We are inbound for Ludlow and did not get in for PK3 or PK4.

OP, an extremely relevant question is how important public PK is for you, and whether you would be willing to pay for daycare/private PK if you don't get into one of your preferred schools (which, with your current list, is a real possibility).

Also, if you are IB for Maury, you can go there at K regardless. Is that okay with you or are you trying to lottery into a PK and then stay at that school longterm? Maury is a great school, though some people don't like the MS feed.

I can't answer that stuff for you, but I would consider the following schools, all of which would be perfectly good for PK (the first 3 would be fine beyond PK, TBH, though you would probably still prefer Maury at that point):

J.O. Wilson
Two Rivers (both campuses)
Capital Hill Montessori
Miner
Wheatley

If you have some flexibility on commute, these would also be viable options:

Stokes East End (Spanish and French programs)
Van Ness
Langley

Again, if you just need a program to get you through PK until you can have your guaranteed slot at Maury for K, you might be willing to do an annoying commute for a couple years. It's just PK. You are in a great situation because you are IB for a good elementary school. You just need a PK, and pretty much all the PKs in DCPS are fine. A lot of people are in a different situation (where their IB is not good and they are trying to lottery into a school for the longterm) and it's much more stressful.

If you're really hard up, Harmony just added a preschool program. But they added it as a condition to avoid being shut down, so it's hard for me to really recommend it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will get Apple tree or nothing. Likely nothing. You have literally zero chance at most of those schools. Even if your lottery number were the best in the city, in-boundary kids and siblings would get all the spots before you.

Agree with PP. It's worth putting Maury on your list since you're IB even though chances are slim without a sibling. But you're simply not going to get into Peabody, Brent and Ludlow. Where do you work? What about other charters nearby? Two Rivers, Center City? Depending on where you work, Stevens Early Learning Center could be an option too.

I work in Arlington.

Maybe you could manage Stevens ELC, or Amidon-Bowen?

Amidon's PK is getting pretty full--they're no longer an Early Action school and have waitlisted IB kids. It's worth a shot, but your odds are better at Appletree SW where nobody is inbounds.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will get Apple tree or nothing. Likely nothing. You have literally zero chance at most of those schools. Even if your lottery number were the best in the city, in-boundary kids and siblings would get all the spots before you.

My friend got into Brent with lotto. Not true

For PK3? In the last 2-3 years? I'm really skeptical of this based on recent data--last year Brent wait-listed 32 in-bounds students for PK3, and only took 7 students off the wait list. https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/node/61

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will get Apple tree or nothing. Likely nothing. You have literally zero chance at most of those schools. Even if your lottery number were the best in the city, in-boundary kids and siblings would get all the spots before you.

Agree with PP. It's worth putting Maury on your list since you're IB even though chances are slim without a sibling. But you're simply not going to get into Peabody, Brent and Ludlow. Where do you work? What about other charters nearby? Two Rivers, Center City? Depending on where you work, Stevens Early Learning Center could be an option too.

I work in Arlington.

Maybe you could manage Stevens ELC, or Amidon-Bowen?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will get Apple tree or nothing. Likely nothing. You have literally zero chance at most of those schools. Even if your lottery number were the best in the city, in-boundary kids and siblings would get all the spots before you.

Agree with PP. It's worth putting Maury on your list since you're IB even though chances are slim without a sibling. But you're simply not going to get into Peabody, Brent and Ludlow. Where do you work? What about other charters nearby? Two Rivers, Center City? Depending on where you work, Stevens Early Learning Center could be an option too.

I work in Arlington.

Also on the Hill but in-bound for Peabody / Watkins.

The waitlist info is public so you can dig through it. Here's the issue - you are out of bound, no sibling attending for a school with a boundry like Peabody, LT, and Brent. That means that all other kids in the lottery who are inbounds get preference above you...and for prek3 and prek4, the classes are already super small and kids who are inboundary don't get in. You will have dozens of kids ahead of you on the list. You won't get in.

We are headed to Peabody (got in without a sibling preference, feel very lucky). Some other schools on our list that didn't have boundaries (and we ranked lower than Peabody) were: Capitol Hill Monessori, Two Rivers 4th Street, and Mundo Verde Calle Ocho. We ranked School Within School first, but basically 5 prek3 kids got in without a sibling preference...we were over 200 on the WL at one point so even a smaller shot than Maury.

Apple Tree has gotten more competitive because Maury is oversubscribed and those prek3/4 kids need someplace to go...and it's a great location for some Peabody Watkins families. You'll also want to consider less competitive prek3/4 programs that take more kids from out of bounds like JO Wilson and Miner - these elementary schools overall aren't ranked as strong as Maury in upper elementary but the prek3 and prek4 programs in the city everywhere are generally very strong. You should also consider Payne if the commute works. You should also look at Tyler, esp for Spanish Immersion but it's very competitive.

The most important thing is to rank the schools in your actual order of preference because you are only waitlisted at the schools that you rank above a match (if you are matched at all). For example:

1) Maury
2) Brent
3) Apple Tree
4) Capitol Hill Montessori

And you get matched with Apple Tree...you ARE NOT waitlisted for Capitol Hill Monessori but you ARE waitlisted for Maury and Brent.

Having just gone through this, it can be overwhelming. Figure out what you want to prioritize. If you are good with Maury (and it's a great school!) for K, then you're trying to fill a gap for two years so you may want to prioritize an easy commute vs trying to secure a spot at an elementary school option (language immersion aside).

Good luck! May the odds be in your favor!

Don't limit yourself to Hill schools; also add schools near your job or along your commute. Also consider some of the community-based pre-K programs. You'll get in somewhere!

you don't have a chance for DCPS schools that have in bound lines, so if you're in bound for Maury, you don't put Ludlow, Brent, etc. zero out of bound kids get in. you need to look at charters and dcps schools without boundaries.

https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/node/61

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP, you can use these data sets. It's vanishingly unlikely that you'd get an out-of-boundary, non-sibling seat at Brent, Peabody, or Ludlow-Taylor. And if your number were good enough to get you that, you'd probably get into Maury.

If you're looking for schools at which you stand better than a 0.01% chance, I'd suggest JO Wilson, Miner, Two Rivers, Walker-Jones, Browne, Wheatley, and Langley. Tell us your commute and we can help you more.

Anonymous wrote:You will get Apple tree or nothing. Likely nothing. You have literally zero chance at most of those schools. Even if your lottery number were the best in the city, in-boundary kids and siblings would get all the spots before you.

Agree with PP. It's worth putting Maury on your list since you're IB even though chances are slim without a sibling. But you're simply not going to get into Peabody, Brent and Ludlow. Where do you work? What about other charters nearby? Two Rivers, Center City? Depending on where you work, Stevens Early Learning Center could be an option too.

Anonymous wrote:You will get Apple tree or nothing. Likely nothing. You have literally zero chance at most of those schools. Even if your lottery number were the best in the city, in-boundary kids and siblings would get all the spots before you.

My friend got into Brent with lotto. Not true

You will get Apple tree or nothing. Likely nothing. You have literally zero chance at most of those schools. Even if your lottery number were the best in the city, in-boundary kids and siblings would get all the spots before you.

We live on the hill, inbounds for Maury. We only have one child so sadly no sibling preference just yet!

I am struggling to come up with a list of 12 schools that would work for us.
We don’t want to have a crazy drop off route for PK.

This is what I’m thinking:


Maury (I know basically zero chance)
Peabody
AppleTree Lincoln Park
Brent
Ludlow-Taylor

Thanks for any insight or opinions!