Then 2023 Lottery disappointment thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our 5th grader is miserable at her current school due to bullying. We were waitlisted across the board for privates and the best WL we have is for the lottery is above 60.

I guess we’ll look at moving but that’s easier said than done. I don’t know what we’ll do. We feel stuck.

OP here and yup. We have gone in circles on moving a bunch of times but (1) we aren't sure we can sell in this market -- we've seen several neighbors list and sit for long periods of time in the last 6-7 months, and I don't know that we can afford to rent this out and move, (2) for reasons of price, commute, and future work issues, it's just not clear where it is we could move to that would improve our school situation, but we could afford, and wouldn't result in DH having a soul-crushing commute. We keep going through the options and coming up empty, and were hoping that a positive lottery result would allow us to kick the can down the road a bit because there doesn't seem to be a satisfying option there.

I'm sorry, hon. Start a new thread and maybe we can help you with post-lottery apps?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High school aged kid not even waitlisted at top three choices, deemed "ineligible" at all three application schools, not even granted an interview.

I feel bad for him. He's a great kid who's current school is begging him to stay. He's just weary of the bullying and drug use there.

Told him at midnight. Will try to look at moving options or privates.

Why ineligible?

And why did you find out last night? Walls would have deemed him ineligible weeks ago, I am guessing the other interview based schools would have too because those would have occurred over the last several weeks. What schools deem kids "ineligible" when lottery results are released? And your presumably public school is begging your child to stay, that's a first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well I have 3 kids who were accepted to 3 different schools. I am hoping that changes

I feel for you. I had four at four schools this year and it was very difficult keeping up with all of the meetings, fundraisers, communications, contacts, and four very different school cultures.

Try to narrow it to two if you can (unless ages make it so that you cant)

HUGS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High school aged kid not even waitlisted at top three choices, deemed "ineligible" at all three application schools, not even granted an interview.

I feel bad for him. He's a great kid who's current school is begging him to stay. He's just weary of the bullying and drug use there.

Told him at midnight. Will try to look at moving options or privates.

Why ineligible?

And why did you find out last night? Walls would have deemed him ineligible weeks ago, I am guessing the other interview based schools would have too because those would have occurred over the last several weeks. What schools deem kids "ineligible" when lottery results are released? And your presumably public school is begging your child to stay, that's a first.

It's not.

We knew about Walls, but the other two schools did not send out any notices. We found out online.

The word "Ineligible" is placed next to the students school choice.

And yes, his current school would like him to stay as he is one of the few students of color that are still there. I have breast cancer so I was looking to reduce costs and probably cannot afford his current school beyond this year due to my chemo schedule. Guess I should have said cheaper privates. But thanks for asking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High school aged kid not even waitlisted at top three choices, deemed "ineligible" at all three application schools, not even granted an interview.

I feel bad for him. He's a great kid who's current school is begging him to stay. He's just weary of the bullying and drug use there.

Told him at midnight. Will try to look at moving options or privates.

Why ineligible?

And why did you find out last night? Walls would have deemed him ineligible weeks ago, I am guessing the other interview based schools would have too because those would have occurred over the last several weeks. What schools deem kids "ineligible" when lottery results are released? And your presumably public school is begging your child to stay, that's a first.

It's not.

We knew about Walls, but the other two schools did not send out any notices. We found out online.

The word "Ineligible" is placed next to the students school choice.

And yes, his current school would like him to stay as he is one of the few students of color that are still there. I have breast cancer so I was looking to reduce costs and probably cannot afford his current school beyond this year due to my chemo schedule. Guess I should have said cheaper privates. But thanks for asking.

Go to the school explain medical/budget situation, they might be able to reduce tuition for hardship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High school aged kid not even waitlisted at top three choices, deemed "ineligible" at all three application schools, not even granted an interview.

I feel bad for him. He's a great kid who's current school is begging him to stay. He's just weary of the bullying and drug use there.

Told him at midnight. Will try to look at moving options or privates.

Why ineligible?

And why did you find out last night? Walls would have deemed him ineligible weeks ago, I am guessing the other interview based schools would have too because those would have occurred over the last several weeks. What schools deem kids "ineligible" when lottery results are released? And your presumably public school is begging your child to stay, that's a first.

It's not.

We knew about Walls, but the other two schools did not send out any notices. We found out online.

The word "Ineligible" is placed next to the students school choice.

And yes, his current school would like him to stay as he is one of the few students of color that are still there. I have breast cancer so I was looking to reduce costs and probably cannot afford his current school beyond this year due to my chemo schedule. Guess I should have said cheaper privates. But thanks for asking.

I’m sorry, this is definitely hard. All schools aren’t required to send out ineligible notices and this is a reason to set a wide net. You couldn’t add any additional schools to your list anyway once it closed, but you can add other schools to your list now. What were the other two?

Positive thoughts and prayers to you on your treatment as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know there are like 5 lottery threads going right now, but we got crap results for our rising 1st grader who is having a terrible K year at our current school and I'm feeling sad and frustrated. We cast a wide net (10 schools) and were shut out with bad numbers and it's going to take a miracle to get us in anywhere. My kid is miserable right now and now I guess I have to hope for a great teacher draw next year and hold my breath. Or move.

This thread is for people who feel similarly.

Thread is ONLY for lottery disappointment, pity parties, discussion of unrealistic waitlist hopes, etc. Please don't come here to brag about how happy you are with your lottery outcomes.

I’m not sure what is terrible about your kid’s year at K, so we may be in different boats. But my kid had a really really hard year in K and then really found himself in 1st grade at the same school. Different teachers, no shock that it’s not as much play as PK, etc. Just to say, do not lose all hope. Best of luck!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High school aged kid not even waitlisted at top three choices, deemed "ineligible" at all three application schools, not even granted an interview.

I feel bad for him. He's a great kid who's current school is begging him to stay. He's just weary of the bullying and drug use there.

Told him at midnight. Will try to look at moving options or privates.

Did he apply to a grade other than 9th this year? SWW, Banneker, Duke? Suggest adding McKinley Tech post lottery. Sorry, that sucks.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry OP, but I gotta ask: your kid is “miserable” in kindergarten and you’re blaming the school? That’s a lot to pin on a school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry OP, but I gotta ask: your kid is “miserable” in kindergarten and you’re blaming the school? That’s a lot to pin on a school.

Disagree. Lots of bad Ks out there--age-inappropriate expetactions, yelling teachers, kids with scary behaviors, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry OP, but I gotta ask: your kid is “miserable” in kindergarten and you’re blaming the school? That’s a lot to pin on a school.

Disagree. Lots of bad Ks out there--age-inappropriate expetactions, yelling teachers, kids with scary behaviors, etc.

+1

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry to hear this, OP. My kid had a bad kindergarten year. We had no communication from the teacher about possible learning disabilities until March. Though we were aware he was behind, teacher said she had no doubt he would catch up.

Here we are in first grade and having a great year. An amazing teacher, an IEP in place. I don't know if the issues are similar but I have hope that first grade will be better.

Best of luck to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our 5th grader is miserable at her current school due to bullying. We were waitlisted across the board for privates and the best WL we have is for the lottery is above 60.

I guess we’ll look at moving but that’s easier said than done. I don’t know what we’ll do. We feel stuck.

I don't know what privates you applied to, but I would encourage you to reach out to some of the K-8 schools and see if they have flexibility or openings. We did, and found an amazing middle school experience.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry for all those families who are disappointed. We have been there; we now have middle and high school aged kids. We have somehow made it work but it has involved a lot of compromise.

In retrospect, I wish we had left DC when the kids were in elementary school. We didn't have a good feeder pattern and knew we couldn't afford private so were relying on luck. For those who aren't happy with the results and don't have a path through high school (whatever it may be, privates, feeder pattern, etc), I'd strongly encourage you to think about your ability to absorb stress from this process and your ability to tolerate the risk that comes from a luck-based system. I will say that we vastly under-estimated it. If you're uncertain about your capacity, then I'd start thinking about moving (whether that be to a good DC feeder pattern or outside of DC) and start laying the groundwork to make that happen. There's just so much that you can't control about life so trying to be honest about your capacity and taking steps in light of that seems prudent to me now as I look back. It feels like a lot of work now when there's the glimmer of hope that it will all work out and you're already feeling pressed, but I feel confident that the odds are that the hard work now of making a change will pay off.

Good luck to all trying to give their kids a good education!

[Anonymous]

My daughter is still stuck at lamb. I’m paying hundreds of dollars a month for tutors, her main teacher doesn’t even speak spanish, and there doesn’t seem to be any hope left since the only administrator who responds to anything was just let go. Our inbound is not an option. I’m feeling so sad that we will likely have to move.