First year without lists to review..

[Anonymous]

It's just not as fun without Lottery Seer and the Langley Booster.

[Anonymous]

For about two decades there was a sense that every year things were getting better throughout the city and in its school. There was even a period where it seemed that the luck of the draw for PreK3 could establish a path the stay on the city through HS even for younger siblings not yet born. Hence the feeling of the lottery as make or break.

Now that we’re witnessing a visible and unmissable decline, and people want to hedge on everything or are already making exit plans, why stress over pre-school?

[Anonymous]

My guess is that there are fewer young families moving into DC. They are in the suburbs/exurbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that there are fewer young families moving into DC. They are in the suburbs/exurbs.

+1. Young families are priced out of those areas where lottery strategizing was needed.

[Anonymous]

Ya'll killed the swami

[Anonymous]

Long time reader, first time poster who is entering the lottery for pre k. For us personally in Capitol Hill, we have a solid in bound option for Kinder. After attending multiple open houses, reading through previous threads and reviewing the publicly available data we felt well informed to make our selection. Mainly there are many great ECE options nearby so we are primarily solving for proximity and hoping for a good draw! TBD if we stay in DC past elementary, not opposed to charters but also we don’t feel pressured to figure that out just yet.

[Anonymous]

Wow - youre right! Thats crazy. I wonder if charters will really start to feel it.

[Anonymous]

If it makes you all feel any better, I did the lottery last year and learned SO much from reading posts on this board— so much so that I didn’t feel the need to ask for advice! (Less fun for everyone else, though, I’m sure.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that there are fewer young families moving into DC. They are in the suburbs/exurbs.

+1. Young families are priced out of those areas where lottery strategizing was needed.

I have a current prek3 kid on the Hill. From what I recall looking back at the waitlist numbers last year, it seemed like the overall numbers were lower than prior years. I've wondered if maybe the demographics on the Hill are shifting to be slightly older kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For about two decades there was a sense that every year things were getting better throughout the city and in its school. There was even a period where it seemed that the luck of the draw for PreK3 could establish a path the stay on the city through HS even for younger siblings not yet born. Hence the feeling of the lottery as make or break.

Now that we’re witnessing a visible and unmissable decline, and people want to hedge on everything or are already making exit plans, why stress over pre-school?

We've got a rising PK3 and it's definitely a bit of this. I'm not pessimistic about the city; but why bother stressing with so many unknowns.

There's a lot of good PK3 options, if we don't get in anywhere convenient we can pay for private options; which would be disappointing but fine. We're paying for childcare now so the budget doesn't have to change much. It helps that we have a good inbound for K; which should buy us even more time. And if that changes we can either do more lottery, go private, or move.

Nothing we do in the lottery now is going to change that. In the event we get some willy wonka quality number; I still wouldn't want to schlep a 3 yr old across the city every day (no judgement if this is your jam tho!). Just keeping options open; hope we get somewhere near us.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of high school related posts these days, so I think it's the same people who were posting about pre-K three back then, now we (I'm including myself in this group too) are worrying about high school admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of high school related posts these days, so I think it's the same people who were posting about pre-K three back then, now we (I'm including myself in this group too) are worrying about high school admissions.

And unfortunately a new cohort of younger families may not even know DCUM exists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For about two decades there was a sense that every year things were getting better throughout the city and in its school. There was even a period where it seemed that the luck of the draw for PreK3 could establish a path the stay on the city through HS even for younger siblings not yet born. Hence the feeling of the lottery as make or break.

Now that we’re witnessing a visible and unmissable decline, and people want to hedge on everything or are already making exit plans, why stress over pre-school?

I feel this. We would go to almost any PK3 (within a reasonable commute) and leave the city come K or 1st if needed so why stress about which school we get into. I agree.

If the end game is to eventually leave DC anyway, rank your 12 and move on.

Which is sort of sad to type but I get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of high school related posts these days, so I think it's the same people who were posting about pre-K three back then, now we (I'm including myself in this group too) are worrying about high school admissions.

And unfortunately a new cohort of younger families may not even know DCUM exists.

But there are so many posters who don’t even have children or live in the DC area code that found and frequent DCUM. I wonder if there’s simply more activity on the MD and VA school boards compared to 3 years ago correlating with the decreased activity here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of high school related posts these days, so I think it's the same people who were posting about pre-K three back then, now we (I'm including myself in this group too) are worrying about high school admissions.

And unfortunately a new cohort of younger families may not even know DCUM exists.

But there are so many posters who don’t even have children or live in the DC area code that found and frequent DCUM. I wonder if there’s simply more activity on the MD and VA school boards compared to 3 years ago correlating with the decreased activity here.

I think it is a combination of factors, all of which are intertwined. The shine has worn off on not just any specific charter school (although there are some specific instances for sure) -- but also the 'grass is always greener' view has changed a bit, and it seems like parents aren't seeing the need to enter the lottery/change schools every year. I also see higher participation in in-bounds school, which has a snowball effect - as new/younger families see older neighborhood families staying at the school, they don't feel the peer pressure to leave as quickly. Also agreed that as more families stay in DC, the same parents who were posting about PK3 are now obsessing over high school and middle school.
Lastly, as a middle years parent (4th and 6th), a lot of younger families I know have heard of this site, but also comment on how quickly these threads spiral, and how (maybe bc it is anonymous) people can say some pretty polarizing comments - so they choose not to come on here.
I am not naive and know some families may be considering moving bc of crime, but a lot of families are not - hard to tell what the real numbers are what are just the louder voices on social media or forums.