Just moved to DC post-divorce and COMPLETELY confused about public schools - Please Help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, which schools in Arlington are amazing on a 750 budget that is close to Georgetown?

Yorktown on Rosslyn Island. 750 will get you a 1500 sq ft condo at the atrium. Walk to Georgetown.

Do not do Arlington! 1500 square foot condo with HOA dues for family of 4?

Seriously, what would a modern condo cost within 0.3 mi of Georgetown in DC?

And Yorktown and W-L are far better schools than wilson, look up how GS scores work across state lines.

If op doesn't mind being 0.7 miles from Georgetown than townhouses in 750k are readily available

OP didn't say she needed to live near Georgetown. She said she preferred moving in the city. Go back to VA pages.

Obama didn't find dcps adequate for his children

Not this pointless comment again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Somebody will surely shoot me down but, frankly, this is a case for a public school consultant. (And I'm not that consultant, and neither posting for any of them, just saying because I've seen another friend from overseas go through that who was very glad to have a consultant.)

Meanwhile, here my take:
- You likely will need to make your housing affordability a priority; so as much as you'd like to place your school district first, it likely won't happen and will just be frustrating.
- Use your entering 6h and 7th graders as your guide. (They will enter the first/second year of any public middle school or the second/third of some charters.) Your preschooler will be much easier to figure out (he/she will need to turn 3 by August to be eligible for the lottery; no by right school until K).
- Feeder patterns may not be as important to you if your middle schoolers do well in school and have a good shot at an application high school but that may be hard to predict given the circumstances (divorce, new country/language/culture etc.). So your case may be one where you'd place a strong premium on finding a well connected middle/high school solution. If that's so, then your options are going to be limited enough and thereby completely manageable.

Here my pick of what you should look at, in about that order (public = by right or via lottery, charter = only via lottery, not location specific):
- Public: Hardy MS or Deal MS --> Wilson HS (I'm pretty certain that neither will be affordable to located into but you can probably get your kids into Hardy from outside its boundaries via the lottery)

This is a good round up, but let's be honest. Eliot-hine and Jefferson middle schools and eastern high schools are not reasonable choices yet for kids coming from an overseas private school. They are a mess physically and just starting to get programs together that meet kids' needs at all ends of the academic spectrum. It's a gamble and a risk and it is unfair to characterize it as an easy choice.
- Charter: Latin MS --> Latin HS (virtually impossible because you'll be applying for 6th and 7th, which is not an entry year; you )
- Charter: Basis MS --> Basis HS (better chances than Latin but test heavy and therefore maybe not what your kids need right now)
- Charter: DCI (DC International) --> no clear high school option at this stage but chances of getting in at this point are quite good and your kids would match its profile and feel happy there (my friend in a similar situation opted for that and is very happy)
- Public: Stuart-Hobson MS --> try application HS with Eastern HS's International Baccalaureate Diploma track as a good backup option (difficult to find affordable housing that feeds into Stuart-H)
- Public: Eliot-Hine MS (International Bac) or Jefferson MS (Adcademy) --> try application HS or Eastern HS as a good back-up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:with so many kids and already in middle school, just move into a deal zone and you are done. easiest thing to do.

This. OP, it's too late to apply for the lottery for your kids. The simplest and best thing to do would be to look for a house that in inbounds to Deal Middle School.

The elementary schools that feed to deal are:
Eaton Elementary School
Bancroft Elementary School
Lafayette Elementary School
Murch Elementary School
Janney Elementary School
Shepherd Elementary School
Hearst Elementary School

Gotta agree with the posters above. I don't know what your budget is, but if you move into this zone (apartment or house), you're golden. Problem solved. Of course you could move to the burbs, but if you're asking about DC schools, I have to believe you like the idea of living in the city. For what it's worth, the neighborhoods zoned for Alice Deal Middle have a suburb in the city feel, so you get the best of both worlds, plus great schools.

[Anonymous]

WOW. I would really thank everyone for their amazingly constructive feedback. The upshot seems to be to move into an area zoned for Deal/Wilson or Hardy/Wilson and I am good to go. So I'll look into those maps now. Also, everyone seems to agree about putting the kids on the waitlist for the charter schools Inspired Teaching and DC International. Do I have to chose one over the other? Would one probably suit the kids over another? And my two year old will be three in December. How does the lottery work for him? What do I have to do and what places would be near his older siblings/in the same system? Thank you again!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WOW. I would really thank everyone for their amazingly constructive feedback. The upshot seems to be to move into an area zoned for Deal/Wilson or Hardy/Wilson and I am good to go. So I'll look into those maps now. Also, everyone seems to agree about putting the kids on the waitlist for the charter schools Inspired Teaching and DC International. Do I have to chose one over the other? Would one probably suit the kids over another? And my two year old will be three in December. How does the lottery work for him? What do I have to do and what places would be near his older siblings/in the same system? Thank you again!

You have to rank them by your preference. I'm not sure if there are any Charter that have late birthdays anymore. You may have to use private daycare for him.

[Anonymous]

OP, you can apply for the PK3 lottery next year, as the lottery is for kids who are 3 by September 30th. Your child therefore would be on the older side for his or her class.

For your older kids, I'd apply to Hardy, Inspired Teaching, and DC International, but aim to move in-boundary for Deal knowing that getting into any school at this point is unlikely. You do a separate application for each child for each school at this point. (There is no more lottery--you are just placed at the end of the wait list in order of application, so I would do it right now.) You can apply at www.myschooldc.org.

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WOW. I would really thank everyone for their amazingly constructive feedback. The upshot seems to be to move into an area zoned for Deal/Wilson or Hardy/Wilson and I am good to go. So I'll look into those maps now. Also, everyone seems to agree about putting the kids on the waitlist for the charter schools Inspired Teaching and DC International. Do I have to chose one over the other? Would one probably suit the kids over another? And my two year old will be three in December. How does the lottery work for him? What do I have to do and what places would be near his older siblings/in the same system? Thank you again!

I have 3 kids. For the sake of your sanity as a single mom, I would attempt to keep them in close proximity to each other. Depending on your situation, schools like BASIS, IT and DC International would probably require your kids be comfortable navigating the metro system unless you're just going to drive all around town every morning and afternoon. If the housing in the Hardy/Deal zones are financially viable then, while there aren't many options for PK3 on the west side of town, your youngest would be guaranteed a spot by K in your neighborhood school and the kids wouldn't ever be more than a mile away from each other. And yes, you have to enter the lottery for PK3 even for your inbound school (assuming they have PK3).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WOW. I would really thank everyone for their amazingly constructive feedback. The upshot seems to be to move into an area zoned for Deal/Wilson or Hardy/Wilson and I am good to go. So I'll look into those maps now. Also, everyone seems to agree about putting the kids on the waitlist for the charter schools Inspired Teaching and DC International. Do I have to chose one over the other? Would one probably suit the kids over another? And my two year old will be three in December. How does the lottery work for him? What do I have to do and what places would be near his older siblings/in the same system? Thank you again!

I have 3 kids. For the sake of your sanity as a single mom, I would attempt to keep them in close proximity to each other. Depending on your situation, schools like BASIS, IT and DC International would probably require your kids be comfortable navigating the metro system unless you're just going to drive all around town every morning and afternoon. If the housing in the Hardy/Deal zones are financially viable then, while there aren't many options for PK3 on the west side of town, your youngest would be guaranteed a spot by K in your neighborhood school and the kids wouldn't ever be more than a mile away from each other. And yes, you have to enter the lottery for PK3 even for your inbound school (assuming they have PK3).

Not necessarily. If she did IT, she could live in Brookland area. There are also many affordable preschools in the area and would be able to drop off older kids at IT and youngest at preschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WOW. I would really thank everyone for their amazingly constructive feedback. The upshot seems to be to move into an area zoned for Deal/Wilson or Hardy/Wilson and I am good to go. So I'll look into those maps now. Also, everyone seems to agree about putting the kids on the waitlist for the charter schools Inspired Teaching and DC International. Do I have to chose one over the other? Would one probably suit the kids over another? And my two year old will be three in December. How does the lottery work for him? What do I have to do and what places would be near his older siblings/in the same system? Thank you again!

You have to rank them by your preference. I'm not sure if there are any Charter that have late birthdays anymore. You may have to use private daycare for him.

Not for this coming school year. You just contact each school individually now and be added to the waitlist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:with so many kids and already in middle school, just move into a deal zone and you are done. easiest thing to do.

This. OP, it's too late to apply for the lottery for your kids. The simplest and best thing to do would be to look for a house that in inbounds to Deal Middle School.

The elementary schools that feed to deal are:
Eaton Elementary School
Bancroft Elementary School
Lafayette Elementary School
Murch Elementary School
Janney Elementary School
Shepherd Elementary School
Hearst Elementary School

Gotta agree with the posters above. I don't know what your budget is, but if you move into this zone (apartment or house), you're golden. Problem solved. Of course you could move to the burbs, but if you're asking about DC schools, I have to believe you like the idea of living in the city. For what it's worth, the neighborhoods zoned for Alice Deal Middle have a suburb in the city feel, so you get the best of both worlds, plus great schools.

Agree. I would add a preference for Shepherd for a few reasons. You should be able to get your youngest into the school for PK3 in 2016. If you get a spot at DCI and if (I know a lot of ifs) DCI moves to Walter Reed, your oldest will be able to walk to school. Also, Shepherd Park is slighltly more affordable. Can't go wrong with any of them though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WOW. I would really thank everyone for their amazingly constructive feedback. The upshot seems to be to move into an area zoned for Deal/Wilson or Hardy/Wilson and I am good to go. So I'll look into those maps now. Also, everyone seems to agree about putting the kids on the waitlist for the charter schools Inspired Teaching and DC International. Do I have to chose one over the other? Would one probably suit the kids over another? And my two year old will be three in December. How does the lottery work for him? What do I have to do and what places would be near his older siblings/in the same system? Thank you again!

PK3 and 4 are by lottery. No PK3 in the Deal neighborhood public schools. Most people there use one of the many great private preschools in the neighborhood until PK4 or K (St. Columba's, St. Paul's, Franklin Montessori, Chevy Chase Baptist Church, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WOW. I would really thank everyone for their amazingly constructive feedback. The upshot seems to be to move into an area zoned for Deal/Wilson or Hardy/Wilson and I am good to go. So I'll look into those maps now. Also, everyone seems to agree about putting the kids on the waitlist for the charter schools Inspired Teaching and DC International. Do I have to chose one over the other? Would one probably suit the kids over another? And my two year old will be three in December. How does the lottery work for him? What do I have to do and what places would be near his older siblings/in the same system? Thank you again!

PK3 and 4 are by lottery. No PK3 in the Deal neighborhood public schools. Most people there use one of the many great private preschools in the neighborhood until PK4 or K (St. Columba's, St. Paul's, Franklin Montessori, Chevy Chase Baptist Church, etc.).

Not true. Bancroft and Shepherd have PK3. Please give accurate information to newbies.

[Anonymous]

I wanted to clarify something that was mentioned far upthread.

If the OP uses her sister's address to get her older kids into a middle school, and then moves to her own place in another part of the city, she will lose those in boundary seats. She will have to reapply to that school as an out of bounds family. At Hardy, that might work. At Deal, it will not.

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm going to echo most of the advice here and suggest you move inbounds for Deal MS/Wilson HS, or Hardy MS/Wilson, if you plan to live in DC and not move to VA or MD. We have to make some assumptions, here, since we don't know your finances, but you might consider renting for a period of time to get a feel for where exactly you would like to be, or can afford to be. There are many apartment building up and down Connecticut Ave, for example, which would put you inbounds for Deal MS. Your older 2 would be able to easily get to and from school, and you would have access to the metro if you are working downtown. Daycare/nursery school options are in that area as well. I know many families - divorced and married - who live basically around Van Ness and find it to be convenient, friendly, walkable, and accessible. It's not downtown or Georgetown, but, as your sister (and many on DCUM) will likely tell you, the schools are considered some of the best DCPS has to offer as far as neighborhood schools go. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Move to Virginia or Maryland.