Single Mom Relocated and Looking for Great DC Schools....Please help!!

[Anonymous]

Maybe we need to hear what OP wants and needs before we bundle her off to the Olde Dominion? Maybe, like those of us who have reason to read this list, she wants to live in the city and has the means to make it work. Or maybe she mistakenly assumed that "DC" Public Schools includes Virginia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a single mom in DC and it took a long time to find the ropes and make a great life for my child (I did in the end, but I had a job where I could leave at 3:30 and easily juggle juggle). ...

[snipped]

DC schools close on a dime with snow, get the word out poorly, after-care of differing quality rises and falls by the day...no.

You must have had children in DC elementaries quite a long time ago. Of all the jurisdictions, DC is the LEAST likely to close, by a wide margin. Perhaps you're thinking of the private schools? Because DCPS will be open even when Arlington, FFX, MoCo and PG are all closed.

[Anonymous]

Mom2EE wrote: I understand most Charter schools don't accept mid year placement. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!

I am curious about this, as I will be moving to the DC area next year, also mid-year. Did you check with the Charter Schools to find this out? Which schools? I was hoping that mid-year placement at a charter might be an option, but perhaps I was mistaken!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Mom2EE wrote: I understand most Charter schools don't accept mid year placement. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!

I am curious about this, as I will be moving to the DC area next year, also mid-year. Did you check with the Charter Schools to find this out? Which schools? I was hoping that mid-year placement at a charter might be an option, but perhaps I was mistaken!

I would call the ones you're interested in. Individually of course, as their policies may vary. Having said that, your odds at the popular charter schools aren't good, they all have tremendously long waitlists and coming in mid-year will put you at the bottom of the pile. For some of them the lists are dozens to hundreds of names long and they don't really move.

Your better bet is to move into a rental unit inbounds for a decent DCPS school. They'll have to enrol your child. Then, once you're in you can either apply to charters for the following year or else buy a place you like wherever and stay in the DCPS school OOB. It's at the principal's discretion whether or not you can stay in OOB, but DC residents have played this game for decades. I've never heard of a single case where a principal told an OOB child to leave the school just because the family moved.

Some people on this forum will scream bloody murder about how "unfair" that is (because they rent inbounds and by God they don't want you to be allowed to build up equity in a home if they can't afford to) but anyone who has any history with the system knows this is the way it has always been done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Mom2EE wrote: I understand most Charter schools don't accept mid year placement. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!

I am curious about this, as I will be moving to the DC area next year, also mid-year. Did you check with the Charter Schools to find this out? Which schools? I was hoping that mid-year placement at a charter might be an option, but perhaps I was mistaken!

I would call the ones you're interested in. Individually of course, as their policies may vary. Having said that, your odds at the popular charter schools aren't good, they all have tremendously long waitlists and coming in mid-year will put you at the bottom of the pile. For some of them the lists are dozens to hundreds of names long and they don't really move.

Your better bet is to move into a rental unit inbounds for a decent DCPS school. They'll have to enrol your child. Then, once you're in you can either apply to charters for the following year or else buy a place you like wherever and stay in the DCPS school OOB. It's at the principal's discretion whether or not you can stay in OOB, but DC residents have played this game for decades. I've never heard of a single case where a principal told an OOB child to leave the school just because the family moved.

Some people on this forum will scream bloody murder about how "unfair" that is (because they rent inbounds and by God they don't want you to be allowed to build up equity in a home if they can't afford to) but anyone who has any history with the system knows this is the way it has always been done.

12:04 poster here - Thanks so much for the insight. We are also thinking about that approach, but really would prefer a charter school. We will do what you suggest re: contacting the schools directly. Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Given the funding formula, charters generally don't accept mid-year transfers. The enrollment count is done in October, and that is the count that determines per pupil funding for the year. If students depart after that, the school still gets funding based on the October count. If students are added after that, no additional funding.

There has been talk about changing this approach. It definitely puts DCPS at a disadvantage. They have to take in boundary kids any day of the year, and they also have an October enrollment count.

During the school year, anecdotal evidence is that charter enrollment tends to drop, DCPS tends to increase, no formal numbers available because, did I mention, the enrollment count is in October.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Mom2EE wrote:

Some people on this forum will scream bloody murder about how "unfair" that is (because they rent inbounds and by God they don't want you to be allowed to build up equity in a home if they can't afford to) but anyone who has any history with the system knows this is the way it has always been done.

with michelle rhee at the helm, i would be very nervous about counting on the way things have always been done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Given the funding formula, charters generally don't accept mid-year transfers. The enrollment count is done in October, and that is the count that determines per pupil funding for the year. If students depart after that, the school still gets funding based on the October count. If students are added after that, no additional funding.

There has been talk about changing this approach. It definitely puts DCPS at a disadvantage. They have to take in boundary kids any day of the year, and they also have an October enrollment count.

During the school year, anecdotal evidence is that charter enrollment tends to drop, DCPS tends to increase, no formal numbers available because, did I mention, the enrollment count is in October.

Of course, DCPS gets all kinds of perks from the mayor which the charters don't get. Or has Fenty offered to build an aquatic center (like the one at Wilson) for the public school children at Two Rivers that I'm unaware of?

[Anonymous]

PP, I've got no problem with DCPS schools getting what you describe as "perks." Charter schools vary widely in quality, often cater to a narrow interest group (Chinese immersion, for example), and so it doesn't make sense to build, to take your example, an aquatic center at a school that's only been around for a couple of years. Wilson is one of the oldest schools in the city, and it makes perfect sense to build an aquatic center there, where it can be used by everyone, and where there's no chance that the school it's attached to won't be there in a couple of years. Your snark is unwarranted and silly.

[Anonymous]

and the aquatic center is for, of course, all residents and not just the schoolchildren.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, I've got no problem with DCPS schools getting what you describe as "perks." Charter schools vary widely in quality, often cater to a narrow interest group (Chinese immersion, for example), and so it doesn't make sense to build, to take your example, an aquatic center at a school that's only been around for a couple of years. Wilson is one of the oldest schools in the city, and it makes perfect sense to build an aquatic center there, where it can be used by everyone, and where there's no chance that the school it's attached to won't be there in a couple of years. Your snark is unwarranted and silly.

I think you mean "can be used by everyone in far upper northwest." If it were actually meant to be used by everyone, it would have been placed somewhere reasonably close to the center of the city. You know, where everyone could actually get to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, I've got no problem with DCPS schools getting what you describe as "perks." Charter schools vary widely in quality, often cater to a narrow interest group (Chinese immersion, for example), and so it doesn't make sense to build, to take your example, an aquatic center at a school that's only been around for a couple of years. Wilson is one of the oldest schools in the city, and it makes perfect sense to build an aquatic center there, where it can be used by everyone, and where there's no chance that the school it's attached to won't be there in a couple of years. Your snark is unwarranted and silly.

BS.

There's nothing unwarranted - much less silly - about pointing out that the mayor is willing to pay for very expensive improvements to DCPS schools without handing over the keys to the shuttered facilities to charters. You know, the entities which - by law - are supposed to get first dibs on the closed schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, I've got no problem with DCPS schools getting what you describe as "perks." Charter schools vary widely in quality, often cater to a narrow interest group (Chinese immersion, for example), and so it doesn't make sense to build, to take your example, an aquatic center at a school that's only been around for a couple of years. Wilson is one of the oldest schools in the city, and it makes perfect sense to build an aquatic center there, where it can be used by everyone, and where there's no chance that the school it's attached to won't be there in a couple of years. Your snark is unwarranted and silly.

I think you mean "can be used by everyone in far upper northwest." If it were actually meant to be used by everyone, it would have been placed somewhere reasonably close to the center of the city. You know, where everyone could actually get to it.

I'm no fan of "far upper Northwest", but you're conveniently ignoring the fact that Tenleytown (unlike much of upper NW) is at least on Metro and thus reasonably accessible from all parts of the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, I've got no problem with DCPS schools getting what you describe as "perks." Charter schools vary widely in quality, often cater to a narrow interest group (Chinese immersion, for example), and so it doesn't make sense to build, to take your example, an aquatic center at a school that's only been around for a couple of years. Wilson is one of the oldest schools in the city, and it makes perfect sense to build an aquatic center there, where it can be used by everyone, and where there's no chance that the school it's attached to won't be there in a couple of years. Your snark is unwarranted and silly.

I think you mean "can be used by everyone in far upper northwest." If it were actually meant to be used by everyone, it would have been placed somewhere reasonably close to the center of the city. You know, where everyone could actually get to it.

I'm no fan of "far upper Northwest", but you're conveniently ignoring the fact that Tenleytown (unlike much of upper NW) is at least on Metro and thus reasonably accessible from all parts of the city.

Cardozo however (to give one example) is walking distance to TWO metro stops, AND is an older school, AND is in the geographic center of the city.