Is there a way to get my son into a school other than our assigned ES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Through legal means, no.

This is simply not true. You can request a different school if you meet established criteria.

Correct, but "I read on the internet that the school is majority Black/brown" is not one of the established criteria.

I mean, can you imagine the OP trying to fill out the COSA form and having that reviewed by the (majority Black) central office folks?

OP here- just going through the comments and my child is Black. I would love for him to go to a very diverse school. The issue I foresee is him not being able to communicate with peers like he would anywhere else. He is moving cross country (very hard for a sensitive 9 yr old) and doesn’t know anyone, the last thing I want is for him to not be able to make friends because the whole school speaks Spanish to one another at free times. The majority Spanish speaking schools in CA ARE like that.

I work at a demographically comparable school in another district and English dominates on the playground, even among kids who have parents who speak almost no English

+1 There's this myth that Spanish speakers are unique from every other wave of immigrant, but my experience is that waves of immigrants are pretty similar. My grandmother spoke mostly Italian and went to mass 4 times a week until the day she died, but my dad grew up as American as baseball and Ford Mustangs. He certainly wasn't speaking Italian on the playground.

[Anonymous]

Look anecdotal evidence may not be enough for some of you but my nephew was sent to another Title I school in the county because it had a special education program that was deemed a better fit for him. It was a terrible experience for him. He was one of the only white children in the school and yes, he was bullied by other kids and no he did not speak Spanish. He was so glad to go back to his neighborhood middle school for 6th grade. He told me that he did not make a single friend while at the elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look anecdotal evidence may not be enough for some of you but my nephew was sent to another Title I school in the county because it had a special education program that was deemed a better fit for him. It was a terrible experience for him. He was one of the only white children in the school and yes, he was bullied by other kids and no he did not speak Spanish. He was so glad to go back to his neighborhood middle school for 6th grade. He told me that he did not make a single friend while at the elementary school.

Your anecdote isn’t any more or less valid than the others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you bought a house anywhere inside the beltway (East or west) or in Churchill, Wootton, or WJ, your elementary school is probably totally fine no matter the great schools.

As long as you're at one of the good schools, it's fine, but those bad schools are just not the same. That's why people pay hundreds of thousands more for their homes in the good pyramids!

[Anonymous]

OP, my kid is black/white biracial (FWIW, I’m the AA parent) and attended a DCC middle. She’s headed to HS next year. Her friends spoke 20 different languages at home. At school, everyone spoke English.

[Anonymous]

OP here- we have not signed the lease, thankfully. It looks like someone did a very nice remodel on the house we were looking to rent so it made it very appealing. Large yard for our two dogs, garage, etc. But with the comments on this thread, we’ll probably be looking elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Haven’t read all the comments, but it is really easy to attend a non-neighborhood school in MoCo.

We know of several families that have done this.

See if you can find a friend who lives in a different cluster and just use their address.

MCPS is very lax about cracking down on residency fraud so it’s easy to get away with this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- we have not signed the lease, thankfully. It looks like someone did a very nice remodel on the house we were looking to rent so it made it very appealing. Large yard for our two dogs, garage, etc. But with the comments on this thread, we’ll probably be looking elsewhere.

You may want to try an experiment, OP. Find a school where the majority of kids look like your son. Ask this board what people think of the school. Then ask yourself if this is really the best echo chamber to ask about schools that are majority kids of color.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here- we have not signed the lease, thankfully. It looks like someone did a very nice remodel on the house we were looking to rent so it made it very appealing. Large yard for our two dogs, garage, etc. But with the comments on this thread, we’ll probably be looking elsewhere.

You may want to try an experiment, OP. Find a school where the majority of kids look like your son. Ask this board what people think of the school. Then ask yourself if this is really the best echo chamber to ask about schools that are majority kids of color.

Wasn’t this board the one promoting diversity in schools? It goes both ways. You need diversity. It doesn’t mean avoiding a single ethnic group but looking for a good racial mix of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m familiar with Weller Road.

It’s 83% Hispanic, 7% Black, and less than 5% white. It’s not a diverse school; it’s a school where nearly the entire student body and staff speak Spanish. I can’t think of another school like it.

How do I know it? I grew up nearby and still cut through the neighborhood when visiting my parents.

And—here’s the kicker—my neighbor’s Latina nanny lives in that school district and uses her employer’s (my neighbor’s) address to send her kids to school in our area. Why? Her words: “Because I don’t want my kids going to a Spanish school. I want them to be around other kids.”

I’m curious where you’re renting, OP? Have you researched the local area at all?

BTW, it’s literally the COVID hot spot: 20906.

If you have questions, I’m happy to answer.

THANK YOU! So much for this info! It’s exactly what I was looking for someone who knows, to validate.

To validate the conclusion you had already drawn.

[Anonymous]

OP, what's your budget and where are you working? There are lots of great downcounty ESes that are in more reasonably priced areas than Bethesda. If it's only for ES and the high school cluster doesnt matter, you may have tons of options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here- we have not signed the lease, thankfully. It looks like someone did a very nice remodel on the house we were looking to rent so it made it very appealing. Large yard for our two dogs, garage, etc. But with the comments on this thread, we’ll probably be looking elsewhere.

You may want to try an experiment, OP. Find a school where the majority of kids look like your son. Ask this board what people think of the school. Then ask yourself if this is really the best echo chamber to ask about schools that are majority kids of color.

My child IS a POC. I would love him to go to a school of all backgrounds. Just don’t want him to be one of few in the entire school who speaks English. I am from San Diego, I know how it is at schools with majority ESL kids, and my son would not fit in that’s a guarantee. Talk about a shock as a fourth grader who is an only child moving to a place he knows no one, then putting him in a school where he would be hard pressed to find other kids speaking English at recess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are moving from CA where it is relatively easy to get your child into a school in a different neighborhood. I don’t love what I have read about our assigned school and want to look into other options. Is there a such thing as getting him into the school near my job, for transportation reasons? Thank you!

Yes, you can do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, what's your budget and where are you working? There are lots of great downcounty ESes that are in more reasonably priced areas than Bethesda. If it's only for ES and the high school cluster doesnt matter, you may have tons of options.

Rental market is slim pickings right now. Our top is 3,200 with at least a small yard and 2-3 bedroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- we have not signed the lease, thankfully. It looks like someone did a very nice remodel on the house we were looking to rent so it made it very appealing. Large yard for our two dogs, garage, etc. But with the comments on this thread, we’ll probably be looking elsewhere.

Or rent the house and send your kid to St. Jude's Catholic School down the road.