Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 13:22     Subject: How far would you drive your child to school?
Check the specific school's before care and find out about the actual before care _availability_. You won't be able to get in the door outside of a few particular places before 8:15, esp. if DCPS. You won't get to work by 8:30 in SW and maybe to Tysons by 9:15.
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 13:19     Subject: Re:How far would you drive your child to school?
Ouch. OP, those numbers sound tough. Our school is 1 mile from our house and it can at times take 15 minutes (by car!) to get there sometimes. Rush hour traffic should not be underestimated. I wouldn't send my kid any further than 2 miles at the most, but I hate driving and traffic. A lot. Also, my kid often wants to walk to school and I really appreciate having that option.
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 13:17     Subject: Re:How far would you drive your child to school?
Anonymous wrote:OP here. So we live in SE and the schools on our list for the 2019/2020 school year (PreK-3) are between 5 and 13 miles from our home. Am I being unrealistic? Right now, I think that I will be fine with taking him across town to school, but when that time comes, I may not want to take the drive. I've googled the commute to and from each school and google maps is telling me that it could take anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes to get to them. Did I also mention that I work in Tyson's Corner?! One good thing is that daddy works in SW, but he has to be to work by 8:30 am. He could very well take our son to school, but what are the chances that he would get to work on time? I could also change my work hours from 9 to 5, but that means less time spent with my munchkin in the evenings. Either way, I have to finalize my list within the next couple of weeks.

I kind of feel like I'm making this harder than I should. Someone please talk me off of this ledge, my anxiety super high!!


Why do you have to finalize the list in a few weeks? Lottery is not even open yet and you have until March. Personally, as someone who lives in SE and also commutes to Tyson's, I would limit your schools to Cap Hill area schools, AppleTree, and Stokes EE area. The closer you stay to 695/395 (without going into the city more), the better. What part of SE are you in and what schools do you have on the list?
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 13:16     Subject: Re:How far would you drive your child to school?
Anonymous wrote:OP here. So we live in SE and the schools on our list for the 2019/2020 school year (PreK-3) are between 5 and 13 miles from our home. Am I being unrealistic? Right now, I think that I will be fine with taking him across town to school, but when that time comes, I may not want to take the drive. I've googled the commute to and from each school and google maps is telling me that it could take anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes to get to them. Did I also mention that I work in Tyson's Corner?! One good thing is that daddy works in SW, but he has to be to work by 8:30 am. He could very well take our son to school, but what are the chances that he would get to work on time? I could also change my work hours from 9 to 5, but that means less time spent with my munchkin in the evenings. Either way, I have to finalize my list within the next couple of weeks.

I kind of feel like I'm making this harder than I should. Someone please talk me off of this ledge, my anxiety super high!!


Tell us your IB and where you are looking. First, we can gauge whether you have a chance at some of them. Second, we can suggest routes or schools likely to have carpools from certain neighborhoods.
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 13:13     Subject: Re:How far would you drive your child to school?
Our commute to a charter is 15-20 min from home. The commute from my office to the school is closer to 25-30 minutes depending on time of day, but I don't do drop off or pick up so that's rarely an issue. The commute is fine, but I would not want it to be much further.
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 13:12     Subject: Re:How far would you drive your child to school?
OP here. So we live in SE and the schools on our list for the 2019/2020 school year (PreK-3) are between 5 and 13 miles from our home. Am I being unrealistic? Right now, I think that I will be fine with taking him across town to school, but when that time comes, I may not want to take the drive. I've googled the commute to and from each school and google maps is telling me that it could take anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes to get to them. Did I also mention that I work in Tyson's Corner?! One good thing is that daddy works in SW, but he has to be to work by 8:30 am. He could very well take our son to school, but what are the chances that he would get to work on time? I could also change my work hours from 9 to 5, but that means less time spent with my munchkin in the evenings. Either way, I have to finalize my list within the next couple of weeks.

I kind of feel like I'm making this harder than I should. Someone please talk me off of this ledge, my anxiety super high!!
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 13:02     Subject: Re:How far would you drive your child to school?
20 minutes each way for 8 years. Moving IB next year and will be so very happy.
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 12:58     Subject: Re:How far would you drive your child to school?
30 minutes to the school, that is easy peasy. It is the additional 30 to work and then 30 back to the school that kill me. Time goes very slowly when I don't have a little one in the car to chat with and NPR is running a never ending series of bad news Trump stories.
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 12:40     Subject: How far would you drive your child to school?
Here's the thing. If you start work at 9, drop off at 8:15-8:25 you can get to most places in DC. But when do you wake up to get there by 8:15? 6:30 too early?
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 12:39     Subject: How far would you drive your child to school?
DC takes metro to school, but by car the drive can take anywhere from :20 minutes to 1:00 hour, with almost completely unpredictable traffic. If we had to do that twice a day, it would be a hard no.
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 12:39     Subject: How far would you drive your child to school?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How far are you willing to travel to take your child to school? What's an acceptable commute time to you?


When applying for PK3, I initially thought commute time didn't matter much. I was willing to drive across town, as was my husband. However, as match day approached, I realized that I valued a short commute and a strong community feel more than a novel curriculum.

We ended up placing our IB--a short walk--at the top of the list. Have not regretted it, especially on winter weather days, when I can get to school without digging my car out.

I should say, however, that we are zoned for Deal/Wilson. Had we not had good middle and high school options, we may have been willing to drive a little farther.


PP again. Added bolded, as this ended up being more valuable than we initially realized.
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 12:36     Subject: How far would you drive your child to school?
We drive 25m in-sometimes 1hr out. Kinda crazy as we both WOH. Perfectly fine public would have been 2m walk to bus stop. School is better fit but time commitment out of our day-especially when just coming back to home office and time that adds
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 12:35     Subject: How far would you drive your child to school?
Anonymous wrote:How far are you willing to travel to take your child to school? What's an acceptable commute time to you?


When applying for PK3, I initially thought commute time didn't matter much. I was willing to drive across town, as was my husband. However, as match day approached, I realized that I valued a short commute more than a novel curriculum.

We ended up placing our IB--a short walk--at the top of the list. Have not regretted it, especially on winter weather days, when I can get to school without digging my car out.

I should say, however, that we are zoned for Deal/Wilson. Had we not had good middle and high school options, we may have been willing to drive a little farther.
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 12:34     Subject: How far would you drive your child to school?
drove 30 minutes to immersion charter
Anonymous
Post 11/27/2018 12:30     Subject: How far would you drive your child to school?
How far are you willing to travel to take your child to school? What's an acceptable commute time to you?