When is the SHSAT — and when do you have to register?
Registration for the Fall 2026 SHSAT closes on Friday, October 30, 2026 — weeks before the test itself, and it does not happen on its own. The test days have not been announced yet. The deadline has, and it is the one a family can miss by doing nothing.
Read which cycle these dates belong to before you read the dates
- Everything below is the Fall 2026 SHSAT — the test your child sits this autumn, for a seat starting September 2027. The DOE calls that cycle "Fall 2027 High School Admissions".
- Most of the dates you will find while searching are the previous cycle's — 2026 Admissions, sat last autumn. They have all passed, and they are usually printed under a heading that says 2026, which is what makes them so easy to act on.
- The test days themselves are not on that list yet. In each of the last two cycles the weekend sitting for 8th graders fell in mid-November, with school-day testing a few days earlier — but that is a pattern, not a schedule, and we will not print a date the DOE has not published.
- The source states plainly that these dates are subject to change, and that changes are communicated to families directly. Check it yourself before you plan around a day.
Dates for the Fall 2026 SHSAT
SHSAT registration opens
The high school application and the LaGuardia audition application open the same day. There is no advantage to registering at midnight, and none to leaving it to the last week either.
SHSAT registration closes
The only date on this page a family can miss without doing anything. A student who is not registered by this day does not sit the test, whatever their preparation looks like.
High school and LaGuardia applications close
This is the separate application for every other high school programme, and it is not optional insurance — a specialized offer is never guaranteed, and this list is what a student has if none comes.
All results released
SHSAT results and high school offers arrive together, in MySchools. A student receives at most one specialized offer — the highest school on their own ranked list that still had a seat when their score came up.
Source: NYC Public Schools — Fall 2027 High School Admissions Timeline, checked 2026-08-17 · NYC Public Schools ↗
How a student actually gets registered
There are three routes, and which one applies depends on where the student goes to school right now — not on which high school they want.
In a NYC public or charter school
Through the school counsellor, or by doing it yourself in MySchools — the account is already linked to the student. Either way, ask the counsellor to confirm it went through rather than assuming it did.
In a private or parochial school
The school's guidance counsellor, or a Family Welcome Center. This is where registrations go missing: the school has no obligation to run the process, so nobody is quietly doing it for you.
Homeschooled
A Family Welcome Center, bringing the student's Individualized Home Instruction Plan and the other documents filed with the Office of Home Schooling.
MySchools ↗Family Welcome Centers ↗
What registration asks you for
- The order you want the specialized schools in. This is not a formality — offers are made by walking down each student's own ranked list, so the order decides which offer you get. Rank them honestly.
- Whether the student cannot test on a Saturday or a Sunday. Say so at registration; it is not something that can be sorted out on the day.
- Testing accommodations, if the student has them. They are attached to the registration and printed on the test ticket, so they have to be in place before the deadline rather than requested afterwards.
The test ticket appears in MySchools about two weeks after the deadline, and the counsellor can print one too. It carries the date, the time, the location and any accommodations — that ticket is the first time anyone finds out exactly when and where their child is testing.
Who sits it, and who does not
- Grade 8 students, and first-time grade 9 students, who are New York City residents. Where they go to school does not affect eligibility — public, charter, private, parochial and homeschooled students all sit the same test.
- The test is also open to students with disabilities, students with limited mobility and English Language Learners, with accommodations arranged through the registration.
- A 7th grader does not sit it this year. They register in the autumn of their 8th-grade year, which is why a year of preparation now is a year, not a scramble.
- LaGuardia is the exception among the specialized schools: it admits by audition, not by the SHSAT. Its application runs on the same calendar and closes with the high school application.
If the deadline is missed
A full-time NYC resident who was unable to register is told to contact a Family Welcome Center, and it is worth doing immediately rather than waiting. But that is a remedy, not a second deadline — nothing about it is guaranteed, and no plan should rely on it.
Three things worth doing before October
What changed for the Fall 2026 test →How cutoff scores actually work →Sit a free full-length practice test →
The official Fall 2026 SHSAT will be computer-adaptive. SHSATus currently provides fixed-form digital practice based on DOE-published content areas and question types. It does not reproduce the DOE's adaptive item-selection or scoring algorithm.
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