How far would you drive your child to school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Two schools that aren't on my list are Hyde-Addison and School Without Walls @ Francis-Stevens. What's the prek-3 lottery like for those two schools? They're right OMW to work and I would be able to drop DC off and get to work within 30 minutes. Should I put those on my list or would it be a waste of space and unrealistic?

Check the data to see if any out-of-bounds kids got in last year. If not, it’s not worth putting on your list. Check it for any DCPS school you’re considering that isn’t your inbound. http://enrolldcps.dc.gov/node/61

[Anonymous]

You really don't want a long commute for Pk3.

Some things to consider:

Commute time in the morning is usually more reliable/consistent than commute time in the afternoon, so if you are really considering a distant school, you need to drive the *pick up* route and time for at least a week.

Remember that it may be 20 minutes one way to the school, but then you have to park and take DC into school, get back in the car (add 10 min, once you have the process down pat), navigate through the drop off traffic and then continue on to your next stop. And do the reserve in the afternoon- this could be a 2 hour per day commitment for you.

After school, you have a kid that has used a lot of energy to be good all day. They need to run around and blow off steam- and instead you are going to strap them down in a carseat for the trip home and ask them to be quiet for another 20 minutes. 20 minutes might be doable, but you are looking at the potential for a full on meltdown if you hit bad traffic.

Developmentally, kids need time to play- and DCPS PK3 is still pretty structured (yes, it varies by school/curriculum, but it tends to be academic/school readiness focused). Even a 20 minute commute, twice a day, plus the transitions from the car to school and school to the car can eat up an hour of potential play time and movement time.

For closer options- what about Leckie? I've heard good things about it- a lot of military families who are very involved in the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not recommend driving 13 miles to school to school, or even 5, unless you’re going to hire someone to do it (nanny or au pair). It’s just too far.

OP here. Dad and I have thrown around the idea of having someone drop DC off at school and I would be able to pick him up. I'm just not sure on how to go about finding that someone. We would only need them for about 2 hours a day.

Advertise on care.com or other places you'd look for a sitter.

Another option is to hire an after-school nanny to pick up child, bring home and play, and start dinner for you. That may work out to be not much more expensive than after care would be, and for some kids the school day is long enough without the 2-3 hours of aftercare tacked on at the end.

This may help with parent's commute, but doesn't take away the two hours a day the 3 year old could be in the car. There is no DCPS/Charter that is worth commuting 13 miles to as a 3 year old. I say this as a parent in a "HRCS" that would happily send kid to any school below (especially for PK3-K). I would go to Appletree in a heartbeat. If I were you, my list would look something like this. Then reevaluate after or before K and again before 3rd. Some below don't accept OOB initially for PK3.

Stokes EE
Van Ness
Appletree SW
Amidon-Bowen
Appletree Lincoln
Payne
CHM@L (although idk if I would go that far north)
Friendship Chamberlain
DC Prep Benning
DC Scholars
Early Childhood Academy
JO Wilson (although idk if I would go that far north)
Ketchum
Kipp Arts and Tech
Kipp Discover
Ludlow Taylor
Seaton

OP here. I have a couple of these on my list. I will have to go back and research the others.

[Anonymous]

We initially walked down the street to our neighborhood school and loved the walk but ended up disliking the school immensely. Now we happily drive 30 min each way to a charter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So we live in SE and the schools on our list for the 2019/2020 school year (PreK-3) are between 5 and 13 miles from our home. Am I being unrealistic? Right now, I think that I will be fine with taking him across town to school, but when that time comes, I may not want to take the drive. I've googled the commute to and from each school and google maps is telling me that it could take anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes to get to them. Did I also mention that I work in Tyson's Corner?! One good thing is that daddy works in SW, but he has to be to work by 8:30 am. He could very well take our son to school, but what are the chances that he would get to work on time? I could also change my work hours from 9 to 5, but that means less time spent with my munchkin in the evenings. Either way, I have to finalize my list within the next couple of weeks.

I kind of feel like I'm making this harder than I should. Someone please talk me off of this ledge, my anxiety super high!!

Why do you have to finalize the list in a few weeks? Lottery is not even open yet and you have until March. Personally, as someone who lives in SE and also commutes to Tyson's, I would limit your schools to Cap Hill area schools, AppleTree, and Stokes EE area. The closer you stay to 695/395 (without going into the city more), the better. What part of SE are you in and what schools do you have on the list?

OP here. I would like to get the application completed ASAP. That way I am not constantly thinking about it.

This is nuts at this age ...

[Anonymous]

We lived in Brightwood and my mom drove my sister to Bullis mostly everyday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We lived in Brightwood and my mom drove my sister to Bullis mostly everyday.

How long and far of a drive was that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We initially walked down the street to our neighborhood school and loved the walk but ended up disliking the school immensely. Now we happily drive 30 min each way to a charter.

Is that with or without traffic? Where do you live and where do you drive to?

[Anonymous]

3 blocks. That's why we stay in our too-small place. Life is just so easy, minus being on top of each other when we're all home. Keeps us from accumulating too much crap though.

[Anonymous]

5 blocks if we drive, 2.5 blocks if we walk. We have yet to walk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Two schools that aren't on my list are Hyde-Addison and School Without Walls @ Francis-Stevens. What's the prek-3 lottery like for those two schools? They're right OMW to work and I would be able to drop DC off and get to work within 30 minutes. Should I put those on my list or would it be a waste of space and unrealistic?

I thought you didn’t need any help gauging your list?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:5 blocks if we drive, 2.5 blocks if we walk. We have yet to walk.

Gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We lived in Brightwood and my mom drove my sister to Bullis mostly everyday.

How long and far of a drive was that?

Upper GA ave/16th to Moco 20 years+ ago is nothing compared to 13 mile across DC traffic today (with a 3 year old).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5 blocks if we drive, 2.5 blocks if we walk. We have yet to walk.

Gross.

Don't be such a rude beautch!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Two schools that aren't on my list are Hyde-Addison and School Without Walls @ Francis-Stevens. What's the prek-3 lottery like for those two schools? They're right OMW to work and I would be able to drop DC off and get to work within 30 minutes. Should I put those on my list or would it be a waste of space and unrealistic?

I thought you didn’t need any help gauging your list?