We are in PG County and don’t have any good options. We did a school in Alexandria for K-3 and that was 25 min no traffic. Now we do DC and its 35-40 or even up to 45 minutes. We make use of the car time and it has been worth it.

We only have not so great religious based private near us and the public schools are horrible. On her dance days, she does homework club at school and we go to dance from school.

Ours is a three minute drive and in our immediate neighborhood. All of the schools we considered were less than 15 minutes away.

1/2 hour max

15 minutes

It’s not just daily school - it’s being part of a community, after school activities, sports, etc

It's like six blocks away.

15 minutes. Our commute ended up being 10.

We only applied to the two schools within 10 minutes of our house. If there were not schools within 10 minutes I suppose I would have a different answer! But in general, I do not think a commute is worth it.

This is a lot like how far people are willing to commute to a job- very different preferences. I never commuted more than 15 mins and I wouldn’t expect my kids to. Obviously plenty of people commute an hour but I would never do that. We got a house in the neighborhood of our private elementary so we were walkable. High schools we considered were 10-20 mins away. We toured some farther away but I took them off the table for applying. But that’s what works for me. DD’s friends applied and are going to those schools but 30+ minutes was too much for me. Not an issue for their families.

Depending on traffic, 25-45 minutes. No big deal - if they were in public, school starts at 7:20 and the bus would come 6:45am and school would end at 1:20 so for me, it’s worth it for especially for a traditional schedule of 8:30-3:15

Under 10 minutes for elementary school. We didn’t look farther than that. Won’t have that option for high school. We’ll consider up to an hour away, but only if it turns out there’s a dream school that far out.

We live 5 minutes away.

25 minutes max

30 minutes is ideal.

They (ES, HS, MS) would all be the same, and it would depend more on how stressful the drive is and not just the actual time spent. I drive 15 minutes and the drive is fun, just time listening to an audiobook or chatting with DD. But there is no traffic and not a lot of lefts. I would drive probably up to 25 minutes if the drive was easy.

So, for a daily commute, how far did you cast “the next” for your child and what is their commute to the ideal school you found for them? Distance at the ES level? MS or HS?