A magnet school is a specialized school that focuses its curriculum on one particular subject area, such as math/science, humanities, Montessori, or world language. The system currently has a total of 38 elementary magnet schools.
Most elementary magnet schools do not have attendance boundaries, which means that all interested students must submit an application, even if they live close to the school. In addition, in most cases, magnet schools provide school bus transportation to students who live more than 1.5 miles but less than 6 miles from the school. Contrary to widely held beliefs, magnet elementary schools do not provide an accelerated curriculum – they are designed for all students, and students are randomly selected through a computerized lottery.
