PS And for those who say Potomac is as good as any school in DC or Maryland I agree but I heard it's impossible to get into. :/

this is OP...this is for kindergarten...just wondering whether we shouldn't start down a path and regret it later haha

SSSAS and Potomac are just as good as any schoo in DC or Maryland

The schools in DC are much better than the schools in VA, except maybe the Potomac School. It is tempting to drive in for that reason alone. We did it for years for one kid middle through high school. The younger 2 kids stayed local until high school. I strongly recommend a local k-8 and then DC schools for high school or moving into DC. High school is fine because they can drive themselves for 2 years and they have their own social life. However, the younger years are tough because friends are all over the DMV and they rely 100% on you for transportation. Just my experience. We live in Alexandria.

Anonymous wrote:Big difference between Arlington and Reston to DC.

As I kid I commuted from Reston to NWDC private and HATED it.

I’ll be honest. It can kind of suck and is a huge commitment so definitely something to weigh and factor. We’re doing it for four years for high school through a combination of school busing in the morning, Metro after school, and some driving. I wouldn’t want do it with younger kids or if I didn’t have a really flexible work schedule.

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind private schools have lots of early dismissal days, extra days off, and special events for which one parent or the other will have to take time off work. It’s hard if both parents have inflexible schedules.

Not at all compared to public schools. I have 3 in private and one in public. The public has 3 times as many closed days, early dismissals, etc. the private has longer breaks but that’s it

Big difference between Arlington and Reston to DC.

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind private schools have lots of early dismissal days, extra days off, and special events for which one parent or the other will have to take time off work. It’s hard if both parents have inflexible schedules.

That has been the opposite experience for us. We didn't even have snow days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind private schools have lots of early dismissal days, extra days off, and special events for which one parent or the other will have to take time off work. It’s hard if both parents have inflexible schedules.

We actually have the opposite experience, Arlington public schools had so many more early dismissals, and extra days off than our private school in DC.

we drive because it takes us just as long to get to the closest shuttle stop for our chludrens school and then they would still have another 15 minute commute to the school, which doesn’t make sense. There are times when there is traffic across 9 and that’s a pain and there’s really no close metro stop but it just becomes your new normal.

We do from Arlington but for HS. Takes ~16-17 minutes, but it’s DC so that could be 40 depending on traffic on a really bad day. We looked at it as only a 2 year issue since kid can drive themselves junior year. No brainer for us on that calculus. Agree that APS schedule is 1000x worse than our private on random early releases/days off.

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind private schools have lots of early dismissal days, extra days off, and special events for which one parent or the other will have to take time off work. It’s hard if both parents have inflexible schedules.

We actually have the opposite experience, Arlington public schools had so many more early dismissals, and extra days off than our private school in DC.

we drive because it takes us just as long to get to the closest shuttle stop for our chludrens school and then they would still have another 15 minute commute to the school, which doesn’t make sense. There are times when there is traffic across 9 and that’s a pain and there’s really no close metro stop but it just becomes your new normal.

Keep in mind private schools have lots of early dismissal days, extra days off, and special events for which one parent or the other will have to take time off work. It’s hard if both parents have inflexible schedules.

How old are the kids in question?

A middle or high schooler who can take the metro or hang out in the school library? No problem! A 1st grader with a rigid pick-up time ... yeah, that would be another story.

What age are kids? There are private transportation services contracted for some schools.

how hard is it when you have two working parents w/ tight schedules to do drop off/pick up? is it even workable? do you hate it on a daily basis?