Lafayette PK4 lottery- Bumped down!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Sounds like it’s time to enroll in the preschool so you have a backup!

[Anonymous]

OP, you will get in. I work at Lafayette so have some visibility into this. I know it's frustrating not to know that now, but you just need to take a deep breath and be patient. You are in a good position. If you need a back-up plan, there are places like CCPC you can enroll last-minute. But you will be fine.

[Anonymous]

If we are going to talk about not fair- it is not fair that you can afford to move in-bound and other kids can't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with OP that this really sucks, and I’m not sure I agree with the sibling preference applying in this manner after the deadline. OP,
it could be a lot worse — you are lucky the waitlist has moved that much. We were initially 2 on a similar waitlist (for our IB) a couple years ago, bumped back to 5, and then - what do you know - 3 kids got in off the waitlist, leaving us right back at 2. We didn’t get in for PK3 anywhere that year or PK4 the next year. It gets worse (our luck) but I won’t bore you with how bad our luck has been, and all for our IB school.

Let me play:
Brent - did not get in for PreK3 or 4 ..... and sibling did not clear the waitlist either even after you enrolled in K?

Not exactly, but similar.

OP - It sounds like the waitlist has moved a lot and will likely move more so you are certainly not out of luck. Also, it is only one year and there are a surprising number of last minute options out there for the PK4 set (both lottery and private).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SO we live one block from Lafayette. My son will be 5 in november so we paid for PK3 last year at a nice local church program, and decided to not enroll again thinking we'd have no problems getting into Lafayette.

Day of lottery release, we were #17 on waitlist. Over a few months, moved down to #1 on the list. we sat there for weeks thinking we'd get in any day.

Turns out, we were then bumped down to #3 and now #4.

We are so angry and frustrated. I understand the lottery and preferences for siblings of in-boundary kids. But tell me why exactly it is fair that a few new families move in over the summer, enroll their older kids, and their siblings automatically get preference over my child. I know you'll say that's the rules, and what an inconvenience it would be for their siblings to be in different schools etc, and even that PK4 is not necessarily guaranteed, or if it is, I have to be willing to travel to all over the city.

But why wouldn't that be true for these new families too?

Anyway, just frustrated and venting. My tax dollars at work

Oy. Same. SO FRUSTRATING.

I know we can move down. But aaaaaaaaargh to watch your number go DOWN.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SO we live one block from Lafayette. My son will be 5 in november so we paid for PK3 last year at a nice local church program, and decided to not enroll again thinking we'd have no problems getting into Lafayette.

Day of lottery release, we were #17 on waitlist. Over a few months, moved down to #1 on the list. we sat there for weeks thinking we'd get in any day.

Turns out, we were then bumped down to #3 and now #4.

We are so angry and frustrated. I understand the lottery and preferences for siblings of in-boundary kids. But tell me why exactly it is fair that a few new families move in over the summer, enroll their older kids, and their siblings automatically get preference over my child. I know you'll say that's the rules, and what an inconvenience it would be for their siblings to be in different schools etc, and even that PK4 is not necessarily guaranteed, or if it is, I have to be willing to travel to all over the city.

But why wouldn't that be true for these new families too?

Anyway, just frustrated and venting. My tax dollars at work

How long have you lived in DC to discuss your Tax dollars at work? How about the individual who has lived in DC all of their life and gets waitlisted? Should years of residency be a factor in the lottery process?

Oy. Same. SO FRUSTRATING.

I know we can move down. But aaaaaaaaargh to watch your number go DOWN.

[Anonymous]

Wait...your kid turned 5 so why don’t you enroll them in K?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait...your kid turned 5 so why don’t you enroll them in K?

The OP says that her kid turns 5 in November, which is after the September 30 cut off required for kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SO we live one block from Lafayette. My son will be 5 in november so we paid for PK3 last year at a nice local church program, and decided to not enroll again thinking we'd have no problems getting into Lafayette.

Day of lottery release, we were #17 on waitlist. Over a few months, moved down to #1 on the list. we sat there for weeks thinking we'd get in any day.

Turns out, we were then bumped down to #3 and now #4.

We are so angry and frustrated. I understand the lottery and preferences for siblings of in-boundary kids. But tell me why exactly it is fair that a few new families move in over the summer, enroll their older kids, and their siblings automatically get preference over my child. I know you'll say that's the rules, and what an inconvenience it would be for their siblings to be in different schools etc, and even that PK4 is not necessarily guaranteed, or if it is, I have to be willing to travel to all over the city.

But why wouldn't that be true for these new families too?

Anyway, just frustrated and venting. My tax dollars at work

Do you actually know that all those families just moved IB? It might be the case that they lived IB all along, but hadn't enrolled their older kids. Once they enrolled the older kid, their preferences changed.

And even if they did...those were the rules all along. They are playing by the same rules you are. You're just mad that the rules happen to favor them at this moment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know it sucks, OP, but if you really wanted public PK and save 17K there would have been options. We did not get into our WOTP school for PK4 either, so we stayed at the Title 1 school EOTP where we already had been for PK3, and then entered our IB school for K. We had a fine too years EOTP, even if we would have preferred not to commute and be at our neighborhood school. Clearly you are willing to commute a long way if you list YY. But if you only put popular long shot schools on your list (or completely hopeless ones like Oyster), you might as well only have listed Lafayette, because a master number that gets you into YY will also get you into your IB.

That's all to say that my sympathy for you missing out on saving your 17K is limited.

Yup. OP lotteried for the same damn schools as everyone else, and just didn't get a great number.

This isn't about what's fair or not fair. Everyone plays by the same rules. Someone is #300 on a WL and thinking how unfair it all is, but it's just the way it works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know it sucks, OP, but if you really wanted public PK and save 17K there would have been options. We did not get into our WOTP school for PK4 either, so we stayed at the Title 1 school EOTP where we already had been for PK3, and then entered our IB school for K. We had a fine too years EOTP, even if we would have preferred not to commute and be at our neighborhood school. Clearly you are willing to commute a long way if you list YY. But if you only put popular long shot schools on your list (or completely hopeless ones like Oyster), you might as well only have listed Lafayette, because a master number that gets you into YY will also get you into your IB.

That's all to say that my sympathy for you missing out on saving your 17K is limited.

This. Our EOTP preschool takes WOTP kids in your exact situation, OP. And it sticks us with a retention problem. Our temporary WOTP parents don't help much, and I would much rather have a family from east of our zone who might actually stay and contribute. So just pay for private. If you don't want free public preschool badly enough to drive to it, you don't really want or need it very badly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know it sucks, OP, but if you really wanted public PK and save 17K there would have been options. We did not get into our WOTP school for PK4 either, so we stayed at the Title 1 school EOTP where we already had been for PK3, and then entered our IB school for K. We had a fine too years EOTP, even if we would have preferred not to commute and be at our neighborhood school. Clearly you are willing to commute a long way if you list YY. But if you only put popular long shot schools on your list (or completely hopeless ones like Oyster), you might as well only have listed Lafayette, because a master number that gets you into YY will also get you into your IB.

That's all to say that my sympathy for you missing out on saving your 17K is limited.

Yes. If you're willing to drive to YY, you can save some money by going to Scrilli. Or get on the WL now for Bunker Hill and Noyes. You can join "jumpstart" dad at BH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know it sucks, OP, but if you really wanted public PK and save 17K there would have been options. We did not get into our WOTP school for PK4 either, so we stayed at the Title 1 school EOTP where we already had been for PK3, and then entered our IB school for K. We had a fine too years EOTP, even if we would have preferred not to commute and be at our neighborhood school. Clearly you are willing to commute a long way if you list YY. But if you only put popular long shot schools on your list (or completely hopeless ones like Oyster), you might as well only have listed Lafayette, because a master number that gets you into YY will also get you into your IB.

That's all to say that my sympathy for you missing out on saving your 17K is limited.

Yes. If you're willing to drive to YY, you can save some money by going to Scrilli. Or get on the WL now for Bunker Hill and Noyes. You can join "jumpstart" dad at BH.

We have some upper NW families at Langley, and it's right off North Capitol. In my experience, the WOTP families do help out a bit, and if they have an older child at a WOTP school, can bring that knowledge base as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know it sucks, OP, but if you really wanted public PK and save 17K there would have been options. We did not get into our WOTP school for PK4 either, so we stayed at the Title 1 school EOTP where we already had been for PK3, and then entered our IB school for K. We had a fine too years EOTP, even if we would have preferred not to commute and be at our neighborhood school. Clearly you are willing to commute a long way if you list YY. But if you only put popular long shot schools on your list (or completely hopeless ones like Oyster), you might as well only have listed Lafayette, because a master number that gets you into YY will also get you into your IB.

That's all to say that my sympathy for you missing out on saving your 17K is limited.

This. Our EOTP preschool takes WOTP kids in your exact situation, OP. And it sticks us with a retention problem. Our temporary WOTP parents don't help much, and I would much rather have a family from east of our zone who might actually stay and contribute. So just pay for private. If you don't want free public preschool badly enough to drive to it, you don't really want or need it very badly.

PP here. If it's any consolation, the school we attended did not have any other WOTP families in our years of preschool. And as a school that wasn't in a process of gentrification, it had families from further east (not white ones) who pulled their kids and sent them to parochial school for K. So at that school, I don't think we contributed in any meaningful way to their retention problem.

Schools that accept meaningful numbers of OOB students in ECE will always be the ones who lose middle class families after PK, whether they live east or west of the park.

[Anonymous]

Its probably not people moving in boundary that is bumping OP down the waitlist, but older kids with siblings getting in off the waitlist.

My eldest has been offered spots at a couple of charter schools this summer and each time, his younger brother moves to the #1 spot on the waitlist for that particular school.