Is it really as simple as "just go private for middle + high school"?

[Anonymous]

No, it is not simple. You should do a real assessment of your finances and be honest with yourself about what year you can afford to start and begin applying in that year.

This will also force you to evaluate whether or not you can even afford the option at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people are active in their church and move their kid to their parish school after elementary school.

Some apply out after 3rd to schools that start / have expansion in 4th.

I do not know anyone who had realistic expectations who got "shut-out"

That's good to hear. I think our expectations are realistic although I don't want to send my kids to a religious school - will that eliminate a lot of the options?

I don't really care about getting into the "best" school, I just want a middle and high school option for my kids that is safe and academically challenging.

Yes, "no religious schools" will remove a lot of options. Wipes out the entire lower-cost section of the market, much of the midrange, and a reasonable proportion of the extremely pricey schools. Though even the low-cost private schools in this area are not cheap. What's your budget and your flexibility? The standard other option is to high-tail it to the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, it's not simple unless you have a kid with excellent grades AND income such that you wouldn't miss the money.

The middle class leaves DC for MoCo or NoVa and their good public schools, and the poors can only afford DCPS.

That's all.

This sums it up except I would add that there are some people who are satisfied with relatively inexpensive privates for middle and then can find a DCPS public magnet they are fine with. Which is something some middle class families can swing (3 years of maybe 10-20k per year) especially if they only have one or two kids (and some of these schools will give you a sibling discount but only if they attend at the same time.

But the caveats are (1) the private will almost certainly be a parochial school and OP has stated that they don't want a religious school and (2) not all of theses schools will actually offer you the improvement in quality you are looking for over DCPS. They are less expensive for a reason.

People without gobs of money that enables them to either pay for private all the way through or move inbound for the best schools they can find don't have perfect options. So you might be looking at having to decide between (1) staying at your inbound DCPS that you aren't that happy with or (2) paying for a relatively inexpensive and easy-to-get-into private that you aren't that happy with or (3) moving. There is not right or wrong answer and all of those options have pluses and minuses that different people will rate as more or less important.

But it's not easy in the sense that you can "just" send your kid to private school for middle school and boom you've solved your school issues. You will have to continue to negoatiate with your available options and with yourselves over what you can live with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, it is not simple. You should do a real assessment of your finances and be honest with yourself about what year you can afford to start and begin applying in that year.

This will also force you to evaluate whether or not you can even afford the option at all.

OP here. We have a HHI of $750k or higher (depending on bonuses and stock performance). Our current PITI is <$3k with a mortgage we could pay off tomorrow if we wanted to, but we don't because it's 3.5%. For us the money is there, we just have to decide if we want to spend it on private school for 2 kids or a mortgage on a new pricey house with a good in bounds. We're genuinely very torn. We love our DC public and aren't very competitive people, we just want our kids to be happy, well rounded, and reasonably challenged academically.

So it's less about whether the money is there and more about whether this is how we want to spend it. This thread has been really helpful though, so thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to reply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dose of realism here — DC attended a top K-8 that several of you think you’ll be able to pretty easily “use” beginning in 6th, reasoning that you heard there’s some annual exodus of middle schoolers. Do not count on a bounty of open spots that you can “use.”

In the entire time the kids were at our k-8, there were never more than 3 attrition spots in a given year, and frequently only 2. There was real competition for those openings from parents of every rising 6th grader in an abysmal Hill MS, plus lots of families who weren’t enthusiastic about Hardy, Wells amd even Deal (too big).

The same is going to be true at the other actually good independent K-8s. There isn’t _actually_ a regional opening up of MS spots at independents because the schools they want to switch TO are ultra competitive.

It’s not a “lid for every pot” scenario in my recent experience, where everyone shuffles around to new schools and there are spots for everyone coming and going. In fact, a lot of K-8 rising 6th graders remain stuck in their existing schools and do not create openings in the way DCUM imagines.

I’m the PP who had suggested this option. Maybe it didn’t seem like it at your school, but we just helped my niece navigate applying to a lot of k-8’s in a later year, and she was pretty much accepted at all the k-8s she applied to and not at any of the k-12’s. She’s a good student and has 2 strong sports, but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary. She would have preferred a k-12 so she doesn’t have to go through this process again in a couple of years, but at least she’ll be in a private and have more help than she was getting at her public where it was hard to even get her transcript or recommendations.

[Anonymous]

It can be that simple, OP! Please check out Christ Episcopal in Rockville. It's religious but "religious light" and super inclusive of all walks of life
It's only K-8 but so it would only get you though middle. We are extremely happy there!!!

[Anonymous]

OP, if that's your HHI, by all means, check out the top rated schools. Why not? They could be a great fit.
Personally, I also really like SSFS. Sandy Springs may be a hike and it does seem they are in a bit if transition right now, but it also is a darling school.
Good luck to you!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if that's your HHI, by all means, check out the top rated schools. Why not? They could be a great fit.
Personally, I also really like SSFS. Sandy Springs may be a hike and it does seem they are in a bit if transition right now, but it also is a darling school.
Good luck to you!!

+100 Agree with your poster. Sounds like your HHI means that you will have a lot of options. I would prioritize location so you are not trekking all over the city.
Your kids will be fine.

[Anonymous]

I would advise the other way. We are in DC and were happy with our ES and then moved to a K-8 for mid-ES during the pandemic. We will have to apply out for HS. We feel like there are lots of options but unsure if we will get admitted anywhere and nervous about transition as our kids will have to fit in someplace new. We can afford private and have two smart kids but not athletes or accomplished musicians. Not sure we want another small private for HS. I wish we had moved in mid elementary so the kids could make new friends before the transition to MS and definitely before going into a very large, strong suburban HS. My kids are happy at our K-8 and have strong friend groups which keep us from moving them now or when the younger made it to MS. Maybe the big suburban school wouldn't have worked out, and this is all hindsight but I wish we had just moved out of the city during the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, it's not simple unless you have a kid with excellent grades AND income such that you wouldn't miss the money.

The middle class leaves DC for MoCo or NoVa and their good public schools, and the poors can only afford DCPS.

That's all.

This sums it up except I would add that there are some people who are satisfied with relatively inexpensive privates for middle and then can find a DCPS public magnet they are fine with. Which is something some middle class families can swing (3 years of maybe 10-20k per year) especially if they only have one or two kids (and some of these schools will give you a sibling discount but only if they attend at the same time.

But the caveats are (1) the private will almost certainly be a parochial school and OP has stated that they don't want a religious school and (2) not all of theses schools will actually offer you the improvement in quality you are looking for over DCPS. They are less expensive for a reason.

People without gobs of money that enables them to either pay for private all the way through or move inbound for the best schools they can find don't have perfect options. So you might be looking at having to decide between (1) staying at your inbound DCPS that you aren't that happy with or (2) paying for a relatively inexpensive and easy-to-get-into private that you aren't that happy with or (3) moving. There is not right or wrong answer and all of those options have pluses and minuses that different people will rate as more or less important.

But it's not easy in the sense that you can "just" send your kid to private school for middle school and boom you've solved your school issues. You will have to continue to negoatiate with your available options and with yourselves over what you can live with.

FYI - There is rarely a "perfect option" when it comes to schools even when you have money to buy in a great school district or to pay for private. OP - please know that no school is perfect and there will always be tradeoffs even if you choose private (not just financial ones).

[Anonymous]

As 10:16 noted - it might be a good idea to move to a close suburb now with a highly rated MS/HS school so that you can try going all the way through via public. Then, if it isn't working out, consider private. On this route, you have a high chance of getting through without ever needing private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people are active in their church and move their kid to their parish school after elementary school.

Some apply out after 3rd to schools that start / have expansion in 4th.

I do not know anyone who had realistic expectations who got "shut-out"

That's good to hear. I think our expectations are realistic although I don't want to send my kids to a religious school - will that eliminate a lot of the options?

I don't really care about getting into the "best" school, I just want a middle and high school option for my kids that is safe and academically challenging.

Yes, "no religious schools" will remove a lot of options. Wipes out the entire lower-cost section of the market, much of the midrange, and a reasonable proportion of the extremely pricey schools. Though even the low-cost private schools in this area are not cheap. What's your budget and your flexibility? The standard other option is to high-tail it to the suburbs.

+1 this limits you to about 12 schools, with a mix of low admit schools (GDS, Maret), and some that will take anyone who can pay (BASIS DC, Fusion), with a few in the middle (Bullis, Burke).

[Anonymous]

Not OP but also curious about this subject. Does the calculus change if you are seeking parochial school? What is the situation like if you don't enter at K?

[Anonymous]

We did sixth grade at one of the "good" DCPS middle schools and applied for 7th at private schools—where we eventually decided to go, they took him on the condition we re-classed him to redo sixth grade. Combination of being very young for his age and a much more difficult curriculum. We were happy to do it, but it became clear that 6th grade at DCPS wasnt' very useful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people are active in their church and move their kid to their parish school after elementary school.

Some apply out after 3rd to schools that start / have expansion in 4th.

I do not know anyone who had realistic expectations who got "shut-out"

That's good to hear. I think our expectations are realistic although I don't want to send my kids to a religious school - will that eliminate a lot of the options?

I don't really care about getting into the "best" school, I just want a middle and high school option for my kids that is safe and academically challenging.

Yes, "no religious schools" will remove a lot of options. Wipes out the entire lower-cost section of the market, much of the midrange, and a reasonable proportion of the extremely pricey schools. Though even the low-cost private schools in this area are not cheap. What's your budget and your flexibility? The standard other option is to high-tail it to the suburbs.

But there's also a pretty wide range of what "no religious" means. Growing up I went to a private school that was ostensibly episcopal. We had one non-denominational "chapel" service a week, that sometimes never mentioned god at all. We also had to take a handful of comparative religion classes, the most significant of which involved reading Genesis, parts of the new Testament, the Tao Te Ching, modern atheist literature and talking about why we didn't like organized religion. Most students were Jewish and nobody knew what the rest were because we never discussed it. Except for some of the Catholic schools, none of the major "religious" schools around here are going to have much more than a brief and basic non-denominational chapel and comparative religion. And even the Catholic schools will be happy to take atheists if your money is green.