Admission to BACS is by lottery. The lottery is usually held at the beginning of April for students interested in enrolling in the fall.  While BACS accepts applications throughout the school year, all interested students must fill out an application and return it to BACS before the deadline, which is typically in late March for the following school year.

The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) supervises the lotteries for all charter schools in the state. Students are drawn from the pool in accordance with RIDE and Federal guidelines. These guidelines also dictate that siblings of enrolled students are exempt from the lottery process and are automatically admitted if space is available in the appropriate grade.

After all of the available slots are full, the remaining applicants are placed on a waiting list in the order they are pulled from the remaining pool of applicants. This waiting list is utilized throughout the year to fill open spots if they become available.