Why aren't there more Pre-K3 programs in DCPS?

[Anonymous]

There's also:

LAMB (Latin American Montessori Bilingual) Public Charter School.
Address: 1375 Missouri Rd. NW
Brightwood (South of Walter Reed)
Application deadline is 4/10/09.
http://www.lambpcs.org/
*Dual-immersion (1/2 predominantly English-speaking & 1/2 predominantly Spanish-speaking) Montessori for 3 year-olds (growing through 6th grade).

[Anonymous]

I visited one of these free preschools and loved it. The teachers were warm and kids were really learning socially and academically. It was also very racially mixed. If the school was in upper NW, there would be hundreds of parents lining up to send their kids and leaving those expensive private preschools behind. Trust me. As it happens, universal prek4 that is coming to the District and the worsening economy will close some of the privates anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I visited one of these free preschools and loved it. The teachers were warm and kids were really learning socially and academically. It was also very racially mixed. If the school was in upper NW, there would be hundreds of parents lining up to send their kids and leaving those expensive private preschools behind. Trust me. As it happens, universal prek4 that is coming to the District and the worsening economy will close some of the privates anyway.

ITA, PP. Charters have been growing at the expense of DCPS for years, but now they're poised to grow at the expense of privates too. I was surprised I had to fill out a pretty long application, but it wasn't to weed my child out in any way, the school just genuinely wanted good developmental information to know as much as possible about my child. I decided I liked it that they wanted to know her strengths and her needs so well. And it was just about the warmest, and most diverse environment I'd ever seen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First the birthday cutoff goes from 12/31 to 9/30, making a child born 10/1 or later wait til they're almost 5 to be eligible just for the 4 year old programs, & then there's only a few schools in Capitol Hill that have pre-k3 classes. Why don't the rest of DCPS have 3 year old programs? This whole system stinks.

I think a more important question - Why aren't there more Pre-K4 programs in DC.

I don't disagree that publicly funded Pre-K3 is a good thing - but there are limited resources and would love to see a spot for every child in DC in a Pre-K4 program before addressing the issue that there are only a few schools in Capitol Hill that have pre-k3 classes.

I am sorry that you have a child who was born in the fall and misses the cut-off. The cut-off needs to be somewhere. Unless the school system created a split academic year, there will always be children who are almost a year older than others. Not sure what you want them to do for you.

The whole system does not stink - just your expectations need to be re-aligned.