Private for the early years (early elementary or all of elementary) then move to public?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there is a lot of value to a good private school in the early years, but don't underestimate how hard it is to leave. A good school might be good all the way up, and once your child has friends and you are used to the community, it's hard to make a switch and go to a bigger school or system. Not impossible but once you're on the train you tend to stay on.

I have been reading this thread with great fascination because I have to make a decision for my DD soon as well. It is made more complicated by the fact that, if we want to do public, we will have to move. I love where I live and would be ok sending her to private now and then dealing with possibly needing to move and switch to public later, but I worry about the social impacts. I can afford public now but what if I can't afford it forever? Especially if I have another child.

PP who talked about switching, was it hard on you? PPs whose children have switched, what was it like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there is a lot of value to a good private school in the early years, but don't underestimate how hard it is to leave. A good school might be good all the way up, and once your child has friends and you are used to the community, it's hard to make a switch and go to a bigger school or system. Not impossible but once you're on the train you tend to stay on.

We solved this by choosing a K-8 independent school. Everyone moved on to different high schools , about 1/3 of the kids went to public high schools. There are good K-6 schools and K-3 schools too. In our case the kids had changed so much between age 4 and 14 that it was nice to have a reason to really think about what type of school made the most sense for HS.