Anonymous wrote:We're moving to the district early summer and need help trying to navigate getting two kids in prek (3 and 4). Any recommendations for a consultant or do you know if the system is at all flexible on the proof of residence for the May enrollment date?

You don't need a consultant. The system isn't that complicated, plus a consultant won't be able to give shortcuts or offer special access - that's not legal.

Call the MySchoolDC hotline. It's helpful and it's free:
202-888-6336

Anonymous wrote:Do not get a consultant. Waste of money for a tiny kid. Ask your realtor which neighborhoods have PreK3 (not all do.) Ask them to recommend top 4-5 neighborhoods for good elementary schools. Buy in the area you can best afford. Wait 2-3 years and see if you feel like you need to move. Life has enough things you need to sink time into without doing it now. Spend the extra time fighting autocracy. Your children will thank you more for that.

I would say about a 1% chance your realtor has any useful information beyond just move to a JKLMM.

Anonymous wrote:Do not get a consultant. Waste of money for a tiny kid. Ask your realtor which neighborhoods have PreK3 (not all do.) Ask them to recommend top 4-5 neighborhoods for good elementary schools. Buy in the area you can best afford. Wait 2-3 years and see if you feel like you need to move. Life has enough things you need to sink time into without doing it now. Spend the extra time fighting autocracy. Your children will thank you more for that.

Realtor can't tell you what schools are good and may not understand how pk3 works. Also even if they move somewhere that has it, they missed the lottery for 25-26. And don't buy anything if you think you might want to move in 2-3 years.

Do not get a consultant. Waste of money for a tiny kid. Ask your realtor which neighborhoods have PreK3 (not all do.) Ask them to recommend top 4-5 neighborhoods for good elementary schools. Buy in the area you can best afford. Wait 2-3 years and see if you feel like you need to move. Life has enough things you need to sink time into without doing it now. Spend the extra time fighting autocracy. Your children will thank you more for that.

If starting a lease in April or May saves you from paying two preschool tuitions next year, it could be a bargain.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're moving to the district early summer and need help trying to navigate getting two kids in prek (3 and 4). Any recommendations for a consultant or do you know if the system is at all flexible on the proof of residence for the May enrollment date?

I don't think you are going to get a high-quality free PK spot after the lottery. If I were you, I would look at private preschools.

Next year's you'll get both of them until their IB for sure (K are always accepted and your younger child will have sibling preference for a PK spot.)

It's helpful to realize that free PK is not a given or a right... It's a special offering that is available only by lottery.

There are schools that waitlist in-bound kids for pk4 even with siblings enrolled. And your older kid won't be enrolled for k when they run the next lottery. So at some schools it won't be a guarantee for next year either. But that's a problem for next year.

You may have more luck with post lottery applications at schools that only offer prek. They tend to have short wait lists and there are no inbounds kids. They would be Appletree (many locations), Military Road, and Stevens (not Francis Stevens). But you will still need to prove DC residency to enroll.

Anonymous wrote:We're moving to the district early summer and need help trying to navigate getting two kids in prek (3 and 4). Any recommendations for a consultant or do you know if the system is at all flexible on the proof of residence for the May enrollment date?

I don't think you are going to get a high-quality free PK spot after the lottery. If I were you, I would look at private preschools.

Next year's you'll get both of them until their IB for sure (K are always accepted and your younger child will have sibling preference for a PK spot.)

It's helpful to realize that free PK is not a given or a right... It's a special offering that is available only by lottery.

If you're looking for this Fall, you're only going to be able to choose from schools in the post lottery round. You may want to start looking at private preschools to see who has space/is still enrolling.

Anonymous wrote:There is a woman who runs such a "consultancy". I will NOT give out her name because she is selling nothing but her opinions on schools from 15 years ago, before the common lottery existed.

This. We had to present to her about our IB school. Parents of TWO YEAR OLDS knew more than she did.

Anonymous wrote:There is a woman who runs such a "consultancy". I will NOT give out her name because she is selling nothing but her opinions on schools from 15 years ago, before the common lottery existed.

I imagine once upon a time when you needed to get in line in the middle of the night to get a desirable spot, it could have been useful to have a consultant to make a game plan.

I don't know how many are out there now, but I met one consultant at an open house, and felt her ideas were outdated and biased. It was slightly reassuring that she was bothering to attend the open house to get more info, especially at a school that's not DCUM popular.

There is a woman who runs such a "consultancy". I will NOT give out her name because she is selling nothing but her opinions on schools from 15 years ago, before the common lottery existed.

Anonymous wrote:We're moving to the district early summer and need help trying to navigate getting two kids in prek (3 and 4). Any recommendations for a consultant or do you know if the system is at all flexible on the proof of residence for the May enrollment date?

I don't see how a consultant would help in this situation. You missed the lottery. You can look at the "schools with short waitlists" list they'll publish at https://www.myschooldc.org/ after results come out at the end of the month and go from there. You won't have a ton of choices post-lottery; probably just apply wherever is the shortest commute? You might also be able to get into a CBO: https://www.myschooldc.org/find-schools/school-options-outside-my-school-dc but it sounds like funding for PKEEP is still up in the air for the next school year.

Anonymous wrote:We're moving to the district early summer and need help trying to navigate getting two kids in prek (3 and 4). Any recommendations for a consultant or do you know if the system is at all flexible on the proof of residence for the May enrollment date?

I don’t know of anyone that has used a consultant but somethings that would be helpful to start off with are:

Do you know what neighborhood you’re moving to?
What are those in boundary schools?
Do your own research knowing your kids to see what you think would be the best overall good fit.
Do you want to do post lottery or look into DC charter schools?
Sounds like a lot but it can be done without a consultant, I think.

You would definitely need proof of DC residency to enroll at any point in time!
Also be advised to take all info given on here with a grain of salt. Mainly why I said, make sure to do a good amount of your own research on the schools!

Good luck and (early) welcome to you!

You need a DC address to enter the lottery but it can be any address. If you match in boundary to a DCPS school you need proof of residency in that boundary to enroll by the deadline. If it’s a charter you just need a DC address. You will need to plan to have housing settled by the deadline.

My School DC runs the lottery and is super helpful if you call them.

We're moving to the district early summer and need help trying to navigate getting two kids in prek (3 and 4). Any recommendations for a consultant or do you know if the system is at all flexible on the proof of residence for the May enrollment date?