Any Kindergarten not full for 26-27?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you not know your kid is behind in letter recognition? You work on reading with her at home, right? This isn’t only on the teacher.

Some parents leave teaching to the teachers - nothing wrong with that. At the PK3/4 level, it's not like they have homework.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to be a Debbie downer, but this happens at my kid’s PK-12 too. Look over the course of a child’s 12 years at school and of course the school will not notice things about the child. This is why parents need to also monitor progress and have good communication with the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anybody hear of schools with open spots for kindergarten for 26-27?

I’ve heard you can contact schools after spring break and ask if they are accepting late applications. Before I start doing that, anybody know of schools with openings or super short waitlists?

Thank you

I would also try River School.

From their website: If you'd like to apply for the current 2025-2026 School Year, please contact Megan Campbell, 202-380-9206, or Katie Brebbia, 202-380-9266 to discuss space availability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you all for the ideas. Green acres seems special and I will reach out to inquire. Green acres doesn’t come up much on this blog.

We are in Bethesda so most schools are a doable distance. My daughter is in a pk-8 school which I was okay with. I didn’t think I needed to apply elsewhere. But I realized over spring break that she is behind in letter recognition even though she is well over 5. I know she is not too seriously far behind but she is far enough behind that I think her teacher should have at least given me a heads up by now so I could focus on it more at home. I started asking around and found a family left because their older son never learned how to read and nobody told them he was struggling or needed extra attention. He just flew under the radar. Luckily I caught this now and I feel I can correct this over the summer. But my trust in the school has been broken. I’d rather make a change now than have a bad kindergarten experience then have to find something else for 1st grade.

I have no aspirations for a big 3 school. Just hoping to find a school where kids can be kids and grow up relatively happy. Hopefully give my kids the tools to weather the inevitable storms in life.

Thank you for the list. I’ll be working through it.

Which school are you in now?

[Anonymous]

Are you interested in religious or secular?

[Anonymous]

Woods Academy if you don’t mind religious. Their Kindergarten is Montessori.

[Anonymous]

OP have you considered public school? The reason I’m bringing it up is that there can be more information and accountability on reading progress in the public setting. In MCPS, for example, they do regular DIBELS screenings in the early grades and have switched to evidence-based reading instruction.

[Anonymous]

The Harbor School in Potomac is wonderful and likely has space. Expert teaching and small class sizes where everyone gets warm attention and support. It’s been a great place for our family.

[Anonymous]

Hi. Does your current school have a resource room? Ask your teacher. They may be able to do push in or pull out support so she can catch up. Some teachers are reluctant to offer it because it upsets some parents, but it is actually a good thing to have more help and repetition.

If that does not work, you can also ask for testing to see if there is another reason letter recognition is challenging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi. Does your current school have a resource room? Ask your teacher. They may be able to do push in or pull out support so she can catch up. Some teachers are reluctant to offer it because it upsets some parents, but it is actually a good thing to have more help and repetition.

If that does not work, you can also ask for testing to see if there is another reason letter recognition is challenging.

Private schools typically do not provide testing for learning issues the way public schools do (the push in/pull out phrasing suggests maybe you have a public school background, as those terms are ubiquitous in public school IEP/504 language). At most, they’ll do a brief screening and suggest a private evaluation; many don’t or can’t even provide a screening. If OP thinks there’s a larger issue than just not being taught properly, they’ll need private testing done.

[Anonymous]

MCPS misses learning issues all the time. The classes are huge, so unless you are at the very very bottom they won’t flag. We even raised issues and were told our kid wasn’t failing enough to get more assistance. Private school isn’t the magic bullet, but definitely smaller classrooms and more focused on writing.

[Anonymous]

Washington episcopal, St. Patrick’s, green acres, and Waldorf are worth calling.

[Anonymous]

We have been very happy with K at Lowell School. The teachers are wonderful (some more than others, but overall great.) The school truly centers children and treats them as whole people deserving of respect.

Is that always executed perfectly? No. But I’d much rather start from that and have most things done well, then start from a “adults deserve more respect / blind obedience” standpoint.

Their SEL program is particularly good. We have also learned a lot about how to be good parents.

Some grades will have openings, not all. But it worth calling and visiting!

[Anonymous]

Not Waldorf if you want the school to teach your kid to read!

[Anonymous]

Absolutely check out Green Acres. It's a wonderful school and community! I think a lot of schools that get mentioned on here are because people have an ax to grind and it's polarizing. It's a good thing not to be mentioned that often!