DCPS PK3-can I only send child 4 days?

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks 0:02--sorry if I overreacted. I guess I've just come to expect snarkiness on these boards and may have seen it where it wasn't intended.

And thanks to everyone else for the info and suggestions!

[Anonymous]

One more thought -- ask if you can gradually ease into the full-day routine. Some of the families of 3 yr olds at our charter did early pick up for a few weeks (a month?) at the beginning of the year and then as the kids got used to it, graduated to the full-day (ending at 3:15 but including recess, lunch, a nap, story, etc.).

The charters WILL want you there all day, every day, as pointed out above, but some will probably be flexible for the first month or so of school.

[Anonymous]

I was at Centronia for a year & am at HD Cooke now. Both programs allowed parents to transition their kids for the first few weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was at Centronia for a year & am at HD Cooke now. Both programs allowed parents to transition their kids for the first few weeks.

Apologies for pushing toward a tangent, but how do you find Cooke compares to Centronia? (We're in-bounds for Cooke and are weighing both schools, among others, for next year.) TIA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One more thought -- ask if you can gradually ease into the full-day routine. Some of the families of 3 yr olds at our charter did early pick up for a few weeks (a month?) at the beginning of the year and then as the kids got used to it, graduated to the full-day (ending at 3:15 but including recess, lunch, a nap, story, etc.).

The charters WILL want you there all day, every day, as pointed out above, but some will probably be flexible for the first month or so of school.

DCPS will also want you there. I'm not sure they're as flexible as the charters.

[Anonymous]

I asked about a similar schedule change for my PS-3 DD at Cooke last year during an open house, because we didn't really want 5-full days for her. I was told that they would allow for a transitional week or two at the beginning of the school year, but after that, they would not allow for me to regularly pick my DD up early. Absences can impact funding, etc. I don't know what they would have done if I had just kept her home one day a week, or picked her up early often for various "reasons". We ultimately decided not to go to Cooke because we knew we couldn't commit to the schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was at Centronia for a year & am at HD Cooke now. Both programs allowed parents to transition their kids for the first few weeks.

Apologies for pushing toward a tangent, but how do you find Cooke compares to Centronia? (We're in-bounds for Cooke and are weighing both schools, among others, for next year.) TIA!

13:23 poster here. I think both Centronia and HD Cooke are fabulous schools, with fabulous teachers and a great support staff. We were in the Centronia 11th & Harvard St Universal Preschool Program (as opposed to DC Bilingual), which is ages 3 and 4 only. By the end of the year, my kids were switching back and forth easily from English to Spanish, they had learned how to read and write several letters, they knew the months of the year, etc. etc. etc. All in a very low-pressure, play-based environment. Centonia's teachers are very loving and committed, and the facility is very nice. I have nothing but good things to say about the program. The con for me was, even tho' it was close to my house, it's not a "neighborhood" school. People come from all over the city to go there, and the parents are mainly Spanish-speaking. In my entire year there, I felt like I only really got to know a couple of the other parents, and my kids were never invited for playdates, couldn't walk to school with other kids, etc.

At Cooke, it's a real neighborhood school. Friends of mine send their kids there, and we walk our kids together. My kids play with other kids after school because they all live nearby and can get home easily. I also love Cooke's staff. The principal knew all of the kids' names on the first day. My kids' teacher is fabulous, they are growing academically and socially, and they're benefitting from being in a big school with dedicated art, music, and physical education teachers. I think this point sometimes gets lost in the discussion about Charters. There's something pretty nice about having a large school with lots of different programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:13:23 poster here. I think both Centronia and HD Cooke are fabulous schools, with fabulous teachers and a great support staff. We were in the Centronia 11th & Harvard St Universal Preschool Program (as opposed to DC Bilingual), which is ages 3 and 4 only. By the end of the year, my kids were switching back and forth easily from English to Spanish, they had learned how to read and write several letters, they knew the months of the year, etc. etc. etc. All in a very low-pressure, play-based environment. Centonia's teachers are very loving and committed, and the facility is very nice. I have nothing but good things to say about the program. The con for me was, even tho' it was close to my house, it's not a "neighborhood" school. People come from all over the city to go there, and the parents are mainly Spanish-speaking. In my entire year there, I felt like I only really got to know a couple of the other parents, and my kids were never invited for playdates, couldn't walk to school with other kids, etc.

At Cooke, it's a real neighborhood school. Friends of mine send their kids there, and we walk our kids together. My kids play with other kids after school because they all live nearby and can get home easily. I also love Cooke's staff. The principal knew all of the kids' names on the first day. My kids' teacher is fabulous, they are growing academically and socially, and they're benefitting from being in a big school with dedicated art, music, and physical education teachers. I think this point sometimes gets lost in the discussion about Charters. There's something pretty nice about having a large school with lots of different programs.

Actually, there's a large body of research to contradict that. The literature on the relationship between the size of a school's student body and school outputs is unambiguous - smaller schools show better outputs than schools of other sizes. It's nothing new, this has been proven and known for decades at the elementary and middle school levels. What's new is that it is so well established that there are movements to high schools smaller too.

http://www.nmsa.org/AboutNMSA/PositionStatements/SmallSchools/tabid/293/Default.aspx

http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/3/8/4/p103842_index.html

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:M3dQNSqZXn8J:www.smallschoolsproject.org/PDFS/effects.PDF

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:jE7DOwgQaZ4J:www.soscanberra.com/file_download/2

[Anonymous]

PP, thanks for those links--they were pretty interesting. However, I note that the various articles have differing definitions of "small" (80-600 students) and most DCPS elementary schools probably count as "small" based on the mid to upper end of this range.

[Anonymous]

"My intention isn't to deprive another child of a spot in a preschool and then not utilize it and be "THAT" parent."

OP, I appreciate your position, but I'm not sure you're being honest with yourself. If you're looking at charter schools and OOB DCPS (which all have enrollment limitations), and you only intend to send your child 4 days a week, you are indeed (a) depriving another child of a spot, if there's a waiting list, and (b) not fully utilizing that spot. I know you don't want to think of yourself as "THAT parent," but the facts, as you've stated them, are what they are.

[Anonymous]

Umm...OP here...I didn't say that this was my intention. I never said I wanted to abuse the system. I originally posted because, as I said, I am new to this whole school scenario, and I was looking for information. I noted in my later post that I would use the information provided to help me make a decision. The information I got is that there is no four day a week option. Got it. I may keep him where he is. I may start sending him there 5 days to see how he does, to get a read on if he would be overwhelmed. I may try to enroll him in a charter/DCPS and send him five days, changing my work schedule to pick him up at the end of the school day. There are lots of options. I am going to some open houses to see how they compare to where he is now. I am going to put in some applications and see where we end up when the lottery is over. I am going to take lots of factors into account (DCPS policy, my child's temperment, my finances, logistics, etc), and then make my decision. Those are the facts, as I've stated them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public schools have to have attendance policies and they don't get to set them themselves. They're legal requirements. I'm not sure if it comes directly from the city council or from the Office of the State Superintendent, but they're requirements all the same. If your child isn't going to meet them, then he doesn't belong in a public school.

There's no legal requirement to send your child to pre-K at all, thus no way that the school can force you to send him/her that 5th day a week.

. . .

School can not make you give a reason for child's absence, like it can when your child is in K and school attendance is mandatory and "skipping" school requires a "legitimate" excuse.

School administrator here:

The schools aren't also required to give your child a space. When you enroll your child in a school "of choice" (which includes all public programs for 3 year olds), you're committing to having your child there 5 days a week. If you can't keep that commitment, the school can consider those days to be unexcused absences and offer your space to another child for the coming school year. While the school may not be obligated to

PreKindergarten classrooms teach a far greater number of skills than just letters and numbers. Children are learning science and social studies, they're working on multi-day projects such as science experiments and putting on plays, they're studying literature, and making graphs and doing many other things. A child who routinely misses one day of the week would be experiencing a disjointed education, practicing for the play and not putting it on, missing a special entirely (if it's something one day a week) or falling behind because they're only attending 1/2 the days (if it's twice a week).

I agree to look for a program with an early dismissal day, or adjusting your schedule to work fewer hours 5 days a week. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Does missing a half day every week (leaving after lunch) really impact a school's attendance statistics?

I get that it might somehow impact a child's learning experience (although at age 3 I tend to doubt that, but whatever.)

But in most schools I've seen on worked at, attendance is taken once, about 20 to 30 minutes after the school day begins. Children are marked absent if they aren't there, or tardy if they arrive later.

But as long as a child is present when attendance is taken, that child is counted as present for the school day. That's always been my understanding. There's no separate marking for "present in the morning, but left early".