Move to DC for free pK3

[Anonymous]

Moving for 2 years of "free" daycare doesn't make much sense at all - what happens when the kids are in Kindergarten and above? What happens if the only school you can get into is 50% homeless kids? (Not that that can't be a good setting - just that it's not the same as daycare.) What if your kid doesn't do well in the much more structured DCPS setting? What if aftercare just sticks your kid in front of the TV for hours? What if the only decent school you lottery into adds 2 hrs to your day in commute time?

And more importantly, what if you get into NO decent school at all? There are many parents who don't get into any PK3 program at all. I seriously, seriously doubt you're going to be willing to move your family to say Petworth and then drive your kid to Anacostia where there is room for your preschooler.

[Anonymous]

Aftercare is $200 a month at our school. Not a whole lot.
Worth it if you have 2 kids. Moving costs? Sell furniture on craigslist and take only personal belongings.
You can refurnish your new place cheaply over time using craigslist again. Getting the van is a headache.

[Anonymous]

We live in NOVA, have a rental property in DC and have looked into it when DC2 was born. At the end, we decided to send the kids to an immersion preschool for our heritage language in NOVA that wasn't available in DC. Otherwise we would have given the idea more consideration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aftercare is $200 a month at our school. Not a whole lot.
Worth it if you have 2 kids. Moving costs? Sell furniture on craigslist and take only personal belongings.
You can refurnish your new place cheaply over time using craigslist again. Getting the van is a headache.

What? Where are you going to sleep? Where will your kids sleep? Where will you eat? This sounds really impractical. We're talking 2 extra years of daycare costs; not a threat that makes you flee like a refugee to DC with no belongings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want to live in DC for other reasons and longer term, then sure. But take note that PK3 is not guaranteed. Start your research on myschooldc.org.

If your plan is to move into DC and then move back to NoVA for K, no.

Are you renting and would you rent in DC, or are you considering selling a house in NoVA to buy one in DC?

We're renting and we wouldn't need aftercare- my husband gets off work at 3pm.

Can he GET to the school by 3:10?

Many schools finish at 3:30pm and some not until 4pm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving for 2 years of "free" daycare doesn't make much sense at all - what happens when the kids are in Kindergarten and above? What happens if the only school you can get into is 50% homeless kids? (Not that that can't be a good setting - just that it's not the same as daycare.) What if your kid doesn't do well in the much more structured DCPS setting? What if aftercare just sticks your kid in front of the TV for hours? What if the only decent school you lottery into adds 2 hrs to your day in commute time?

And more importantly, what if you get into NO decent school at all? There are many parents who don't get into any PK3 program at all. I seriously, seriously doubt you're going to be willing to move your family to say Petworth and then drive your kid to Anacostia where there is room for your preschooler.

This response is a bit ridiculous!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aftercare is $200 a month at our school. Not a whole lot.
Worth it if you have 2 kids. Moving costs? Sell furniture on craigslist and take only personal belongings.
You can refurnish your new place cheaply over time using craigslist again. Getting the van is a headache.

What? Where are you going to sleep? Where will your kids sleep? Where will you eat? This sounds really impractical. We're talking 2 extra years of daycare costs; not a threat that makes you flee like a refugee to DC with no belongings.

Yeah, that's like saving close to 60k! Not something to turn a blind eye to... Just giving examples of how to cut down moving costs for all those PP who act like moving expenses are the end of the world...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving for 2 years of "free" daycare doesn't make much sense at all - what happens when the kids are in Kindergarten and above? What happens if the only school you can get into is 50% homeless kids? (Not that that can't be a good setting - just that it's not the same as daycare.) What if your kid doesn't do well in the much more structured DCPS setting? What if aftercare just sticks your kid in front of the TV for hours? What if the only decent school you lottery into adds 2 hrs to your day in commute time?

And more importantly, what if you get into NO decent school at all? There are many parents who don't get into any PK3 program at all. I seriously, seriously doubt you're going to be willing to move your family to say Petworth and then drive your kid to Anacostia where there is room for your preschooler.

Classic DC classist attitude. Seems like you're one of the few who thinks it doesn't make "sense"...guess you don't care about almost 60k of income!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aftercare is $200 a month at our school. Not a whole lot.
Worth it if you have 2 kids. Moving costs? Sell furniture on craigslist and take only personal belongings.
You can refurnish your new place cheaply over time using craigslist again. Getting the van is a headache.

What? Where are you going to sleep? Where will your kids sleep? Where will you eat? This sounds really impractical. We're talking 2 extra years of daycare costs; not a threat that makes you flee like a refugee to DC with no belongings.

Yeah, that's like saving close to 60k! Not something to turn a blind eye to... Just giving examples of how to cut down moving costs for all those PP who act like moving expenses are the end of the world...

+1 -- You're not moving to another continent, it's just across the bridge. It shouldn't cost thousands of dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving for 2 years of "free" daycare doesn't make much sense at all - what happens when the kids are in Kindergarten and above? What happens if the only school you can get into is 50% homeless kids? (Not that that can't be a good setting - just that it's not the same as daycare.) What if your kid doesn't do well in the much more structured DCPS setting? What if aftercare just sticks your kid in front of the TV for hours? What if the only decent school you lottery into adds 2 hrs to your day in commute time?

And more importantly, what if you get into NO decent school at all? There are many parents who don't get into any PK3 program at all. I seriously, seriously doubt you're going to be willing to move your family to say Petworth and then drive your kid to Anacostia where there is room for your preschooler.

Classic DC classist attitude. Seems like you're one of the few who thinks it doesn't make "sense"...guess you don't care about almost 60k of income!

Where are you getting 60 thousand from? Daycare for 3 year olds is more like $1200/month. Aftercare and school lunch are around $400/month. You add in summer camps, winter and spring break camps, and days off, and you're probably saving no more than $8000/year. Which is great, but not 60k, and not necessarily worth uprooting your life for. Not to mention that you might strike out in the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving for 2 years of "free" daycare doesn't make much sense at all - what happens when the kids are in Kindergarten and above? What happens if the only school you can get into is 50% homeless kids? (Not that that can't be a good setting - just that it's not the same as daycare.) What if your kid doesn't do well in the much more structured DCPS setting? What if aftercare just sticks your kid in front of the TV for hours? What if the only decent school you lottery into adds 2 hrs to your day in commute time?

And more importantly, what if you get into NO decent school at all? There are many parents who don't get into any PK3 program at all. I seriously, seriously doubt you're going to be willing to move your family to say Petworth and then drive your kid to Anacostia where there is room for your preschooler.

This response is a bit ridiculous!

Do you even understand the DC schools and lottery?

[Anonymous]

We live in a two bedroom/two bath rental in NW DC. When we comparison searched for two bedroom/two bath rentals in NoVa, the price differential was minimal ($3-400 tops for the close in suburbs.) Since moving, we have sold our car and utilize public transportation plus a mix of zipcar/uber as needed. That saves us an additional $5-600 monthly when considering the car payment, parking and insurances.

So ultimately, for our family, DC was the right choice for purely financial reasons- as well as the added benefit of a short commute. DC walks to school- and its possible to bike/walk or take metro to work in less than 15 minutes.

(FYI- although we initially did this research when DC was a baby five years ago, we researched again before moving this December.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving for 2 years of "free" daycare doesn't make much sense at all - what happens when the kids are in Kindergarten and above? What happens if the only school you can get into is 50% homeless kids? (Not that that can't be a good setting - just that it's not the same as daycare.) What if your kid doesn't do well in the much more structured DCPS setting? What if aftercare just sticks your kid in front of the TV for hours? What if the only decent school you lottery into adds 2 hrs to your day in commute time?

And more importantly, what if you get into NO decent school at all? There are many parents who don't get into any PK3 program at all. I seriously, seriously doubt you're going to be willing to move your family to say Petworth and then drive your kid to Anacostia where there is room for your preschooler.

Classic DC classist attitude. Seems like you're one of the few who thinks it doesn't make "sense"...guess you don't care about almost 60k of income!

Where are you getting 60 thousand from? Daycare for 3 year olds is more like $1200/month. Aftercare and school lunch are around $400/month. You add in summer camps, winter and spring break camps, and days off, and you're probably saving no more than $8000/year. Which is great, but not 60k, and not necessarily worth uprooting your life for. Not to mention that you might strike out in the lottery.

Well it's 32k for two kids. Which pretax is closer to 50k. Investing 30k into the market will grow over the next 10-15 years and be very helpful when college comes around. The time value of money is not something to sneeze at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in a two bedroom/two bath rental in NW DC. When we comparison searched for two bedroom/two bath rentals in NoVa, the price differential was minimal ($3-400 tops for the close in suburbs.) Since moving, we have sold our car and utilize public transportation plus a mix of zipcar/uber as needed. That saves us an additional $5-600 monthly when considering the car payment, parking and insurances.

So ultimately, for our family, DC was the right choice for purely financial reasons- as well as the added benefit of a short commute. DC walks to school- and its possible to bike/walk or take metro to work in less than 15 minutes.

(FYI- although we initially did this research when DC was a baby five years ago, we researched again before moving this December.)

The cost of a car is humongous. We also have one car and figure we will be able to retire five years early because of this. We also plan on using the free prek which is more money we can invest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving for 2 years of "free" daycare doesn't make much sense at all - what happens when the kids are in Kindergarten and above? What happens if the only school you can get into is 50% homeless kids? (Not that that can't be a good setting - just that it's not the same as daycare.) What if your kid doesn't do well in the much more structured DCPS setting? What if aftercare just sticks your kid in front of the TV for hours? What if the only decent school you lottery into adds 2 hrs to your day in commute time?

And more importantly, what if you get into NO decent school at all? There are many parents who don't get into any PK3 program at all. I seriously, seriously doubt you're going to be willing to move your family to say Petworth and then drive your kid to Anacostia where there is room for your preschooler.

This response is a bit ridiculous!

Do you even understand the DC schools and lottery?

I'm not the PP, but I understand the lottery just fine. Did the "many" parents who didn't get into any PK3 program list their in-bounds Petworth school? Powell and Barnard might be tricky, but Raymond traditionally accepts everyone. I actually don't know anyone who got shut out last year, because everyone put their in-bounds school on the list somewhere, in addition to every popular charter and dream DCPS.