Miami School Admissions: What Has Changed for 2027-28
Miami rewards families who understand how its two systems fit together, and the calendar starts in the fall. The calendar for the 2027-28 cycle is now published and the magnet window opens on October 1. Here is what has changed, so you can plan your family’s search with confidence.
Families relocating to South Florida usually arrive with a handful of neighborhoods in mind. What surprises them is how much the neighborhood decision and the school decision turn out to be the same decision.
A few things are genuinely different this cycle, and they are worth understanding early. If you would like a fuller view of the region, our page on school options across Miami and South Florida is a good place to begin.
The Magnet Calendar, and What It Rewards
Miami-Dade has now published its calendar for the 2027-28 cycle, and it follows the district’s usual shape. The magnet and high-interest VPK application window opens on October 1, 2026 and closes at 11:59 p.m. on January 15, 2027. Auditions for Visual and Performing Arts programs and language proficiency testing for some international programs have to be completed before March 1. Results are released by email on March 15, and a family notified that day has until March 31 to accept the seat. A child who moves off a waiting list after March 31 has five business days to accept. Pre-K magnet programs are applied for through the standard VPK application, by selecting the options marked MAGNET.
The mechanics matter as much as the dates. A child may apply to up to five magnet programs at five different schools, and to only one program per school. Selection is a random draw run through a third-party system, with priority for active-duty military families, for veteran families who supply documentation of an honorable discharge, and for younger siblings who will overlap by at least a year. Arts programs audition, and some international programs test language proficiency.
Choice Programs Are Not Magnet Programs
This is the distinction that costs families the most time. Choice programs are designed primarily for children who already live within the school’s boundary, and those children get priority placement. Everyone else competes for what is left.
So buying into a boundary in Coral Gables, Coconut Grove or Pinecrest buys real priority in a Choice program, and buys nothing at all in the magnet lottery. Transportation is typically not provided for Choice programs either, which is worth adding to the commute math before a lease is signed.
Missing the January Deadline Is Not Fatal
If the main window closes before you arrive, an off-cycle application period runs from April 15 to September 1 on whatever seats remain once the waiting lists are exhausted. It works on a first-come, first-served basis rather than a lottery, which is a different game and rewards a different kind of preparation.
Florida also gives families a broader right than most states realize. A parent may enroll a child in, and transport that child to, any public school in the state that has not reached capacity, and districts must publish each school’s capacity by grade level on their websites and refresh it every 12 weeks. Students who already live in the district keep their priority and are not displaced by an applicant from another district, so it is worth reading a school’s published capacity before counting on a seat there. Once a child transfers in, they may stay at that school through the highest grade it offers.
Broward Runs on a Different Calendar
Families weighing both counties often assume the deadlines line up. They do not. Broward runs its School Choice application on its own calendar, opening later than Miami-Dade and closing before the winter break. For 2026-27 the window ran from November 3 to December 19, with a late application window opening on April 1.
Broward commits to publishing the following year’s timeline by October 1 each year. At the time of writing the 2027-28 dates had not yet appeared, so check the district’s Important Dates page before you plan around them. If you are looking at Weston or Coral Springs alongside Coral Gables or Pinecrest, put both calendars side by side before you settle on a neighborhood.
The Scholarship Is Universal, the Funding Queue Is Not
Eligibility for Florida’s Family Empowerment Scholarship has been universal since 2023, and many relocating families read that and assume the money follows. Funding is awarded in priority order, and income is only part of it. Students renewing an existing scholarship come first, then households at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level and children in foster or out-of-home care, then households between 185 and 400 percent. Households above 400 percent, and those who provide no income information, come last. The award itself is set each year by the Legislature and varies by grade level and county. In Miami-Dade for 2026-27, the most recent year published at the time of writing, it is $8,745 for Kindergarten through Grade 3, $8,140 for Grades 4 through 8 and $7,942 for Grades 9 through 12. New applications for the current year run to November 15, and the 2027-28 window had not been dated at the time of writing, though it has opened on February 1 in recent years.
The more common obstacle is not the money at all, but the seat. In a statewide survey of families who received a scholarship and did not use it, roughly a third said there was no place available at the school they wanted. A new state law from July 2026 makes it easier for small private schools to open in commercial and mixed-use buildings, which should ease supply in time, though not in time for next fall.
The Map Itself Has Moved
Miami-Dade approved the closure or consolidation of nine schools for the 2026-27 year and redrew attendance zones at the same time, with several schools recombined into K-8, 6-12 and K-12 configurations and boundaries adjusted to relieve crowding in the south of the county.
District enrollment has kept falling. First-day figures in August 2026 showed about 215,000 students against roughly 230,000 the previous spring, and the count had recovered to about 217,000 by the end of that month. Those figures are preliminary; the official count is taken in October and is the one that determines state funding. A further 27 schools are under review ahead of 2027-28. The district paused that review in early September as a new superintendent took office and expects to complete it during this school year, so a boundary or a school configuration that is accurate today may look different by the time your child starts. This is a good reason to check a boundary against the district’s current map rather than a guide written a year ago, and it is the sort of thing our consultants track as a matter of course.
Two Things That Catch Arriving Families Out
The kindergarten age cut-off is September 1 and it is applied strictly. Families coming from systems that use a December or August cut-off routinely find their child placed a year behind where they expected. There is a narrow exception, and it is narrower than most families expect: it covers a child transferring from another US state, where the parent was a legal resident of that state and the child met that state’s own entrance age. A child arriving from another country does not qualify, and there is no route to waive the age requirement.
And a transferring high school student does not import a Florida diploma. Algebra 1 and Grade 10 English still require Florida’s own assessment or an accepted concordant score, while transferred credit in Geometry, Biology 1 and US History is honored without retesting. One change to know about: from 2026-27, a first-time Grade 10 student may generally only use an English concordant score earned after the spring administration of Florida’s own Grade 10 assessment, so a score a student arrives with may not substitute the way it once did. It is worth checking a transcript against this before the first day rather than after it.
Planning a Move to Miami?
Our consultants live and work across Miami-Dade and Broward, and know how the boundaries, the magnet lottery and the private schools actually interact. We can help you line up the housing decision with the school decision, rather than making one and then discovering what it cost you in the other.
Bennett International Education Consultancy works directly with hundreds of families each year across the globe. We support families by helping them make informed decisions about the best-fit schools for their children; with our guidance, they secure placement in preschools, private day schools, public/state schools, boarding schools, colleges and universities, including schools with particular programs, such as special needs support.
