Charter School Marketing in Indiana: Growth, Lotteries, and the Enrollment Math

Charter and all K to 12 students, 2020-21 to 2025-26 (IDOE):

Method note. Counts come from IDOE's corporation enrollment files, which are fall counts of students in kindergarten through grade 12. IDOE's enrollment files do not flag charters, so we count every corporation that IDOE's March 2026 school directory lists as a charter corporation. Seventeen corporations that were open in 2020-21 are not in that directory, so earlier years are slightly undercounted. Including Pre-K and adult students, IDOE's total for charter corporations is 56,675 of 1,028,466 students, or 5.5%. Of 136 charter corporations, 132 appear in the enrollment file. Marion County is the county in each corporation's directory address.

What this means for enrollment marketing. Indiana charters are growing in a shrinking public system, and the biggest share is in high school. Most charters are small, and most are in Indianapolis, where families can choose among many schools. A family gets a seat at your school only when it picks you over the district school, the next charter, a private school, or a voucher.

Taylor Wiz measures what we control: the cost of a submitted application. You know your own yield, meaning the share of submitted applications that become enrolled, attending students. Divide our number by your yield and you have your marketing cost per enrolled student.

The Taylor Wiz figure. Across 20 charter school accounts, from October 2025 to September 2026, a submitted application cost $113 in Meta ad spend over the full year, and $103 from October through July. None of the 20 accounts is in Indiana. The seasonal detail is in the Charter Enrollment Marketing Benchmark 2026.

The math at different yields, using $113:

What this table does not include. Staff time, open houses, printed materials, and any cost other than Meta ad spend.

Method. Total Meta ad spend divided by applications marked submitted in our CRM, counted only in months with at least $300 in ad spend. All 20 accounts are charter schools in other states. The full method is on Cost Per Enrolled Student.

What your ads must match (Indiana Code 20-24-5-5):

1. A random drawing when applications exceed seats. The school holds it in a public meeting, and each timely applicant has an equal chance. Ads should invite families to apply.
2. Your actual preferences. The statute allows preferences for returning students, siblings of current students and alumni, children of founders, board members, and employees (never more than 10% of the school), certain preschool graduates, students from a closed charter school, and, with authorizer approval, students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and students from a co-located charter school. Mention a preference only if your school uses it.
3. Equal chance means no side doors. Do not promise a seat or imply that applying early or following up improves lottery odds, unless a listed preference applies.

We did not find an Indiana rule that names charter advertising either way. Whether a specific campaign is an appropriate use of public funds is a question for your governing board, counsel, auditor, and authorizer.

1. Meta advertising. Facebook and Instagram campaigns aimed at families in your enrollment area, timed to your application window.
2. Parent outreach. Our outreach team contacts every inquiry within 15 minutes during business hours, by the next business day otherwise, and never later than 48 hours. They work with each family until an application is submitted. See Parent Outreach.
3. Enrollment websites. Inquiry and application paths built to convert on a phone.
4. Creative and video. Ads and video that show your school the way families experience it.
5. Reporting. Submitted applications and cost per submitted application, by month and by ad.

Your school takes it from there: lottery, offers, registration, and enrollment. We report submitted applications because that is the step we control.