Lost PreK spot after enrollment...

[Anonymous]

Can someone please talk me off of a ledge? We're in a really sticky situation.

Elder child, 3rd grader, has been at our inbound DCPS school "A" since they were in Pk3. Younger child has been accepted and enrolled at the same school "A" in Pk3 for 26-27 school year. We had both inbound and sibling preference.

Elder child then lotteried into an out of bound, higher rated, different feeder pattern school "B" for grade 4 for the 26-27 school year.

We enrolled Elder child into school "B".

We are now informed that Younger child is having their spot taken away at school "A" and placed back on the waitlist (at 4th place), because although they are inbound, they've lost the weight of sibling preference.

I can't imagine that every single child accepted and enrolled in pk3 next year at school A is both inbound and sibling preference, so why are we losing a spot instead of someone else who only has inbound preference? If this had happened in September after the school year began would my Younger child lose their spot?

Do I have a leg to stand on here with admin and central office? We've already given notice at our daycare!

[Anonymous]

They're not going to unenroll someone. You shouldn't get sibling preference if there isn't a sibling. Should have thought about that before moving your older kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please talk me off of a ledge? We're in a really sticky situation.

Elder child, 3rd grader, has been at our inbound DCPS school "A" since they were in Pk3. Younger child has been accepted and enrolled at the same school "A" in Pk3 for 26-27 school year. We had both inbound and sibling preference.

Elder child then lotteried into an out of bound, higher rated, different feeder pattern school "B" for grade 4 for the 26-27 school year.

We enrolled Elder child into school "B".

We are now informed that Younger child is having their spot taken away at school "A" and placed back on the waitlist (at 4th place), because although they are inbound, they've lost the weight of sibling preference.

I can't imagine that every single child accepted and enrolled in pk3 next year at school A is both inbound and sibling preference, so why are we losing a spot instead of someone else who only has inbound preference? If this had happened in September after the school year began would my Younger child lose their spot?

Do I have a leg to stand on here with admin and central office? We've already given notice at our daycare!

I didn't think they could do this after enrollment, but it makes sense to relist if younger sibling wasn't enrolled yet. I would definitely try to figure out what the rules say but also put younger kid on some short waitlists stat.

[Anonymous]

Ouch. Yeah, that does appear to be the rule, per the handbook:
https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/sites/dcpsenrollment/files/page_content/attachments/SY26-27%20DCPS%20Enrollment%20and%20Lottery%20%28POSTED%29_2.pdf

"Please note that if the attending student does not re-enroll and attend for the following school year, the
sibling who received a sibling attending preference will forfeit their match or waitlist offer, or have their
enrollment revoked. In these cases, the applicant will be placed on the school’s waitlist based on other eligible
preferences, but without the sibling preference."

[Anonymous]

We know a family that was in this situation as well. But they figured it out ahead of time and included a bunch of schools on their PK3 lottery list beyond their IB because they knew there was a chance the older kid would not be re-enrolling in the IB.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all. I just needed perspective. I feel like I'm *sacrificing* (yes strong language) elder child's opportunity for the sake of preK for my younger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We know a family that was in this situation as well. But they figured it out ahead of time and included a bunch of schools on their PK3 lottery list beyond their IB because they knew there was a chance the older kid would not be re-enrolling in the IB.

We did also include lots of other schools however we don't know what our waitlist spots would be since we got offered a spot immediately and didn't see where we were for other schools.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, this is the rule, and you’re stuck, OP. Agree it’s time to start looking through the short waitlists for PK3 and applying everywhere. Any chance of getting in at the new school for PK3?

I will say - I think this is a dumb rule. Once you’re enrolled, you should get to stay unless there’s actual fraud (ie, putting down a sibling that doesn’t exist or trying to pass a neighbor off as a sibling or something). I mean, plenty of people have a PK3 get in on sibling preference and then a couple years later, older sib leaves for BASIS after 4th - should little sib be kicked out then too??

Plus - assuming school A was first on your lotto list for PK3, if you didn’t have sibling preference she might have matched with your 2nd or 3rd choice school, and now they might be full. You can’t unring a bell!

[Anonymous]

The point of sibling priority is to keep families at one school. Once you don't want that, why should you get sibling priority? You tried to play the game and you lost.

[Anonymous]

question -- are you hoping to move your younger child to the school B eventually?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please talk me off of a ledge? We're in a really sticky situation.

Elder child, 3rd grader, has been at our inbound DCPS school "A" since they were in Pk3. Younger child has been accepted and enrolled at the same school "A" in Pk3 for 26-27 school year. We had both inbound and sibling preference.

Elder child then lotteried into an out of bound, higher rated, different feeder pattern school "B" for grade 4 for the 26-27 school year.

We enrolled Elder child into school "B".

We are now informed that Younger child is having their spot taken away at school "A" and placed back on the waitlist (at 4th place), because although they are inbound, they've lost the weight of sibling preference.

I can't imagine that every single child accepted and enrolled in pk3 next year at school A is both inbound and sibling preference, so why are we losing a spot instead of someone else who only has inbound preference? If this had happened in September after the school year began would my Younger child lose their spot?

Do I have a leg to stand on here with admin and central office? We've already given notice at our daycare!

It's a bit messy, but once older child unenrolled, they reassigned your inbound PK3 the lottery number they would have pulled had you not had sibling preference. Younger kid's IB-only lottery number was lower than others, including current #1-3 on the waitlist. Had your kid's standalone IB number been enough to get them in without older sibling's pull, they'd have left you enrolled. Does school A typically take a handful of PK3 kids off the waitlist? You're still in decent position. I can venture a guess as to what area of D.C. you're in given what you said about feeders and the availability but high demand of PK3, and I know options may seem limited now. That said, you can 1) look at the "short waitlist" data right now if you need to evaluate where you could enroll today 2) there's a solid chance your daycare will understand and let you stay enrolled, if that's your top choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, this is the rule, and you’re stuck, OP. Agree it’s time to start looking through the short waitlists for PK3 and applying everywhere. Any chance of getting in at the new school for PK3?

I will say - I think this is a dumb rule. Once you’re enrolled, you should get to stay unless there’s actual fraud (ie, putting down a sibling that doesn’t exist or trying to pass a neighbor off as a sibling or something). I mean, plenty of people have a PK3 get in on sibling preference and then a couple years later, older sib leaves for BASIS after 4th - should little sib be kicked out then too??

Plus - assuming school A was first on your lotto list for PK3, if you didn’t have sibling preference she might have matched with your 2nd or 3rd choice school, and now they might be full. You can’t unring a bell!

The problem is that there are other families on that waitlist for School A who, like OP, do not have a sibling enrolled at the school. Why should OP's child jump the line ahead of them? That's what happened.

I am sympathetic to OP's situation but I also think it was something she could and should have anticipated, knowing she was relying on sibling preference to help her younger child get into School A but also might move the older child to a new school. It could have been prevented by either not attempting to move the older child this year, trying to get them both into the same school, or simply listing more back ups for the younger child for PK in case this exact scenario happened.

Also, her younger child may yet get a spot at School A. She's #4 on the waitlist and has IB preference. That's not a terrible position to be in in May, with plenty of waitlist movement to come. So this may all work out. But it will work out in a fair way that doesn't allow her younger child to take advantage of sibling preference to get a spot when they don't even have a sibling at the school.

[Anonymous]

Given that you no longer have the spot - did the lottery they recreate your other waitlist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you all. I just needed perspective. I feel like I'm *sacrificing* (yes strong language) elder child's opportunity for the sake of preK for my younger.

Does the younger child then get sibling preference at the new school in the future? Seems like you’re sacrificing your convenience to get them both in the new one eventually.

[Anonymous]

We didn't anticipate getting into let alone enrolling in another school we just put some far reaches down on the rankings just to see what *might* happen.

Thank you, everyone. As I said, I just needed some outside perspective.

I appreciate all of the input.