Can you switch elementary schools?

[Anonymous]

We are moving this summer, and have two children that are currently daycare age but the older will enter elementary next year. Our new house is zoned for an Elementary School 2 miles away, across a major road. Meanwhile, we are between two other elementary schools that are each 0.5 miles away and not across major roads. Not only that, but we pass ANOTHER elementary school when we cross that major road before we get to the assigned school. It seems very strange.

I'm just curious if there is a process for contesting your assigned school based on information like this? They are more or less all similarly rated schools, although the two that are 0.5 miles away are perhaps slightly better.

[Anonymous]

This is pretty common in MCPS. We are zoned for an ES 1.5 miles away when there is another ES in walking distance.

[Anonymous]

There's a process called COSA (change of school assignment), but you have to have a reason that is more compelling than the current assignment not making sense.

[Anonymous]

This sounds like the NHE/Oakview catchment area. If so, at least in the past, several families have gotten COSA to Highland View.

[Anonymous]

If you are talking about RHES--it is truly a gem and you wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I wish it went k-5.

[Anonymous]

You will have the most luck if trying to change to a under utilized school. Also consider that your kids will not get to know the kids on the street that way and you the parents. You will have to provide transportation too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are moving this summer, and have two children that are currently daycare age but the older will enter elementary next year. Our new house is zoned for an Elementary School 2 miles away, across a major road. Meanwhile, we are between two other elementary schools that are each 0.5 miles away and not across major roads. Not only that, but we pass ANOTHER elementary school when we cross that major road before we get to the assigned school. It seems very strange.

I'm just curious if there is a process for contesting your assigned school based on information like this? They are more or less all similarly rated schools, although the two that are 0.5 miles away are perhaps slightly better.

Your new house must be very close to a cluster boundary line, and/or it is in an "island" separated from the main part of that school's boundary. I don't think MCPS will see this as a viable reason for a COSA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like the NHE/Oakview catchment area. If so, at least in the past, several families have gotten COSA to Highland View.

The NHE/Oakview split is indeed weird since the schools are so far from one another, but it's a relic of an earlier era when many schools were bifurcated K-2 and 3-5. Highland View is badly overcrowded so I'd be surprised if MCPS allowed COSAs on the commute alone, since school buses exist.

[Anonymous]

COSAs are for hardship. Wanting to go to a closer school is not a hardship.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, it's not possible for MCPS or any school system to build schools that are all perfectly equidistant from one another and serve the exact population that lives within a 1 mile radius of the school. There are very limited funds for building school additions, so sometimes they do funky things with school boundaries to maximize the space in each building. In addition, they increasingly aim to use school boundaries to reduce segregation by income and race/ethnicity. You say that the schools are all similarly rated. It's likely the school you are zoned for would have a lower rating than it currently does if they did not assign families from your neighborhood to it, because the ratings often reflect the demographics of the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:COSAs are for hardship. Wanting to go to a closer school is not a hardship.

The one person I know who got this is a disabled single mother of 2 - she asked to move her older kid closer to the preschool her younger kid was going to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is pretty common in MCPS. We are zoned for an ES 1.5 miles away when there is another ES in walking distance.

It's because the boundaries haven't been updated in 40 years and there are all kinds of crazy things that have caused these things to have developed this way over the decades. If they could just start fresh many of these boundaries would make a lot more sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are moving this summer, and have two children that are currently daycare age but the older will enter elementary next year. Our new house is zoned for an Elementary School 2 miles away, across a major road. Meanwhile, we are between two other elementary schools that are each 0.5 miles away and not across major roads. Not only that, but we pass ANOTHER elementary school when we cross that major road before we get to the assigned school. It seems very strange.

I'm just curious if there is a process for contesting your assigned school based on information like this? They are more or less all similarly rated schools, although the two that are 0.5 miles away are perhaps slightly better.

You may improve your chances if you slip a couple benjamins in with your cosa app.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are moving this summer, and have two children that are currently daycare age but the older will enter elementary next year. Our new house is zoned for an Elementary School 2 miles away, across a major road. Meanwhile, we are between two other elementary schools that are each 0.5 miles away and not across major roads. Not only that, but we pass ANOTHER elementary school when we cross that major road before we get to the assigned school. It seems very strange.

I'm just curious if there is a process for contesting your assigned school based on information like this? They are more or less all similarly rated schools, although the two that are 0.5 miles away are perhaps slightly better.

I stumped seeing anywhere on the map that meets this description. You're saying there are two elementary schools one mile apart from each other, and your house is in between them, and there are no major roads to cross to get to either...and you're not zoned for either? There are a bunch of very-close-together elementary schools, especially in the more populated areas, but almost all of them are separated by a major road, and of those that don't I don't see any weird looking boundaries...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are moving this summer, and have two children that are currently daycare age but the older will enter elementary next year. Our new house is zoned for an Elementary School 2 miles away, across a major road. Meanwhile, we are between two other elementary schools that are each 0.5 miles away and not across major roads. Not only that, but we pass ANOTHER elementary school when we cross that major road before we get to the assigned school. It seems very strange.

I'm just curious if there is a process for contesting your assigned school based on information like this? They are more or less all similarly rated schools, although the two that are 0.5 miles away are perhaps slightly better.

I stumped seeing anywhere on the map that meets this description. You're saying there are two elementary schools one mile apart from each other, and your house is in between them, and there are no major roads to cross to get to either...and you're not zoned for either? There are a bunch of very-close-together elementary schools, especially in the more populated areas, but almost all of them are separated by a major road, and of those that don't I don't see any weird looking boundaries...

Like Brookhaven and Rock Creek Valley are very close together, and Arctic Ave isn't that big a road that separates them. But anyone who lives between them goes to either one or the other school.