niave question about DC NW public schools

[Anonymous]

I was under the perhaps false assumption that children who live in boundary automatically got into their school. We're new to the area and looking at buying in Tenleytown (Janney) or Chevy Chase (Lafayette). So, from taking a brief look at this forum it looks like you have to apply to the public schools around here? What if you don't get in and can't afford private school?

[Anonymous]

I believe you get in automatically for K and up but not for pre-K (due to the limited number of spots available).

[Anonymous]

PP is correct. You are guaranteed a spot at your neighborhood school for K-12. In pre-K, however, there is a lottery if there are not enough spots (which is the case for all the upper northwest schools, I think). If you want to go to a different school than your neighborhood school, you can apply to other schools out-of-boundary.

[Anonymous]

Worth nothing that for PreK some school are easier to get a spot than others. Despite the initial waitlist, all in- boundary preK kids usually seem to get into Key and Lafayette by the beginning of the school year. But for Murch, Janney and Mann I don't think that's the case.

[Anonymous]

Before buying, you can verify the boundary by entering a specific address at a site linked to the official DCPS home page. Here's the link.

http://dcatlas.dcgis.dc.gov/schools/

Thanks to this tool, we avoided making a BIG purchasing mistake. A realtor told us a house we liked (not loved) was in-boundary for our first choice school. It turned out to be on the WRONG SIDE OF THE STREET for in-boundary. Thank goodness my DC-based MIL told us about the site and the whole in-out boundary system.

OP-I don't think your question is naive at all!

[Anonymous]

PP good point- the house across the street from me is one school and we're another - I had no idea the house went on the market and I went to the open house.