Anonymous wrote:In our Upper NW school (Murch), we usually actually lose 3-4 kids per child's class/year. Since there are 5 classes for each of the younger grades, I'd guess that would amount to 15-20 kids per year per grade PK-K-1. That estimate may be a bit high overall, but the number of kids leaving is noticeable.
We've seen students leave for a number of reasons:
- Murch is fed by some large apartment buildings, and we've seen kids move when their parents bought houses in other areas inside/outside of the city
- A number of the foreign students are only in the U.S. for 3-5 years (embassies, World Bank/IMF, foreign service, etc.). This has been pretty consistent over the past 3 years and there are quite a few kids in this category (international or with parents who are regularly relocated)
- A few kids peel off to privates each year
- Divorce
We were just talking about this with our kids this evening - how it's sad when their friends move and how we know that some will only be around for a couple more years at most.
I think that is a little high; I'd say it's more like 5-10 kids/grade/year (so, 5-10%).
The top three reasons you offer are the ones I've observed, as well. Not so much divorce; I haven't seen any kids leave Murch for that reason in the five years we've been there--in fact, the couple of families I know who've gone through divorce have kept their kids at Murch even after one parent moved to Maryland.