How far would you drive your child to school?

[Anonymous]

And how would you address the call from school to come to pick up your kid early? Do you ever have to travel out of town for work? How will DC get to and from school if you cannot drive? How fuel efficient is your car? We burn through a lot of gas crisscrossing DC for before and after school sports.

[Anonymous]

For high school 45 min each way, middle school 30 min, elementary 20 min

[Anonymous]

3.5 miles each way the first year meant sometimes it was 20 minutes and sometimes it was an hour...with a hungry, tired preschooler. Like a PP, I decided to prioritize accessibility and community feel and now it's a 7-minute drive or bike, or 15-minute walk.

[Anonymous]

25 minutes to school then 20 minutes to work. Add a couple of minutes on the way back, shave a couple of minutes when Congress is out.

What is unrealistic, OP, might be expecting you have the ghost of a chance at a PK3 slot at any of the schools you're considering. Maybe share with us your IB and draft list.

I second the suggestion for Stokes EE and add Lee Montessori's second campus. This report suggests they'll be opening a second campus in Ward 7 or 8, and offering 88 slots for PK3 and PK4 in 2018-19.

Regardless of where your kid lands, if both parents work, there is no reason why one parent would do both drop-off and pick-up. Have one parent start work later and do drop-offs, the other starts earlier and do pickups. There will be a way to maximize parent time and minimize after/before-care time/cost that will be great for your family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So we live in SE and the schools on our list for the 2019/2020 school year (PreK-3) are between 5 and 13 miles from our home. Am I being unrealistic? Right now, I think that I will be fine with taking him across town to school, but when that time comes, I may not want to take the drive. I've googled the commute to and from each school and google maps is telling me that it could take anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes to get to them. Did I also mention that I work in Tyson's Corner?! One good thing is that daddy works in SW, but he has to be to work by 8:30 am. He could very well take our son to school, but what are the chances that he would get to work on time? I could also change my work hours from 9 to 5, but that means less time spent with my munchkin in the evenings. Either way, I have to finalize my list within the next couple of weeks.

I kind of feel like I'm making this harder than I should. Someone please talk me off of this ledge, my anxiety super high!!

Why do you have to finalize the list in a few weeks? Lottery is not even open yet and you have until March. Personally, as someone who lives in SE and also commutes to Tyson's, I would limit your schools to Cap Hill area schools, AppleTree, and Stokes EE area. The closer you stay to 695/395 (without going into the city more), the better. What part of SE are you in and what schools do you have on the list?

OP here. I would like to get the application completed ASAP. That way I am not constantly thinking about it.

[Anonymous]

I do not recommend driving 13 miles to school to school, or even 5, unless you’re going to hire someone to do it (nanny or au pair). It’s just too far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So we live in SE and the schools on our list for the 2019/2020 school year (PreK-3) are between 5 and 13 miles from our home. Am I being unrealistic? Right now, I think that I will be fine with taking him across town to school, but when that time comes, I may not want to take the drive. I've googled the commute to and from each school and google maps is telling me that it could take anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes to get to them. Did I also mention that I work in Tyson's Corner?! One good thing is that daddy works in SW, but he has to be to work by 8:30 am. He could very well take our son to school, but what are the chances that he would get to work on time? I could also change my work hours from 9 to 5, but that means less time spent with my munchkin in the evenings. Either way, I have to finalize my list within the next couple of weeks.

I kind of feel like I'm making this harder than I should. Someone please talk me off of this ledge, my anxiety super high!!

Why do you have to finalize the list in a few weeks? Lottery is not even open yet and you have until March. Personally, as someone who lives in SE and also commutes to Tyson's, I would limit your schools to Cap Hill area schools, AppleTree, and Stokes EE area. The closer you stay to 695/395 (without going into the city more), the better. What part of SE are you in and what schools do you have on the list?

OP here. I would like to get the application completed ASAP. That way I am not constantly thinking about it.

Friends of mine who were like this just kept editing their lists. (You can edit after you submit until the deadline.) Go easy on yourself and take your time. Expect to not get your first or even third choice, and visit and get comfortable with your inbound, since it’s the most likely place you’ll be matched.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So we live in SE and the schools on our list for the 2019/2020 school year (PreK-3) are between 5 and 13 miles from our home. Am I being unrealistic? Right now, I think that I will be fine with taking him across town to school, but when that time comes, I may not want to take the drive. I've googled the commute to and from each school and google maps is telling me that it could take anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes to get to them. Did I also mention that I work in Tyson's Corner?! One good thing is that daddy works in SW, but he has to be to work by 8:30 am. He could very well take our son to school, but what are the chances that he would get to work on time? I could also change my work hours from 9 to 5, but that means less time spent with my munchkin in the evenings. Either way, I have to finalize my list within the next couple of weeks.

I kind of feel like I'm making this harder than I should. Someone please talk me off of this ledge, my anxiety super high!!

Tell us your IB and where you are looking. First, we can gauge whether you have a chance at some of them. Second, we can suggest routes or schools likely to have carpools from certain neighborhoods.

OP here. My inbound school is Garfield Elementary. As far as my list, Ive done the research on the chances of us getting into one of the schools on our list and I am confident that DC will get into one of those schools. If he doesn't, he will just stay at daycare for one more year and we will try again with prek-4. That said, I appreciate the offer to gauge my chances, but it's not needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So we live in SE and the schools on our list for the 2019/2020 school year (PreK-3) are between 5 and 13 miles from our home. Am I being unrealistic? Right now, I think that I will be fine with taking him across town to school, but when that time comes, I may not want to take the drive. I've googled the commute to and from each school and google maps is telling me that it could take anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes to get to them. Did I also mention that I work in Tyson's Corner?! One good thing is that daddy works in SW, but he has to be to work by 8:30 am. He could very well take our son to school, but what are the chances that he would get to work on time? I could also change my work hours from 9 to 5, but that means less time spent with my munchkin in the evenings. Either way, I have to finalize my list within the next couple of weeks.

I kind of feel like I'm making this harder than I should. Someone please talk me off of this ledge, my anxiety super high!!

Tell us your IB and where you are looking. First, we can gauge whether you have a chance at some of them. Second, we can suggest routes or schools likely to have carpools from certain neighborhoods.

OP here. My inbound school is Garfield Elementary. As far as my list, Ive done the research on the chances of us getting into one of the schools on our list and I am confident that DC will get into one of those schools. If he doesn't, he will just stay at daycare for one more year and we will try again with prek-4. That said, I appreciate the offer to gauge my chances, but it's not needed.

I would put Appletree SW high up on your list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not recommend driving 13 miles to school to school, or even 5, unless you’re going to hire someone to do it (nanny or au pair). It’s just too far.

OP here. Dad and I have thrown around the idea of having someone drop DC off at school and I would be able to pick him up. I'm just not sure on how to go about finding that someone. We would only need them for about 2 hours a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not recommend driving 13 miles to school to school, or even 5, unless you’re going to hire someone to do it (nanny or au pair). It’s just too far.

OP here. Dad and I have thrown around the idea of having someone drop DC off at school and I would be able to pick him up. I'm just not sure on how to go about finding that someone. We would only need them for about 2 hours a day.

Advertise on care.com or other places you'd look for a sitter.

Another option is to hire an after-school nanny to pick up child, bring home and play, and start dinner for you. That may work out to be not much more expensive than after care would be, and for some kids the school day is long enough without the 2-3 hours of aftercare tacked on at the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not recommend driving 13 miles to school to school, or even 5, unless you’re going to hire someone to do it (nanny or au pair). It’s just too far.

OP here. Dad and I have thrown around the idea of having someone drop DC off at school and I would be able to pick him up. I'm just not sure on how to go about finding that someone. We would only need them for about 2 hours a day.

Advertise on care.com or other places you'd look for a sitter.

Another option is to hire an after-school nanny to pick up child, bring home and play, and start dinner for you. That may work out to be not much more expensive than after care would be, and for some kids the school day is long enough without the 2-3 hours of aftercare tacked on at the end.

After-school sitters are very hard to find. I tried with care.com and it was hours every day of flakey ridiculous email streams for weeks before I gave up. And when you do eventually find them, they are extremely flakey.

[Anonymous]

OP here again. Two schools that aren't on my list are Hyde-Addison and School Without Walls @ Francis-Stevens. What's the prek-3 lottery like for those two schools? They're right OMW to work and I would be able to drop DC off and get to work within 30 minutes. Should I put those on my list or would it be a waste of space and unrealistic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not recommend driving 13 miles to school to school, or even 5, unless you’re going to hire someone to do it (nanny or au pair). It’s just too far.

OP here. Dad and I have thrown around the idea of having someone drop DC off at school and I would be able to pick him up. I'm just not sure on how to go about finding that someone. We would only need them for about 2 hours a day.

Advertise on care.com or other places you'd look for a sitter.

Another option is to hire an after-school nanny to pick up child, bring home and play, and start dinner for you. That may work out to be not much more expensive than after care would be, and for some kids the school day is long enough without the 2-3 hours of aftercare tacked on at the end.

This may help with parent's commute, but doesn't take away the two hours a day the 3 year old could be in the car. There is no DCPS/Charter that is worth commuting 13 miles to as a 3 year old. I say this as a parent in a "HRCS" that would happily send kid to any school below (especially for PK3-K). I would go to Appletree in a heartbeat. If I were you, my list would look something like this. Then reevaluate after or before K and again before 3rd. Some below don't accept OOB initially for PK3.

Stokes EE
Van Ness
Appletree SW
Amidon-Bowen
Appletree Lincoln
Payne
CHM@L (although idk if I would go that far north)
Friendship Chamberlain
DC Prep Benning
DC Scholars
Early Childhood Academy
JO Wilson (although idk if I would go that far north)
Ketchum
Kipp Arts and Tech
Kipp Discover
Ludlow Taylor
Seaton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Two schools that aren't on my list are Hyde-Addison and School Without Walls @ Francis-Stevens. What's the prek-3 lottery like for those two schools? They're right OMW to work and I would be able to drop DC off and get to work within 30 minutes. Should I put those on my list or would it be a waste of space and unrealistic?

SWW @ FS has 34 PK3 seats, but is popular with IB families. I think it's a long shot. Hyde-Addison will be moving back to its permanent building next year, and I think it's a long shot for an OOB student as well.

Pretty much any decent DCPS school (Hyde and SWW@FS are both much better than decent) is unlikely for Pk3 or Pk4 for OOB students.