Moving to the area -- advice on pre-k search
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Anonymous
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Hello all,
My family is moving to DC this year, probably in the summer. We'll have a 2 year old and a 4 year old, and we both work full time so will need all-day daycare/preschool for them both. Do you all have any wisdom or advice you can share for our daycare/preschool search? We have heard of insanely long wait lists, and of course the prices are all daunting, so I suppose I'm looking to hear realistically how soon we should be trying to get on these waitlists (now? is it too late already? or is it not that bad?) or whether there isn't a universal rule. What about suggestions for finding lists of individual daycares/preschools in certain areas? For reference, my wife will commute to the National Mall area but we'll need to live farther away due to cost. Maybe thinking Silver Spring or somewhere in VA like Falls Church(?)...but we really don't know. So I'm not asking for individual pre-k recommendations, but more "how would you go about finding a preschool in DC in the summer if you were to start right now"? Just found this forum online, looks super useful, I imagine we'll be spending a lot of time on it. Thanks! |
Anonymous
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First figure out where you are going to live. Pre-covid, traffic is insane and 11 miles may be a 1 hour commute.
Once, you figure your location. Start calling around and put deposits everywhere. You need to start this today. You may also want to look into nannies. |
Anonymous
| What is your housing budget? The Forest Glen area in MD has a number of good daycare center/home daycare/preschool options. |
Anonymous
Agree - figure out where you are going to live. And then come back to this forum for specific recommendations 
You can also start with the big franchise-type daycares/preschools - Bright Horizons and Goddard, for example. Search on their websites for a list of ones in this area. They aren't all equal, but it is a start. |
Anonymous
| If you are looking for a place close to work, Bambini's Federal Triangle location is right off the Mall (Ronald Reagan Building) and has immediate availability. |
Anonymous
| I agree that I would really focus on where you are going to live first. It’s much easier to have daycare near home so focus in on that. Once you know that, try to figure out the local neighborhood listserv and if there is a parent list serv for the neighborhood. Then post there asking for tips and any openings, recommendations for what is good and what to stay away from. While dcum can be good for some things, I actually think specific daycare recs is not it’s strength. I would try to get local recs foe that. I think MD still has more restrictions on how big classrooms can be due to covid though I could be wrong, but I don’t think that is the case where I am in va (though of course they are trying to keep classes small most places I know) but I say that to say that at least in VA the long wait lists seem a little different now. Sooo many peoples plans changed, things just aren’t how they were and there seems to be a lot more movement. If you end up in falls church, Columbia baptist might be a good consideration though there is one person on this board that seems to have a bone to pick with them recently, but I haven’t heard anything negative from an actual non-anonymous person and it usually has had a good reputation and has great playgrounds. |
Anonymous
When does your 2 YO turn 3? If before September 30th you can get both into DCPS PK- might be more to live in DC but could make it back in free PK |
Anonymous
So this is something I've wondered. Right now my 2 YO is actually a 1 YO but will be 2 in the summer. So DCPS PK is out for that one. But my 3 YO who will be a 4 YO -- would DCPS PK be an option? Somewhere I read that it's a lottery system based on where you live. Since we don't have a DC address (yet) I assume we can't get into the system at all. I'd love to be wrong, because it would open up more housing options. |
Anonymous
| If either of you is going to be a Fed then you can apply for your agency daycares. |
Anonymous
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Caveats: I only know Virginia. Thus is my view. YMMV. So my response is mostly scoped to Virginia.
0. The post office names for a location do NOT follow the legal Boundaries for incorporated towns (e.g., Vienna) and cities (Falls Church) in N VA. Many localities (e.g., McLean) are actually unincorporated parts of the county. Unless your housing budget is $1M+ and you can live west of Rock Creek Park in DC, the DC public schools are a disaster (ranked st the bottom with Alabama and Mississippi as bottom 3 nationally). 1. There are multiple active threads right now on daycare and/or preschool options in Falls Church, Arlington, and McLean. I would read all (4 or 5) of those threads. 2. Traffic here is among the 3-4 worst metro areas in the country - when not in a pandemic. If working at/near the national mall, I likely would pick housing which is convenient to MetroRail, even if I drove to work initially. Bridges across the Potomac are severe choke points normally and traffic in/out/thru Tysons often is at a snail's pace. I think 101 in SFBA is worse tgsn here, but 280 in SFBA is better than here. 3. I would select a location to live first - based on a combination of budget, house/apt preference, MetroRail access, and school quality. There are exceptions, but FC city, and either Fairfax County or Arlington County mostly have good schools. For either county, schools are more uniformly good north of I-66. Avoid houses in the "South Lakes HS" zone in Reston. Orange line and Silver line are good options into downtown DC. 4. Horror stories about waiting lists at daycare are mostly true. Now is not too early to get on waiting lists, which usually requires an upfront non-refundable application fee. Covid has made this worse as some daycares and some preschools have closed. 5. Fed agency daycares vary widely in quality and availability. Many agencies fo not have a daycare arrangement at all. Wait lists are common even at agency hosted daycares. Do not count on this being workable if you are a Fed. Investigate details for your situation. Good luck ! 6. |
Anonymous
| What’s your budget? Everything will depend on this. |
Anonymous
| This is all good advice. If you are going to be here for public school I would pick based on school district and at least elementary school. I only know VA and prefer Arlington and Falls Church City based on schools and proximity to DC. Pick there and then come back and ask about PreK and daycare. |
Anonymous
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Thanks all for the advice. Since several people have asked, I'm working on refining a budget for housing, and of course it depends somewhat on the cost daycare. Ballpark let's say 550k, and we're definitely doing public schools for K-12. Not a Fed. Let me know if that changes any recommendations.
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