While officially this is what MCPS says, the reality is different. If your child lotteries into a different school in the choice process and then decides they want to return to home school, the principal of your home school can let them back in. I know two kids who have done this (they principal asked them to write a letter explaining why they wanted to be reassigned to home school--it was not a difficult process). If that didn't work, I also imagine you can unenroll from mcps, then re-enroll your kid and automatically be assigned to home school. Now that would be a PIA. But still an option. My kids attended schools with a lot of foreign families who would unenroll and re-enroll a couple of times a year, so it must be something that mcps is familiar with. |
If transportation is not provided, I don't know how a public school system is going to say you can't return to the school that provides transit. |
Not really their problem when someone consents to forgo this. |
Bus transportation is provided for students living within the DCC boundaries to attend any DCC high school. |
Ummmm no. Buses only support your IB school and special programs such as magnet. You opt out = you opt out |
Sorry, you're incorrect. If your home is zoned to one DCC HS but you attend a different DCC HS via the choice process, then there is bus service provided (assuming you live outside of the school's walk zone). |
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For example, you can see here that Northwood's bus routes also serve neighborhoods zoned to Blair, Einstein, Kennedy, and Wheaton.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/transportation/busroutes/04796bus.pdf |
That sounds really expensive to operate. |
Absolutely incorrect, and I know this because I have a DCC kid who takes the bus to an out-of-zone DCC school they selected through the Choice process. My Blair-zoned kid takes the bus to Einstein, from a stop a block and a half from our house. There may be a few VAC (application art magnet) kids on the route, but that’s a very small program, and the vast majority are Choice students. We’re sort of halfway between the two schools, so the bus ride is only about 5-10 minutes longer than the Blair bus that stops on our block. |
But there’s only regular bus service for DCC students outside their home school, not activities buses. So a Northwood neighborhood kid who chooses Wheaton can take the bus to and from school, but won’t get bus service for after school activities. |
Couldn't a high schooler just take the RideOn bus or metro? |
Sure, but that’s not necessarily simple. DD would have had to take two ride on buses or bus to metro to a different bus to get from our house to her choice high school. |
There are activity buses but the routes are limited. DH used to take the Wheaton activity bus to the Glenmont metro station and then took a metro bus home from there. That was before. Now he drives. |
This is not true. We are zoned for School A. DC is in magnet at School B, but there are kids in our neighborhood riding the same bus that are not in magnet at School B. |
Sounds like a great way to divert funds to transportation from education with little real benefit for the average taxpayer. |