I hate the advantage people with multiple kids have in the school lottery

[Anonymous]

Assuming the standard 2-3 year age gap, the older sibling gets effectively a second lottery draw as soon as the younger sibling enters the lottery for pre-k. For elementary, this is a massive advantage for both siblings. For middle school, older siblings are in a similar situation as only children.

If it helps, OP, our only lotteried into a JR feeder in third. It was hard to leave a school we had been in for years, but not as hard as our friends who ended up realizing their “winning” charter seat was lacking by upper elementary or not working for the younger sib, then having to pull both kids and move when both are in 2nd-5th. Happened to many families we know, even those at the high demand charters with a desirable feeder pattern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Assuming the standard 2-3 year age gap, the older sibling gets effectively a second lottery draw as soon as the younger sibling enters the lottery for pre-k. For elementary, this is a massive advantage for both siblings. For middle school, older siblings are in a similar situation as only children.

If it helps, OP, our only lotteried into a JR feeder in third. It was hard to leave a school we had been in for years, but not as hard as our friends who ended up realizing their “winning” charter seat was lacking by upper elementary or not working for the younger sib, then having to pull both kids and move when both are in 2nd-5th. Happened to many families we know, even those at the high demand charters with a desirable feeder pattern.

The bolded but assume older sibling is lotterying every year until younger sib enters PK3 so you're maximizing both kids chances -- if older sib gets lucky in any of PK3-K years then they can pull in younger sib but if they don't get lucky than younger sib gives them twice the chances in each subsequent lottery.

It's not a reason to have more kids but yes only children are disadvantaged in the lottery for elementary. I guess parents of onlies are probably better positioned to help a kid in a subpar school make the most of their educational opportunities assuming the same or similar overall resources. But this is kind of like the argument over whether parents of more kids should get more financial aid at colleges. On the one hand obviously having more kids is a larger financial burden on families and they may struggle to pay for college more than people with fewer children. On the other hand having more children is a totally optional choice.

[Anonymous]

Yes, there is a lottery advantage to having multiple kids.

There are also logistical advantages to having one -- no multiple commute issues, you can live in a much smaller home so greater options (if someone really wants to, they can rent an apartment up Connecticut Ave and be set on schools), only one college to pay for, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, there is a lottery advantage to having multiple kids.

There are also logistical advantages to having one -- no multiple commute issues, you can live in a much smaller home so greater options (if someone really wants to, they can rent an apartment up Connecticut Ave and be set on schools), only one college to pay for, etc.

I don't think it's fair to compare the logistical advantages of an only with the lottery advantage of multiple kids. They are just totally different things.

It's okay to be frustrated that having an only puts your kid at a disadvantage in the lottery.

[Anonymous]

I can't find it but am sure there was a thread with the same exact conversation a couple months ago.

[Anonymous]

As the parent of 3 kids, it helps more than I realized because of the tendency for the list to move in clumps. All 3 of my kids got into 2 of the hardest to get into schools on the Hill including, ironically, my upper elementary kid with an awful number, because as soon as one of her siblings got in, she jumped to 1 on the WL and they then gave her an offer that same day (in one case, it was the only offer they made by June per the data). I actually am sort of cyclical and wonder if they saw younger kid’s address and previous elementary school and decided that was a good time to move the older list rather than to admit whoever the prior #1 was. No idea how much info they have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As the parent of 3 kids, it helps more than I realized because of the tendency for the list to move in clumps. All 3 of my kids got into 2 of the hardest to get into schools on the Hill including, ironically, my upper elementary kid with an awful number, because as soon as one of her siblings got in, she jumped to 1 on the WL and they then gave her an offer that same day (in one case, it was the only offer they made by June per the data). I actually am sort of cyclical and wonder if they saw younger kid’s address and previous elementary school and decided that was a good time to move the older list rather than to admit whoever the prior #1 was. No idea how much info they have.

Some schools just have a policy of taking all siblings. My older son also got an offer from a sought after DCPS and my younger son had an offer within 15 minutes. There wasn't necessarily a spot, they just wanted to keep the kids together.

By contrast, my younger son got an offer at a Hardy feeder and my older son jumped to #1, but then never got off the waitlist. (I accepted the top situation and took them both off all lists, so I'll never know if he would have eventually gotten off.)

Seems to be at the schools discretion.

[Anonymous]

Just here to say, OP, that you have a legitimate beef (though I agree, there isn’t a better way to do this for practical/logistical reasons).

We’ve got three and are sticking out our somewhat on the bubble DCPS elementary school hoping for enough small improvements to stay through 4th (feeder middle is a non starter) and part of what makes that manageable is that if we did decide we needed to move to a different elementary, we’d have essentially three lottery numbers in one year to pull us to somewhere else - especially since our standards are not crazy high, that’s basically a guarantee.

Same with middle schools - we’ll lottery hard when my oldest is going into fifth. Now sure, we still essentially only have the same shot at BASIS. And worst case, we end up at like Thomson to feed into SWW@FS or JOW to feed into SH. But we can put ITDS and a bunch of Deal feeders on there too and have three bites at the apple. It’s definitely an advantage and gives us more flexibility.

[Anonymous]

What's the alternative that OP and others are advocating for?

[Anonymous]

The OP is arguing for no sibling preference. But others are more reasonably saying ice it only for 5+ middle schools and high schools. All of the future Euclid ES schools (Seaton Cleveland Garrison) now feed to SWWFS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just here to say, OP, that you have a legitimate beef (though I agree, there isn’t a better way to do this for practical/logistical reasons).

We’ve got three and are sticking out our somewhat on the bubble DCPS elementary school hoping for enough small improvements to stay through 4th (feeder middle is a non starter) and part of what makes that manageable is that if we did decide we needed to move to a different elementary, we’d have essentially three lottery numbers in one year to pull us to somewhere else - especially since our standards are not crazy high, that’s basically a guarantee.

Same with middle schools - we’ll lottery hard when my oldest is going into fifth. Now sure, we still essentially only have the same shot at BASIS. And worst case, we end up at like Thomson to feed into SWW@FS or JOW to feed into SH. But we can put ITDS and a bunch of Deal feeders on there too and have three bites at the apple. It’s definitely an advantage and gives us more flexibility.

But would you really move your younger kids to JOW or Thomson for multiple years just to guarantee a middle school spot for your older kid? I'm in a similar-ish situation and while I might enroll my older kid in 5th for the feed, I don't think I'd move my younger kid from our closer/somewhat better IB. So older kid would have to get in sans sibling preference anyway.

[Anonymous]

Right, people with a kindergartner do not realize. that it is not emotionally and socially quite so easy with a 4th grader. You do so if you really need to maybe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just here to say, OP, that you have a legitimate beef (though I agree, there isn’t a better way to do this for practical/logistical reasons).

We’ve got three and are sticking out our somewhat on the bubble DCPS elementary school hoping for enough small improvements to stay through 4th (feeder middle is a non starter) and part of what makes that manageable is that if we did decide we needed to move to a different elementary, we’d have essentially three lottery numbers in one year to pull us to somewhere else - especially since our standards are not crazy high, that’s basically a guarantee.

Same with middle schools - we’ll lottery hard when my oldest is going into fifth. Now sure, we still essentially only have the same shot at BASIS. And worst case, we end up at like Thomson to feed into SWW@FS or JOW to feed into SH. But we can put ITDS and a bunch of Deal feeders on there too and have three bites at the apple. It’s definitely an advantage and gives us more flexibility.

But would you really move your younger kids to JOW or Thomson for multiple years just to guarantee a middle school spot for your older kid? I'm in a similar-ish situation and while I might enroll my older kid in 5th for the feed, I don't think I'd move my younger kid from our closer/somewhat better IB. So older kid would have to get in sans sibling preference anyway.

But people can still play both kids, and the younger kid can theoretically get the older kid in and then not attend. I know of situations where this happened (and they kept the younger kid in the IB elementary.)

The accepting school doesn't care. I know bc I had the inverse happen -- my 5th grader got my 2nd grader into an excellent school, but then we opted to send only the 2nd grader. I explained the entire situation to the accepting school (principal and admin) and they were truly open to taking both kids or either.

Siblings are definitely a huge advantage in elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just here to say, OP, that you have a legitimate beef (though I agree, there isn’t a better way to do this for practical/logistical reasons).

We’ve got three and are sticking out our somewhat on the bubble DCPS elementary school hoping for enough small improvements to stay through 4th (feeder middle is a non starter) and part of what makes that manageable is that if we did decide we needed to move to a different elementary, we’d have essentially three lottery numbers in one year to pull us to somewhere else - especially since our standards are not crazy high, that’s basically a guarantee.

Same with middle schools - we’ll lottery hard when my oldest is going into fifth. Now sure, we still essentially only have the same shot at BASIS. And worst case, we end up at like Thomson to feed into SWW@FS or JOW to feed into SH. But we can put ITDS and a bunch of Deal feeders on there too and have three bites at the apple. It’s definitely an advantage and gives us more flexibility.

But would you really move your younger kids to JOW or Thomson for multiple years just to guarantee a middle school spot for your older kid? I'm in a similar-ish situation and while I might enroll my older kid in 5th for the feed, I don't think I'd move my younger kid from our closer/somewhat better IB. So older kid would have to get in sans sibling preference anyway.

But people can still play both kids, and the younger kid can theoretically get the older kid in and then not attend. I know of situations where this happened (and they kept the younger kid in the IB elementary.)

The accepting school doesn't care. I know bc I had the inverse happen -- my 5th grader got my 2nd grader into an excellent school, but then we opted to send only the 2nd grader. I explained the entire situation to the accepting school (principal and admin) and they were truly open to taking both kids or either.

Siblings are definitely a huge advantage in elementary school.

Theoretically, no, that's not how it works.

"Please note that at most schools, this preference is meant to allow siblings to attend the same school at the same time. If the sibling who was offered a space at the school does not enroll at that school or later enrolls at another school, the 'sibling offered' preference may be removed for all siblings that applied to that same school. This may result in the siblings losing their match, or moving down on the waitlist at that school."

Maybe in practice that's how it sometimes works at some schools, but I wouldn't build a lottery strategy based on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just here to say, OP, that you have a legitimate beef (though I agree, there isn’t a better way to do this for practical/logistical reasons).

We’ve got three and are sticking out our somewhat on the bubble DCPS elementary school hoping for enough small improvements to stay through 4th (feeder middle is a non starter) and part of what makes that manageable is that if we did decide we needed to move to a different elementary, we’d have essentially three lottery numbers in one year to pull us to somewhere else - especially since our standards are not crazy high, that’s basically a guarantee.

Same with middle schools - we’ll lottery hard when my oldest is going into fifth. Now sure, we still essentially only have the same shot at BASIS. And worst case, we end up at like Thomson to feed into SWW@FS or JOW to feed into SH. But we can put ITDS and a bunch of Deal feeders on there too and have three bites at the apple. It’s definitely an advantage and gives us more flexibility.

But would you really move your younger kids to JOW or Thomson for multiple years just to guarantee a middle school spot for your older kid? I'm in a similar-ish situation and while I might enroll my older kid in 5th for the feed, I don't think I'd move my younger kid from our closer/somewhat better IB. So older kid would have to get in sans sibling preference anyway.

PP here. No. That would be our “safety” option and there’s no need to involve the other two if we ended up there. JOW and Thompson consistently clear their waitlists for 5th grade.

I would potentially move the whole family to ITDS though. Or even potentially a Deal feeder. That’s where the advantage comes in.