When to switch to public school

[Anonymous]

Our son's 2nd grade private school teacher recommended that we move our child to public in 3rd grade, saying that private school education is great to establish a good foundation for reading and math, but after that public schools have better resources. Based on this recommendation, we are moving to a better school district in Fairfax county and hoping that our child gets into the G&T (now AAP program). We were unhappy with our private school anyway so this did factor into our decision, but we are also moving our two younger children to a new private school.

[Anonymous]

I'd be very careful about moving a kid INTO public school in third grade - that's the year everyone stresses out about the SOLs. I suggest 2nd or 4th.

[Anonymous]

(10:06 again - I'm only talking about NOVA. I don't know what the schedule is in MoCo.

[Anonymous]

I think 2nd is a great year to make the jump.

As a public school teacher, I feel like the transition from PreK to K (I'm in DC so we have both) is a big one, as is the transition from K to 1. For both of those years, adding increased class sizes and a whole new peer group while the child is undergoing an already stressful transition would be tough. On the other hand the transition from first to second is generally a smooth one for most kids, so that's what I'd choose. 3rd is the beginning of testing, and is another stressful year.

I often have parents asking me when to move out of self-contained special ed, and I advise them the same, that 2nd is a good place to make a jump.

[Anonymous]

If you do keep him in private through kindergarten, maybe you could find out the kindergarten curriculum at the local public school and make sure he's up to speed on anything his private school doesn't cover? You could probably fill in any gaps in the summer before he starts at public, I'd think. If you could get ahold of the teaching materials or syllabus from one of the public school K teachers, I bet you could figure it out. Good luck!