enrolling to public schools without a local address

[Anonymous]

We will move to DC area in August, coming from Europe.
I would like my son, who is French/English bilingual, to go to one of the public schools that have French immersion.
I have found Sligo Creek in Montgomery and Kent Gardens in Fairfax. I have phoned both counties and they both said that you can't start enrolment until you have an address in that county, and then they assign the school according to your area.
We will know our address in June or July at the earliest. I can't see a way of doing this. Even if we targeted one of these schools and found a house very close to the school, by then the school may be full and they could send us to another school that does not have French. Is this correct? Is there anybody else with a similar experience?

I also found Elsie Stokes in DC that has French immersion. And they told me I can start the admission process, and the address does not
seem to have an issue right now. It may well be that, if in the end we do not find a house in the school area, they would not accept us in the end, but I find this process much more reasonable than the Montgomery and Fairfax ones.

I am new to this area and this country, any advice, ideas about all this administrative stuff would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

OP, for feedback on all three jurisdictions, you might want to post this question to the general schools forum. For MoCo, I'm pretty sure you're out of luck - the immersion programs operate by lottery in early spring, and there are always many more applicants than spots. I don't believe there's any real advantage to being in the Sligo neighborhood, as applications are accepted from all over the county.

Fwiw there are private French options - they've been discussed in the independent schools forum here quite a bit, so you can check the archives.

[Anonymous]

You should apply to Stokes, but be aware that your chances of getting a spot there are very, very slim. They grant admission based on a lottery system, and it is very hard to get in. If you win the lottery, you would just need to prove your residency before the start of school (you would need to reside somewhere in DC).

I'm not too familiar with MD or VA school systems, but my guess is that you'd just need to reside within the boundaries of those schools. You could consult your realtor to make sure you pick a home within those boundaries.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and assuming your child is Kindergarten age (5) or older, your local school HAS to enroll your child. So if you move within the school's boundary, you'd be guaranteed a spot at the MD or VA schools.

[Anonymous]

In MoCo simply residing in the school catchment WON'T get you into the immersion program. You have to apply for slots in the lottery. It's pretty competitive, check the archives here. The immersion schools house separate academies for the regular curriculum, those serve the neigborhood population.

[Anonymous]

OP. Quick question (just to beter know your context): where you the person who started a similar thread a couple of weeks ago? If so, I am the person who provided some extensive answers to that thread. If so, I think I know what your situation is: you want to enroll now, without an address yet, in a public school (MD, VA, DC) with a French immersion program.

I am afraid you are very, very likely not going to be able to *secure* a public French immersion option. Please note that you have three problems. First, you still don't have a local address and, as you have found out, that excludes MD and VA. (I am surprised this doesn't exclude Stokes - perhaps the fact that, unlikely Sligo and Kent, Stokes is a charter schol, and thus open to all DC residents, not only those in the vicinity, is the reason they gave you that answer). Second, even if you have an adress right now -- even if you *live* next to the French immersion public school right now -- you will need to go through a lottery; that is, nothing guarantees that you will win a slot through the lottery (that is true for Stokes and Sligo; I am pretty sure it's the same for Kent -- and you can't enroll in it anyway as you don't have an address now). Third, even if you are right now in the country, with an address, next to the school, please note that it is hard to win a slot -- there are just too many applicants (again, true for Stokes and Sligo, likely true for Kent).

Don't confuse enrollment in a public school (which you can secure just moving to the area served by that school) and enrollment in a French immersion program (which requires winning a slot in a lottery, that is, requires a lot of luck). Even if you move shortly before school starts (assuming your child will enroll in K or above), you WILL have a spot in a public school -- but it will most likely NOT be French immersion. Your kid will not be left without a public education this coming year, but it will most likely not be in French.

Just to give you a flavor of the likelihood of getting into Stokes. They have, say, 20 spots for preK (and fewer for K, as preK kids advance to K). Their application was available sometime in mid-October 2011. They accept all applications – usually hundreds of them – and then there is a lottery, so you have 20 lucky winners out of, say, 400 people. The rest go in a waiting list. The waiting list depends on the order you were in line the day the application was available. As a result, you have literally dozens and dozens of people waiting outside Stokes that day in the morning (and dozens more faxing or emailing their applications the same day). The number in the line is key. If you fill out the application, say, 10 minutes after they begin accepting it, your chances of getting a slot from the waiting list are good. If you fill it out the day after, your chances are slim – there are dozens and dozens of people ahead of you already. And that was October. Now you are in January. Do the math. If you apply know, you’ll probably be number 400 in the waiting list. You can still be extremely, extremely lucky and win a spot in the initial lottery, but you cannot, and should not, assume that it will happen. (In K, it is even harder, as the preK kids from the previous year move on to K).

In sum, your chances of securing, right now, a public French immersion program for your kids are extremely, extremely, extremely low. If I were you, I would just assume it won’t be an option, at least for this coming year.

As I said in the other thread (if indeed it was you who started it). You need to look into private options – WIS, Rochambeau, or a French language preschool like Caterpillar, French Maternal, or Communikids. Note that the deadline for WIS is TODAY JANUARY 10; you can apply online.

[Anonymous]

10:50 again. Just another thing. I am not sure what you asked the MD and VA people when you called them. If you asked "can I enroll my child in [say] Sligo without an address?" The aswer was likely "no, you need an adress inbounds for Sligo". If you asked "can I enroll my chiild in the French immesion in Sligo". The asnwer was likely "no, you need an adress somewhere in MoCo [not necessarily inbounds for Sligo, as they accept kids from other school districts] and you need to win the lottery.

That is, don't confuse being inbounds for a particular school and winning the lottery for a particular french immersion.

For example, Stokes is chartes, so there is no "inbounds" -- they accept kids from all Wards in DC. But there is a lottery.

I reiterate what I said: you cannot secure, right now, a spot for your kid in a public French immersion. And even if you were here right now living 100 meters away from, say, Sligo or Stokes, you would need be be lucky (very lucky) , so nothing is guaranteed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The asnwer was likely "no, you need an adress somewhere in MoCo [not necessarily inbounds for Sligo, as they accept kids from other school districts] and you need to win the lottery.

I meant, "from other boundaries outside the one served by Sligo, but it has to be within MoCo. (And I am not even sure any MoCo address; I read somewhere that it's half of MoCo that can go to Sligo; I think the other half of MoCo can apply, via lottery, to another public French immersion in Rockville I beileve; but the same exact problems described above apply).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"no, you need an adress somewhere in MoCo [not necessarily inbounds for Sligo, as they accept kids from other school districts] and you need to win the lottery.

I meant "fron other places outside the boundaries for Sligo, but still within MoCo anyway. (And I even think that not all MoCo areas are eligible to go to Sligo immersion, only the lower half of MoCo. The upper half of MoCo have to apply to another French program that is located Rockville, but the same problems already mentioned ad nauseaum above apply)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I am new to this area and this country, any advice, ideas about all this administrative stuff would be appreciated.

My advice: research other non-bilingual school options so you make sure that you end up living in a place where you would be happy with the public schools (other than the fact of their not providing French). Then, once you're here, you can pursue the lotteries for the bilingual schools.

There may also be some private school options that you would want to consider if French language is of utmost importance to you. (Washington International School? Lycee Rochambeau?)