has finally acknowledged it.

Matthew Broggini, the DOE’s executive director of middle school and high school admissions, told Roberts in an email last week, “We have updated our website to provide more clarity on how waitlists work.”

The update indicates that students seeking entry to “screened” schools, which lump kids in lottery groups based on their GPA, keep the same random number. Only those applying to “open” schools without admission criteria get a new number.

Screened schools include popular Townsend Harris, Eleanor Roosevelt, Millennium, and Academy of American Studies, among others.

Roberts cried foul at the late clarification. “If Chancellor [David] Banks wants to partner and engage with parents, then the DOE should have been, and needs to be, clear and transparent in its policies from the beginning of the process,” she emailed Broggini.