How far would you drive your child to school?

[Anonymous]

We tried a longer commute to a school from PK3 last year (about 20 minutes from our house on a good traffic day and not on the way to work). It was a soul crushing. It led to long days for my child at school with before care and after care AND consequently limited face time with my child's teachers. The commute to the school and back was unpredictable and I was exhausted and angry with the daily road antics I would witness.

Beyond the list shared by a PP, I have heard decent things about Eagle Academy PK3 and PK4 that should be moving somewhat closer to you. Also, TRY is fairly accessible to Ward 7 and 8 families and is near 295.

[Anonymous]

I have two kids, so we had to strategize and come up with a creative solution to handle the double drop-offs and our work commutes. I agree that it should be part of your decision criteria on ranking schools, but for the right school for many working professionals (not sure what your job situation is) there are also workarounds like carpools, hiring someone to do the pick-up/drop-off, telecommuting certain days, etc..

[Anonymous]

3 minutes max on driving. We live in 10 minute walking distance of school, by design. When we changed schools, we moved homes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

This was my feeling, too. It's preschool. There's just no school that was worth the tradeoff to me. It's not just the commute time, per se, it's what you give up when you have that kind of commute in terms of free time, time for your kid to play and move, etc. I'd rather keep my kid in daycare than tack on a 30-minute commute to school. Unless it's on your way to work, I don't think it's worth it.

[Anonymous]

Commute matters a lot (drove 30+ min for daycare and won't do it again) so I'm not listing any schools that are more than 2 miles away, preferences being <1. However, this works to my benefit considering my location.

[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?

About 45-50 minutes. On other days she would take the T2 bus from Friendship Heights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Commute matters a lot (drove 30+ min for daycare and won't do it again) so I'm not listing any schools that are more than 2 miles away, preferences being <1. However, this works to my benefit considering my location.

I agree with this. 2 miles from home was our limit, with a possible exception for schools that are right on a commute route. It‘s your life, but I would look much closer to home, OP. Unless you have the means and will to move closer to a school if you decide you like it. You could be tied to this school for 8+ years...

[Anonymous]

I wonder if all of these people saying they wouldn’t drive 20-30 minutes, live in a good school boundary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if all of these people saying they wouldn’t drive 20-30 minutes, live in a good school boundary.

Yes, but only because we prioritize school and commute over housing (ours is pretty shoddy).

[Anonymous]

40 minutes to public magnet HS in MD. Worth it in my opinion. DC is thriving and very happy in the STEM program.

[Anonymous]

I have joint 50/50 custody. On my days, I commute about 40 minutes into the city in the morning and about an hour out of the city in the evenings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if all of these people saying they wouldn’t drive 20-30 minutes, live in a good school boundary.

My IB isn’t too hot, but there are lots of charter options nearby. Like another poster mentioned, I prioritized schools and commute over housing when we purchased.

[Anonymous]

I’d definitely limit to schools within 15 minutes of your house or 5 minutes off your commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if all of these people saying they wouldn’t drive 20-30 minutes, live in a good school boundary.

No. Combination of lottery, being willing to consider a wide variety of schools, and prioritizing time over getting into the "best" school.

[Anonymous]

I think you need to understand your own family dynamics. For us, as a two-parent working family with two kids, we knew we could not handle a long commute for school. We live in a modest house in DC - could have afforded a lot more house way out of the city somewhere but we decided that it was more important to have a shorter commute each day and commute was a factor for us in choosing schools. The shorter the better. And, no, we are not in fancy Ward 3. We are in a Title I, majority black/Brown School and we are very happy. And our kids are upper elementary.