I hate the advantage people with multiple kids have in the school lottery

[Anonymous]

I understand why sibling preference exists and I don't resent any individual family who benefits from it because I get that being able to send your kids to the same schools is really vital for families daily functioning. But it's hard having an only in a school you are not happy with and having to rely on lottery number to hopefully get you into a better situation and then watching your numbers go up because of sibling preference.

Again -- no anger at the individual families who are jumping up the line in front of us as I get it but it's just hard. We are pretty much definitely going to biting our nails on this one well into August and likely even into September and I so wish we could just tell our kid "you're going to X school" and start getting her and us ready for that and instead I feel like we have to just sit at the back of the line and hope and pray.

[Anonymous]

And yet, every family goes through this. How do you think the first kid of multi-sibling family gets in??

[Anonymous]

I hate the advantage people who can afford to buy into good schools have. If you don’t want to bite nails waiting just send them to your neighborhood school. And if you aren’t happy with it, move to the best school you can afford like everyone else does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And yet, every family goes through this. How do you think the first kid of multi-sibling family gets in??

They go through it in PK for their first but most families with multiple kids can exercise the advantage by the time their oldest is in 1st or 2nd since most families have kids within 3-4 years of each other. But if you have one kid and strike out in PK then each year after that you will be trying to get into a better school in the lottery and you might lose out to kids with siblings each year. Also families with siblings can pull kids in going both directions so it still benefits the older kids even if not in PK.

So no -- not everyone has the same experience. Having multiple kids in the system is a definite advantage and only becomes more so the older your kids get (and given the challenges with middle school in most of the city that might be the biggest advantage of all -- look at how many spots at the Latins and BASIS go to siblings in that 5th grade lottery).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate the advantage people who can afford to buy into good schools have. If you don’t want to bite nails waiting just send them to your neighborhood school. And if you aren’t happy with it, move to the best school you can afford like everyone else does.

I mean duh but the whole reason the lottery exists is that people cannot always afford to move IB for better schools. And it's generally the people with the weakest IB schools who are least likely to be able to afford to move for better schools.

[Anonymous]

I recognize the advantage families with multiple parents and only one kid have in handling every aspect of their child's school and extracurricular life, including logisitical and financial aspects, but I don't hate it because I'm not a little whiny troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And yet, every family goes through this. How do you think the first kid of multi-sibling family gets in??

They go through it in PK for their first but most families with multiple kids can exercise the advantage by the time their oldest is in 1st or 2nd since most families have kids within 3-4 years of each other. But if you have one kid and strike out in PK then each year after that you will be trying to get into a better school in the lottery and you might lose out to kids with siblings each year. Also families with siblings can pull kids in going both directions so it still benefits the older kids even if not in PK.

So no -- not everyone has the same experience. Having multiple kids in the system is a definite advantage and only becomes more so the older your kids get (and given the challenges with middle school in most of the city that might be the biggest advantage of all -- look at how many spots at the Latins and BASIS go to siblings in that 5th grade lottery).

Yes, but the point that the PP above this is making is that all those siblings that get in to Latin or BASIS or wherever else, are getting in because at some point a kid in that family got in without sibling preference. And they got into the school even though some of the available spots in that year went to people who had sibling preference at that time.

And yes, of course not everyone has the same experience. In fact people have wildly different experiences. Some of these experiences are made better or easier by having more than one kid, and some of these experiences are made worse or harder by having more than one kid. But the bolded sentence makes it seem like you don't understand the lottery.

[Anonymous]

OP, they have exactly the same advantage you have if you really think about it. With their first child they struggled exactly like you did. If anything, you struggle less because you dont have to fight for the following kids. In my area there were so many kids lottering for prek that even siblings were not certain to get the spot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And yet, every family goes through this. How do you think the first kid of multi-sibling family gets in??

They go through it in PK for their first but most families with multiple kids can exercise the advantage by the time their oldest is in 1st or 2nd since most families have kids within 3-4 years of each other. But if you have one kid and strike out in PK then each year after that you will be trying to get into a better school in the lottery and you might lose out to kids with siblings each year. Also families with siblings can pull kids in going both directions so it still benefits the older kids even if not in PK.

So no -- not everyone has the same experience. Having multiple kids in the system is a definite advantage and only becomes more so the older your kids get (and given the challenges with middle school in most of the city that might be the biggest advantage of all -- look at how many spots at the Latins and BASIS go to siblings in that 5th grade lottery).

Yes, but the point that the PP above this is making is that all those siblings that get in to Latin or BASIS or wherever else, are getting in because at some point a kid in that family got in without sibling preference. And they got into the school even though some of the available spots in that year went to people who had sibling preference at that time.

And yes, of course not everyone has the same experience. In fact people have wildly different experiences. Some of these experiences are made better or easier by having more than one kid, and some of these experiences are made worse or harder by having more than one kid. But the bolded sentence makes it seem like you don't understand the lottery.

I totally agree that in many respects, the older sibling has equal chances to an only.

There is one exception that I've seen play out many times -- families who want a spot at a Deal or Hardy feeder (who live out of bounds) are often able to eventually get one, and the sibling (either older or younger) pulls the other one in. this actually happened to us (though we didn't accept), and I know many other families this happened to. An only probably also would have gotten in at some point, but the siblings have double the chances to get in every year.

[Anonymous]

Why not buy or rent an apartment near a school you would be happy in. I have live IB for three awesome schools during the last 17 years. Didn't even take advantage of all of them.
You must be choosing a house and not so good of a school over rental/condo vs good school. That's a choice. Or are you saying you can't afford a small rental while you can afford a house somewhere else in the city?

[Anonymous]

Get lucky in the middle school lottery with an oldest child and the luck continues for siblings. But striking out with the oldest is not much different than with an only. I guess it is also easier to “upgrade” to a more popular elementary school or better feeder during elementary school but that is still moving/changing schools and the lottery still semi-sucks (grass is not always greener either at the most in-demand schools or with the sibling advantage).

[Anonymous]

As usual, instead of blaming the poor quality of education your children are offered, you look askance at each other, which serves no one. If DCPS was a better school system, you wouldn't be in agonies like this, feeling envious of larger families.

I understand that thousands of families can't afford to move out of DC.

But DCUM posters? Come on. Most of you can afford to vote with your feet. MCPS and FCPS are both head and shoulders above DCPS.

[Anonymous]

It's so not fair... especially by middle and high school.

I get it for the little ones who need pick up, but once they're older, they shouldn't get preference.

[Anonymous]

Each family should get one lottery chance for their oldest kid, but reduced chance based on number of kids. That balances the averages.

[Anonymous]

I'm jealous of the divorced parents where one lives in the suburbs and the other lives in the city. They get to play the lottery or switch to the suburban parent's address for the schools.

The kids of divorced parents have it the easiest.