LAMB Waitlist

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The wait-list may move faster this year- we got a pk3 spot (sibling preference) and also an email asking to confirm our spot by next Friday, or it would be offered to another family.

Also want to say we are happy at lamb, and choose to send our kids here even though we are in bounds for an in demand school in ward 3.

We also got a PK3 spot, with no preference though. We couldn't believe it at first, but we got the email from the school about confirming enrollment by next Friday.

[Anonymous]

https://www.myschooldc.org/faq/faqs#faq-What-is-the-process-for-enrolling-my-child?-Is-there-a-deadline?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh stop with this drama already. For incoming LAMB families: ignore this noise on DC Urban moms and talk to real parents. I honestly think it might be the same 3-4 people who post on here with their complaints.

I'm a LAMB parent and the vast majority of families I know are very happy. I have had my kids in two other DC schools--one charter, one DCPS--and LAMB is by far the best in terms of teacher quality, educational environment, and sense of warmth and community for the kids. My kids love it and have thrived.

But it is a very good DC charter school, not a private school that can cater to the demands of every Type A parent. Some of the quibbles below are real things that could be better--sure, would be great to have a shuttle and yes the aftercare thing is annoying (though every family I know that got shut-out just sends their kid to casa lala or brillando, so it's not like there aren't options)--but honestly these are nothing compared with some of what we experienced at the other schools. I won't go into detail on the AP thing, though I have thoughts and don't necessarily think it was a bad decision.

Anyway to your original question on the waitlist, I think 30s is possible but not a guarantee. If you get in, likely won't be till after school starts, though who knows what the list movement will be like this year given the campus consolidation. Good luck!


Agree there is a lot of drama by the same handful of parents. Lamb is a great school. We are in upper elementary and have had a great experience. Kids fluent in Spanish though we don’t speak Spanish at home.

Anonymous wrote:There are going to be a lot of slots.

First, many parents are not able to make the commute from the South Dakota campus. Exec director is not willing to do a shuttle after repeated promises to do so, so a huge percentage is leaving.

Second, the firing of the AP is rattling the heck out of upper and lower elementary parents. I’ve heard many parents are playing the lottery and pulling out their whole family. Exec director is incredibly unpopular. They do backfill quite a bit.

Third, they’ve said on numerous occasions that many people will be shut out of aftercare. The pandemic is basically over, and many offices are now mandating a return to work. I know that I personally am not going to keep my kid in lamb if there is no aftercare. Allegedly we will know if we have spots before the enrollment deadline for lottery choices ends, so I bet more spots will open up for those shut out of aftercare.

Fourth, unless they really mess with the rubric I would be very surprised if LAMB keeps its tier one status. It’s basically a monolingual school and the exec director is doing nothing to push spanish at all. Ask to tour an upper el classroom on a spanish day. There will be almost no spanisb spoken.

[Anonymous]

What do we think of PK4 waitlist number 7? Any chance of getting in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do we think of PK4 waitlist number 7? Any chance of getting in

At that low a number it's pretty random and just depends on retention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do we think of PK4 waitlist number 7? Any chance of getting in

I think you have a chance with that number

[Anonymous]

We got in pk4 last year with a number in the mid teens (I think). It was the week after school had started. So think you have an extremely good shot, unless things change dramatically!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do we think of PK4 waitlist number 7? Any chance of getting in

I think odds are good but might not be until late in summer or after school starts.

I haven’t filled out an intent form (fellow lamb parents, did I miss it?), so I’m not sure if the school knows exact seat numbers yet. I know one rising pk4 is moving cross country. There may be some attrition with the campus move too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do we think of PK4 waitlist number 7? Any chance of getting in

I think you have a chance with that number

Yes definitely a chance, there will be some kids who move, etc.

[Anonymous]

Seeing that data has updated so showing LAMB offered 59 seats during the lottery for PK3. Assume that reflects the combined campus and we can still expect movement similar to last year despite it looking like many more seats were offered in the lottery (59 vs 30 last year)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seeing that data has updated so showing LAMB offered 59 seats during the lottery for PK3. Assume that reflects the combined campus and we can still expect movement similar to last year despite it looking like many more seats were offered in the lottery (59 vs 30 last year)?

Guessing that for PP's purposes, the 59 seats offered are the relevant metric, but LAMB actually offered 75 seats in the lottery this year for PK3 (16 under Equitable Access and 59 generally). Probably doesn't change the calculation, but just for a more complete picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seeing that data has updated so showing LAMB offered 59 seats during the lottery for PK3. Assume that reflects the combined campus and we can still expect movement similar to last year despite it looking like many more seats were offered in the lottery (59 vs 30 last year)?

Guessing that for PP's purposes, the 59 seats offered are the relevant metric, but LAMB actually offered 75 seats in the lottery this year for PK3 (16 under Equitable Access and 59 generally). Probably doesn't change the calculation, but just for a more complete picture.

So would still anticipate similar movement from the waitlist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seeing that data has updated so showing LAMB offered 59 seats during the lottery for PK3. Assume that reflects the combined campus and we can still expect movement similar to last year despite it looking like many more seats were offered in the lottery (59 vs 30 last year)?

Yes, this reflects the combined campus. Last year the prek3 spots were split across 2 campuses and South Dakota had its own lottery. This year they are combined into one lottery at the Kingsbury campus. Really not sure how it will impact the waitlist movement, particularly for the prek3 spots. My guess is that prek3 waitlist will move proportionally the same as how it moved last year. Prek4 and K might be wonky with the consolidating of the campuses, but who knows? We live in Brightwood and took a spot at SD for prek3 BECAUSE we knew the campuses were consolidating and were willing to do a terrible commute for 1 year to get a spot at Kingsbury. I imagine there are others like us but who knows.

[Anonymous]

I am in the 20-30s waitlist spot range for both LAMB and DC Bilingual for PK3. I am interested to see if there is much overlap between the two waitlists, and if that makes the lists move a bit more as people get offered spots at one school and drop off the other school's waitlist. I assume others were interested in both schools and are probably waiting it out on both lists too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in the 20-30s waitlist spot range for both LAMB and DC Bilingual for PK3. I am interested to see if there is much overlap between the two waitlists, and if that makes the lists move a bit more as people get offered spots at one school and drop off the other school's waitlist. I assume others were interested in both schools and are probably waiting it out on both lists too.

For LAMB SD last year, I know of two other PK3 families that were enrolled at LAMB but got offers to DCB and decided to take those spots. I know one of the DCB offers was a ways after school started (maybe Oct 5?) and LAMB told the family they were no longer back-filing students at LAMB at that point. If LAMB does that again, I wouldn't expect to get into LAMB off the waitlist too far after school starts, but maybe you would at DCB? Who knows! We started at #9 for DCB, got up to #24 over the summer, and then got an offer to DCB a day before school started. In conclusion, there are definitely people who put both LAMB and DCB on waitlists.