Moving to DC this summer. What are our school options?

[Anonymous]

I suggest you add Stokes East End to your lottery list now, and look into living near the Stadium. It's a fun neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is your housing budget? That will help people provide you with some more targeted advice.

Our housing budget is $3,000-$3,500/mo.

I live in Petworth/Brightwood and this seems like a tight budget if you want a full house (most likely not IB for Powell), but if you're happy with a smaller apartment it is doable, but not necessarily IB for all of the schools you listed. This city is getting harder and harder, esp if you want more than 2 bedrooms and more than a condo.

Yes, aiming for a 2BR apartment.

And, to be honest, we could go up quite a bit on rent if we got a free PK4 slot.

People are recommending Bancroft, but just beware you won’t get a PK4 spot there if English dominant (even with sibling preference). If I could pick anywhere to live in the city, it would probably be mount pleasant, so it’s still a great suggestion. You’ll just need to find a CBO or other place for the youngest.

[Anonymous]

If you haven't already, you can view past data on waitlist movement for any school, so you can drill down into trends at the schools you are considering: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

[Anonymous]

Your PK4 would be likely to get a slot (by the start of school, at least) at one of the Appletree campuses (they have more demand for PK3 than PK4) if you can make that work, logistically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is your housing budget? That will help people provide you with some more targeted advice.

Our housing budget is $3,000-$3,500/mo.

I live in Petworth/Brightwood and this seems like a tight budget if you want a full house (most likely not IB for Powell), but if you're happy with a smaller apartment it is doable, but not necessarily IB for all of the schools you listed. This city is getting harder and harder, esp if you want more than 2 bedrooms and more than a condo.

Yes, aiming for a 2BR apartment.

And, to be honest, we could go up quite a bit on rent if we got a free PK4 slot.

People are recommending Bancroft, but just beware you won’t get a PK4 spot there if English dominant (even with sibling preference). If I could pick anywhere to live in the city, it would probably be mount pleasant, so it’s still a great suggestion. You’ll just need to find a CBO or other place for the youngest.

I was one of the ones recommending Bancroft and completely agree that you wont get a PK4 spot, but the commute between Bancroft and Bethune 16th St/Centro Nino is definitely doable if you really want Spanish. And both of those are places OP is likely to get a spot for her PK4 kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is your housing budget? That will help people provide you with some more targeted advice.

Our housing budget is $3,000-$3,500/mo.

I live in Petworth/Brightwood and this seems like a tight budget if you want a full house (most likely not IB for Powell), but if you're happy with a smaller apartment it is doable, but not necessarily IB for all of the schools you listed. This city is getting harder and harder, esp if you want more than 2 bedrooms and more than a condo.

Yes, aiming for a 2BR apartment.

And, to be honest, we could go up quite a bit on rent if we got a free PK4 slot.

People are recommending Bancroft, but just beware you won’t get a PK4 spot there if English dominant (even with sibling preference). If I could pick anywhere to live in the city, it would probably be mount pleasant, so it’s still a great suggestion. You’ll just need to find a CBO or other place for the youngest.

I was one of the ones recommending Bancroft and completely agree that you wont get a PK4 spot, but the commute between Bancroft and Bethune 16th St/Centro Nino is definitely doable if you really want Spanish. And both of those are places OP is likely to get a spot for her PK4 kid.

+1 Very unlikely to get a pk4 spot at any of the bilingual DCPS or immersion charter schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is your housing budget? That will help people provide you with some more targeted advice.

Our housing budget is $3,000-$3,500/mo.

I live in Petworth/Brightwood and this seems like a tight budget if you want a full house (most likely not IB for Powell), but if you're happy with a smaller apartment it is doable, but not necessarily IB for all of the schools you listed. This city is getting harder and harder, esp if you want more than 2 bedrooms and more than a condo.

Yes, aiming for a 2BR apartment.

And, to be honest, we could go up quite a bit on rent if we got a free PK4 slot.

I'm sure you want your kids together if possible, but Communikids is often a good option and partners with the lottery for some of their spots/locations, right?

[Anonymous]

For reference OP, when people mention CBOs it’s the options outside of the lottery. Here’s a list of them: https://www.myschooldc.org/find-schools/school-options-outside-my-school-dc

They do their own lottery/enrollment outside of the MySchoolDC lottery, but offer spots that are tuition-free. Many of them have Spanish instruction. For example, I know a couple of people that loved Estrellitas which offers Montessori Spanish immersion.

[Anonymous]

You can probably find a 2 bedroom for that in Hill East or Navy Yard and enroll the first grader in the in-bound school. PreK4 will likely take a little more flexibility/maneuvering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can probably find a 2 bedroom for that in Hill East or Navy Yard and enroll the first grader in the in-bound school. PreK4 will likely take a little more flexibility/maneuvering.

I second this plan. Lots of school options on Capitol Hill for elementary school, including PRe-K. Lots of 2 bedroom apartments. And no need for a personal car because of bike lanes and public transit If you need to drive somewhere on a weekend (apple picking or whatnot), lots of "Car2Go" type options. IF I were in your shoes I'd absolutely do this.


Very exciting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can probably find a 2 bedroom for that in Hill East or Navy Yard and enroll the first grader in the in-bound school. PreK4 will likely take a little more flexibility/maneuvering.

I second this plan. Lots of school options on Capitol Hill for elementary school, including PRe-K. Lots of 2 bedroom apartments. And no need for a personal car because of bike lanes and public transit If you need to drive somewhere on a weekend (apple picking or whatnot), lots of "Car2Go" type options. IF I were in your shoes I'd absolutely do this.


Very exciting!

All of this is true, but doesn't get to the language preference OP had, unless they are specific about IB to Tyler, which is definitely a possibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For reference OP, when people mention CBOs it’s the options outside of the lottery. Here’s a list of them: https://www.myschooldc.org/find-schools/school-options-outside-my-school-dc

They do their own lottery/enrollment outside of the MySchoolDC lottery, but offer spots that are tuition-free. Many of them have Spanish instruction. For example, I know a couple of people that loved Estrellitas which offers Montessori Spanish immersion.

Thanks so much for the explanation and link.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No long term plans. We move to a different city/country every 2-3 years with my job, so I’m really only focused on the next 2 years at this point. We may buy a house in DC at some point before our next move, so I would research middle/high school options before doing that, but to be honest, I’d be too overwhelmed to think through all of that now.

If you're only looking at pre-K through 2nd or 3rd, many of the DCPS bilingual schools would work well for you, depending on your preferences. The less in-demand ones would likely have a spot for your pre-K kid as well, once your first grader enrolls and sibling preference kicks in. You say you want "very diverse" - but would you feel comfortable in a mixed SES Title 1? This is relevant because DCPS bilingual schools have a preference for Spanish dominant kids, and high SES Spanish dominant families cluster at certain schools and avoid others. Oyster, Bancroft, and Marie Reed will give you a larger cohort of high SES Spanish dominant families. Powell and Bruce Monroe will give you a cohort of more relaxed high SES English dominant families, and a mix of high and lower SES Spanish dominant families. Powell and Bruce Monroe have almost identical demographics, but Bruce Monroe has better test scores, even post-pandemic (where ELA scores really dropped for kids from actual Spanish only households). Families don't tend to stay at Cleveland or Houston once they get a lottery seat at a better performing bilingual school. Tyler is transitioning to a fully bilingual program (instead of separate tracks within the school), so I bet there will be an uptick in neighborhood buy-in as a result.

If you can afford Mount Pleasant, Bancroft gets you a bilingual program in a lovely neighborhood. That's personally what I would choose if I was looking for a 2 year rental.

[Anonymous]

Mount Pleasant / Bancroft, try to get PREK4 into Communikids not far from there.

The Hill is lovely to live for this time but immersion is lacking.

Powell — looks nice on paper but it’s way more complicated in real life. (White parents are mostly happy for early elementary and want to leave by 2nd/3rd grade…UMC black parents go private from the get go…other black students are either not happy at Powell or go to the neighborhood non language alternative Height…the school is Spanish immersion bc the population is overwhelmingly Spanish speaking and mostly lower income). Bancroft just lost its title 1 status so they’ll lose some money but it tells you a lot about the demographics there as compared to Powell. Bancroft also has a great feed also in the odd event you end up staying longer. Your money might get you where you need to go on rent. But that budget is tough for DC for a fam of 4.

If you were staying in DC the answer is Oyster but the budget for rent is tough in that area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since you can move anywhere in DC, I'd suggest in boundary for Mann or Murch. Hearst and Eaton too.

Not the OP, but I'd be interested in hearing why you favor Murch and Mann over the other schools in that part of town. Thanks!