How are they going to enforce the sibling enrolled preference policy?
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Anonymous
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I'm not proposing vigilante justice or trying to figure out how to cheat the system, but I'd like to know how this may work to see how our local school waitlist may move. As background, with the My School DC lottery, the younger sibling of a kid entering K or above can get sibling enrolled preference for the lottery into their inbounds preschool whether or not the older child already attends the school.
Here are some scenarios: - Big Sis already attends Desirable DCPS but lotteries into Immersion Charter. Little Bro gets a PS3 spot at Desirable DCPS due to sibling preference but is waitlisted at Immersion Charter. Parents of Big Sis and Little Bro want to just register Little Bro at Desirable DCPS. Can they do this without re-enrolling Big Sis? - What will happen to Little Bro if parents re-enroll Big Sis at Desirable DCPS and enroll Little Bro at the same time then enroll her at Immersion Charter just before the deadline (thereby unenrolling her from Desirable DCPS.) Does Little Bro get to stay at Desirable DCPS? - Let's say parents enroll both Big Sis and Little Bro at Desirable DCPS. Big Sis then gets off the waitlist at Expensive Private School during the summer. Does Little Bro get to stay at Desirable DCPS? - Let's say Big Sis and Little Bro just moved into the Desirable DCPS school zone and Little Bro entered the preschool lottery with sibling enrolled preference but ends up on the waitlist near the top due to sibling preference. Big Sis gets into 3rd grade at Immersion Charter and enrolls there. Does Little Bro go farther down the waitlist because Big Sis never enrolls or does he stay near the top? Any ideas? I'm sure some of this will be school judgement calls, but I'm wondering if there are set policies. |
Anonymous
| I would love to know the answer to this. I know two families who got into Peabody PK3 with a sibling enrolled preference and neither of them are actually planning on sending their older child to Watkins for 1st grade. (You get the preference if you have a kid at Peabody, Watkins or Stuart Hobson). Seems like blatant cheating. |
Anonymous
We were told younger kid could lose their spot if older kid enrolled in different school. |
Anonymous
| Our charter has been messaging that the reenrollment period is the same (4/1-5/1) as registration for new kids. And that the 5/1 deadline is real. Not sure of this is happening everywhere. If parents were forced to enroll by 5/1 it could address some, not all, of the issues above. |
Anonymous
| In a similar situation. From what I understood all roads lead to losing spot for younger son if the school was inclined to stick to the rules. At my HRCS I'm certain they would have. |
Anonymous
That would certainly address an older child accepted elsewhere in the lottery with a sibling accepted at older child's school. It wouldn't address a situation where older child actually completes enrollment, resulting in younger child having the status of "sibling enrolled" and then unenrolls upon receiving a seat at another school post-enrollment deadline. I really don't think this is going to happen regularly enough to make a policy about it. I know that it might be a real issue at some schools (Brent comes to mind), but I feel like the status a certain applicant is given in the lottery is based on their status at that time and at enrollment. I would be inclined to treat it the same as an IB family being admitted with that preference and then moving outside the boundary at some point after providing residency. The rule about that now is that the child can finish the school year, but then must reapply as an out of bounds student the following year. It would make sense to me to treat the "sibling enrolled" situation the same way. |
Anonymous
| I think there isn't reason you had to create a 'family' account with my school DC. If that system is updated it should catch kids who were enrolled and whose status changed (eg withdrew from DCPS). Whether any younger sibs are kicked out remains to be seen. |
Anonymous
| is a reason - not isn't a reason. |
Anonymous
I'm the quoted PP. In the case of both families they are planning to do private so I'm not sure how DCPS is going to catch that. At least not in time to boot the younger sibling. |
Anonymous
PP again. To clarify, these are families that were enrolled last year in K at Peabody. |
Anonymous
| Well at some point private schools will need to request records from the previous school ... |
Anonymous
But "IB with sibling enrolled" doesn't mean "IB with sibling enrolled who intends to reenroll next year." School enrollment is not permanent. Can a PK3 child who has a sibling in 5th grade have that preference taken away from them because their older sibling matriculates to middle school? I understand that people are concerned about other families gaming the system, but what do you expect, that people who have an older child enrolled at a school only list the sibling enrolled preference if they are 100% sure that the sibling will be remaining at the school? It seems like the only way to enforce that would be to only list "IB with sibling enrolled" for applicants whose older sibling did not enter the lottery at all, since that would be a way to demonstrate that the enrolled student is not considering other options. |
Anonymous
| But there's always private, and entering the lottery to see what your options are shouldn't be considered a bad thing. |
Anonymous
| Let's be realistic here-School administration really doesn't have the time to enforce this. It will happen. |
Anonymous
Isn't the whole point of sibling preference that parents have a logistically easier time having children at one school. If older sibling matriculates to another school, why would the preference at the sibling's former elementary school remain? |