Move to DC for free pK3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That might be true for Raymond this year but what about for the (nonexistant) second kid? What if in the end Raymond is a bad fit? What if you don't want to send your kid to Raymond past K? What if you can't find an apartment zoned for Raymond? and etc.

At the end of the day, moving to DC with a small child puts you basically in the same position of the rest of us in trying to deal with the pk lottery - that is, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst with a backup plan of paying for daycare another year. So the concept of "moving to DC for free daycare" is basically laughable unless you have additional reasons to move.

This is ridiculous. First, OP is renting, not buying, so its easier to pick up and move districts if necessary. Second, there are still plenty of schools where you can get in IB and stay past K if you aren't narrow minded the way DCUM is. If you listen to this board, it's like Brent and Maury are the only DCPS schools outside of WTOP that are acceptable past K, which is completely untrue and laughable.

So OP is going to rent an apartment, move to the District, HOPE that she lotteries in to the local PK3? Sorry, bad plan. The PK3s where she's going to get in are not going to be places that she's guaranteed to find acceptable after K. So that pretty much means moving here for 2 years with the plan to move again ... or undertake a difficult commute. Which is not a crazy plan IF you have other reasons to want to live in DC. But as the only reason, it's pretty dumb.

Or OP could move to the Hill and send her kids to one of the Appletrees. If she puts down Appletree LP, Oklahoma Ave and SW down as safeties, the chances of her getting her kid into one of them is 100%.

Move to Navy Yard for guaranteed admission to Van Ness, which is newly remodeled. Good diversity in terms of SES and race.

http://www.myschooldc.org/faq/faqs/#post-lotto1

"Post-lottery applications will be added automatically to the bottom of the schools’ waitlists in the order they are received and below applicants who applied and were waitlisted through the lottery. The only exception to this is for applicants that qualify for a lottery preference, such as in-boundary, sibling enrolled, etc. For example, an applicant with an in-boundary preference will jump ahead of an applicant without an in-boundary preference on the waitlist regardless of when they applied."

So unless Van Ness completely fills up with only IB students, OP has a great chance of getting in even applying post-lotto if she moves IB for Van Ness.