DC pre-K lottery

[Anonymous]

My daughter will be starting pre-K in the fall and we are looking to move to the Key, Murch, or Lafayette school districts. My question is whether we can count on a pre-K spot for her in any of these schools if we live in-boundary. I know there's a lottery and even in- boundary kids don't always get in right away but does anyone have a sense of what the odds might be?
Thanks very much for any help!

[Anonymous]

Call each of the schools individually when they come back from winter break, and ask what their numbers were for last year. I mean the number of applicants (bc the number of slots would be fixed from year to year). Then ask what the younger sibling situation looks like for the coming year -- they may have a sense of that now, altho I think it's actually a little early.

That will give you an idea of your odds. The number of applicants these days always exceeds the number of available spots for preK at these 3 schools, and ....

DC residents are NOT guaranteed a preK slot at these schools, in-boundary or not.

So you also need to be applying now for private preK (or re-up at your current preschool for next year), in order to have a back-up to public. I know more than one family that didn't have a Plan B for the preK year at one of these schools -- and they didn't get a slot -- and that's not what you want for a 4 year old.

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for replying. Sounds like excellent advice.

[momcdaniel]

lafayette had over 30 kids on their wait list at the end of the lottery last year. by the end of the first week of school, the last kid on the list got in. we were #25 on that list and i figured there was no way we would get in, but we started on the second day of school. i suspect lots of families had already made other arrangements - no never give up hope on the waitlist...

[Anonymous]

Not everyone who was in-boundary at Murch got in last year, in part due to the fact that siblings of out-of-boundary kids get preference. Some people were very unhappy with that. But everything depends on the number of in-boundary kids entering this year. Some years have more applicants than others.

[Anonymous]

I can't be certain but I think that all those that registered for preK at Key got in - with no need for a lottery. It all depends on the year.