Bancroft parent here and I can verify they do test for Spanish dominance. One of my son's best friends has a very American sounding name but his mom is originally from South America and his dad also speaks Spanish fluently so they speak Spanish at home. They did check that the family actually speaks Spanish at home and tested the younger kid when he got in via Spanish dominant track for preK4.

I thought you can’t take the spot if you aren’t Spanish dominant. Don’t they interview the kid and parents? Otherwise this would be a loophole lots of families would use to get into schools with a Spanish dominant preference. Think of all the families with kids at immersion daycares or Spanish speaking nannies who want LAMB, Bancroft or Oyster.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does your family speak Spanish at home? Because that will make the choice real easy- DCB, because you can’t get in to Bancroft without Spanish dominant preference OOB.

Ops kid isn’t Spanish dominant. They thought that they could pass because their kid attends a dual language school.

So then that is the end of the thread. DCB it is.

+1. There are so, so many English dominate 2-4 year olds that attend immersion daycares in DC. Mine was one of them and was actually Spanish dominate as a toddler (I spoke Spanish to her at home, but am not a native speaker), but the true dominate language preference kicks in hard by kindergarten. The criteria for Spanish preference in the lottery is not fluency, it's actual language dominance in the home. What language does the kid cry out in at night? What language is spoken around the dinner table and between other family members?

OP, as a parent who was in the exact same situation a few years ago, please heed my advice. Unless your child is genuinely a heritage speaker, do not take a Spanish dominate spot at Bancroft. The parent of an elementary student in EOTP DC spends all of their years answering where your child goes to school. Everyone knows there are never English dominate OOB spots at Bancroft, and everyone will realize you took the spot from an actual Spanish dominate family. It is not worth the years and years of explaining how *you* got into Bancroft OOB and dealing with the silent reputational hit that will come with everyone realizes you committed fraud. You're in DCB and liked it, stay there where you won't be silently labelled a liar by every parent you meet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does your family speak Spanish at home? Because that will make the choice real easy- DCB, because you can’t get in to Bancroft without Spanish dominant preference OOB.

Ops kid isn’t Spanish dominant. They thought that they could pass because their kid attends a dual language school.

So then that is the end of the thread. DCB it is.

Anonymous wrote:Does your family speak Spanish at home? Because that will make the choice real easy- DCB, because you can’t get in to Bancroft without Spanish dominant preference OOB.

Ops kid isn’t Spanish dominant. They thought that they could pass because their kid attends a dual language school.

Does your family speak Spanish at home? Because that will make the choice real easy- DCB, because you can’t get in to Bancroft without Spanish dominant preference OOB.

I agree that being close to the neighborhood of the school is amazing, and Mt Pleasant is indeed lovely. I'll just throw in that, in the context of my work as an educator, I've heard two very different principals in the last month say that the principal of DCB is probably the best principal in the city. This doesn't mean the school is perfect, for you or for anybody, but I thought that was exciting and wanted to make sure it was known, whatever your choice is.

DCB is more diverse if that is important to you.

If you don’t speak Spanish at home then your child isn’t Spanish dominant. Spanish dominant seats are for children who speak Spanish and home and primarily communicate in Spanish. DCPS is very clear that English speaking families who have children that know Spanish should apply to the English dominant lottery. Just an FYI. It doesn’t appear from your post that your family is Spanish speaking but I might be wrong.