Reply to I hate the advantage people with multiple kids have in the school lottery

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Reply to "I hate the advantage people with multiple kids have in the school lottery"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]And yet, every family goes through this. How do you think the first kid of multi-sibling family gets in??[/quote]

They go through it in PK for their first but most families with multiple kids can exercise the advantage by the time their oldest is in 1st or 2nd since most families have kids within 3-4 years of each other. But if you have one kid and strike out in PK then each year after that you will be trying to get into a better school in the lottery and you might lose out to kids with siblings each year. Also families with siblings can pull kids in going both directions so it still benefits the older kids even if not in PK.

So no -- not everyone has the same experience. Having multiple kids in the system is a definite advantage and only becomes more so the older your kids get (and given the challenges with middle school in most of the city that might be the biggest advantage of all -- [b]look at how many spots at the Latins and BASIS go to siblings in that 5th grade lottery[/b]).[/quote]

Yes, but the point that the PP above this is making is that all those siblings that get in to Latin or BASIS or wherever else, are getting in because at some point a kid in that family got in without sibling preference.  And they got into the school even though some of the available spots in that year went to people who had sibling preference at that time.

And yes, of course not everyone has the same experience.  In fact people have wildly different experiences.  Some of these experiences are made better or easier by having more than one kid, and some of these experiences are made worse or harder by having more than one kid.  But the bolded sentence makes it seem like you don't understand the lottery.[/quote]

I totally agree that in many respects, the older sibling has equal chances to an only.

There is one exception that I've seen play out many times -- families who want a spot at a Deal or Hardy feeder (who live out of bounds) are often able to eventually get one, and the sibling (either older or younger) pulls the other one in. this actually happened to us (though we didn't accept), and I know many other families this happened to. An only probably also would have gotten in at some point, but the siblings have double the chances to get in every year. [/quote]

It's not an exception -- it's one of the main ways sibling preference works. Older kids lotterying into upper elementary grades where there tend to be more spots frequently pull in younger kids who otherwise would need a very good lottery number to get a spot in PK-1st. This is a common occurrence at not only Deal and Hardy feeders but also the more desirable Hill elementaries (all that attrition in 3rd through 5th due to middle school angst helps lots of OOB families with multiple kids score K and 1st and even sometimes PK spots at places where it is otherwise impossible to lottery in without a tippy top lottery number). Also common at DCI feeders for anyone willing to move a kid into an immersion program after 2nd or 3rd. And so on.

Families with multiple kids are really only in the same boat as parents of onlies for those initial PK lotteries. And yes if they "win" in those lotteries it benefits their younger kids. But also if they "lose" in those lotteries they will have future lotteries where they will have 2 or more kids rolling the dice and if just one of those kids scores a good number at a desirable school then all their other kids benefit regardless of age. Sure the oldest might have spent early grades at a school the family doesn't love but even that kid stands a better chance at spending their upper elementary years at a school the family is happy with and definitely has much better chances at any middle school that requires a specific feeder school.

As for Latin and BASIS -- while it's true that any family has to "get lucky" with their oldest kid in order to get that sibling preference as a practical matter the *system* of sibling preference essentially eliminates half the spots at those schools. Which makes it harder for everyone including people with multiple kids. I think there are genuine questions to be raised especially for middle schools and high schools (the vast majority of kids at Latin and BASIS get there on their own so it is not a question of making it easier for families for "drop off" which is the most common explanation for the sibling preference). I know people would melt down if they got rid of it for those levels but there's a decent policy argument in favor of it.[/quote]

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