2009-10 Pre-K lotteries to be done by DCPS?

[Anonymous]

Our neighborhood school told me that pre-K lotteries will be handled by DCPS this year, not the local schools. They said they had no additional info, but to check the SCPD website for info as it develops. Has anyone else heard this? Does anyone know anything more?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:.... but to check the SCPD website for info as it develops.

OP here -- oops, sorry for the typo -- I meant the DCPS website (www.k12.dc.us).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our neighborhood school told me that pre-K lotteries will be handled by DCPS this year, not the local schools. They said they had no additional info, but to check the SCPD website for info as it develops. Has anyone else heard this? Does anyone know anything more?

It was done by DCPS last year as well. The only change for this year is that Oyster's prek lottery will be through DCPS instead of through Oyster (which is a specialized program, so it always had a separate lottery)
Look on the site for date. You only get to pick THREE SCHOOLS. So choose wisely adn retain your number

[Anonymous]

OP here again, just to clarify -- I am talking about in-boundary lotteries. The change at Oyster though appears to confirm the change overall, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Also, FWIW this only applies to regular DCPS. Each CHARTER that has pre-K (not all do, of course) will continue to do their own lotteries.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if this has anything to do with controversy about variations in preference by school. Some schools had been giving preference to out-of-boundary siblings with children already at the school over in-boundary new students, which raised many hackles. DCPS had been letting the schools make these decisions but had been getting more and more static about it from parents. Perhaps DCPS decided to take over the process to ensure consistency?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if this has anything to do with controversy about variations in preference by school. Some schools had been giving preference to out-of-boundary siblings with children already at the school over in-boundary new students, which raised many hackles. DCPS had been letting the schools make these decisions but had been getting more and more static about it from parents. Perhaps DCPS decided to take over the process to ensure consistency?

We can only hope.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I am completely new to this...

So can I enter my pre-K eligible child in a lottery for up to three schools? In our case, that would be Lafayette (in-bounds) and two others?

[Anonymous]

I think they are separate. You enter your in-boundary child into your local school's lottery and can then do three OOB lotteries as well. However, with Lafayette it's unlikely you'll need an OOB spot. I don't think anyone in boundary has ever not gotten a spot even when initially waitlisted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our neighborhood school told me that pre-K lotteries will be handled by DCPS this year, not the local schools. They said they had no additional info, but to check the SCPD website for info as it develops. Has anyone else heard this? Does anyone know anything more?

It was done by DCPS last year as well. The only change for this year is that Oyster's prek lottery will be through DCPS instead of through Oyster (which is a specialized program, so it always had a separate lottery)
Look on the site for date. You only get to pick THREE SCHOOLS. So choose wisely adn retain your number

I'm pretty sure Murch did it's own preK lottery last year.

[Anonymous]

I think they are separate. You enter your in-boundary child into your local school's lottery and can then do three OOB lotteries as well. However, with Lafayette it's unlikely you'll need an OOB spot. I don't think anyone in boundary has ever not gotten a spot even when initially waitlisted.

Thanks for that info, PP.

[Anonymous]

There was a thread in August about pre-k preference and lottery policy. Supposedly some parents on DCUM had contacted Rhee and Fenty about new, system-wide change. Any updates? Given how close we are to typical lottery, my guess is each school will still be able to set their own preferences and number of seats for pre-k 4 year olds even if DCPS runs the actual computer-based lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was a thread in August about pre-k preference and lottery policy. Supposedly some parents on DCUM had contacted Rhee and Fenty about new, system-wide change. Any updates? Given how close we are to typical lottery, my guess is each school will still be able to set their own preferences and number of seats for pre-k 4 year olds even if DCPS runs the actual computer-based lottery.

I'm one of the previous posters on this thread and the poster who contacted Rhee in the summer. I received no follow up beyond the initial back-and-forth, but part of my exchange with her involved one of her staff who verified to her that DCPS historically has allowed the schools to handle this matter. Rhee seemed receptive to the concerns I raised about in-boundary kids getting displaced by OOB siblings. I may be reading too much into this, but the shift to DCPS management of the entire lottery is a big enough change that I'm thinking the OOB policies might also change.

[Anonymous]

bump -- anyone hear more on this?

[Anonymous]

In the past the lottery was "done" by DCPS downtown, but the names of the kids eligible for lottery was determined by the school-- ie the school sent the list downtown and down town sent back the results. This is how it was done in 2004-5 and 2007-8 when I had preK kids. I asked at our school last week, office, for a friend with an upcoming preKer and was told it was all being handled by downtown, but that DCPS had no info on the website.
My school is Murch, and the in boundry/out of boundry/siblings policies have been different with each of the last 3 principals. I think Rhee has a good idea if she is trying to make a uniform policy. Otherwise it seems too arbitrary IMHO.