You should rent in the Capitol Riverfront so you can be inbound for Van Ness Elementary School.

Anonymous wrote:You shouldn't buy if you are only going to be here for 3 years.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cap Hill in the Cluster boundary. Peabody is great and it's bigger than many other ECE programs - still not a given. You also have SWS, CH Montessori and charters as a citywide backups. Nothing guaranteed. Brent is great but tough for PK3 without siblings if you're IB.

^^ and in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... someone will chine in to disparage Hill middle schools

Er, no. OP said they would not be here that long, so it's irrelevant.

Anonymous wrote:Cap Hill in the Cluster boundary. Peabody is great and it's bigger than many other ECE programs - still not a given. You also have SWS, CH Montessori and charters as a citywide backups. Nothing guaranteed. Brent is great but tough for PK3 without siblings if you're IB.

^^ and in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... someone will chine in to disparage Hill middle schools

Cap Hill in the Cluster boundary. Peabody is great and it's bigger than many other ECE programs - still not a given. You also have SWS, CH Montessori and charters as a citywide backups. Nothing guaranteed. Brent is great but tough for PK3 without siblings if you're IB.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Yes - we only care about PK3 and 4. We intend to be in DC only 3 or so years. Language immersion in not important. Since we do have the flexibility to buy almost anywhere in DC, we would love to be strategic about it with regards to schools.

Why are you buying a house at all?

+1

DC has a transfer tax on the transactions (1.45 percent for both buyer and seller) and agents are still taking 5-6 percent. So you have to really want to buy to throw away almost 10 percent of a the value of a house in taxes and commissions, especially given the value of most desirable properties in DC.

OP – what is your budget? If you want to buy a home in a specific place, with based on your specific needs, it's hard to help you if we don't know what you can afford. Housing in DC is very expensive, especially for homes in certain areas, as I'm sure you're aware. Sharing your budget will help us to make suggestions to you that are workable for your needs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did this. We gamed it out down to the 3 or 4 blocks that worked and bought there.

It is a location that is IB for Ross but also would have drawn a "proximity preference" for our second choice had we not gotten Ross. We ended up getting Ross of the wait list but would probably also have gotten our second choice if it had not come through.

Never heard of the proximity preference. Is that real?

Yes. But very few houses qualify for it. Go to myschooldc and read the preference definitions. If you are eligible it will show ok the system when you enter the lottery. If it doesn't show up, you don't qualify.

Anonymous wrote:We did this. We gamed it out down to the 3 or 4 blocks that worked and bought there.

It is a location that is IB for Ross but also would have drawn a "proximity preference" for our second choice had we not gotten Ross. We ended up getting Ross of the wait list but would probably also have gotten our second choice if it had not come through.

Never heard of the proximity preference. Is that real?

The one place where you should not buy is WOTP. No PK3 there.

The one level of gaming that someone already referenced is to buy between two desirable schools where you are IB to one but still more than 0.5M away from it and closer than 0.5 miles to the non-IB schools. A few clusters that come to mind are: Addison-Hyde/SWW, Ross/Marie-Reed, Cleveland/Garrison/Seaton.

Anonymous wrote:It's a lottery.

This. And most pk3 in DC is good, you don't need to be in a "desirable" neighborhood to have a good pk3/4 experience.

Buy a cheaper house and budget for preschool. Preschool is a lottery!

If it is really just two years, you can totally save money with private preschool. Many of the YMCA daycares and federal daycares are just fine, and then there is School For Friends and various other private Montessoris etc.

If you do public school, you still pay for aftercare, vacation childcare, and the whole summer, and you may have to pay for lunch too. So you don't really save that much.

Anonymous wrote:IB for Ross PK3 does not guarantee a spot. Most spots for PK3 go to IB families with siblings enrolled.

+1 We were inbounds for Ross and did not get a slot for PK3 or PK4 (we since moved.) When we bought our home "everyone" got into Ross PK, but the time our kid was old enough to go, it had become so popular that the PK class was mostly younger sibs of older students. Which goes to show you that buying a home just so you can get into PK is a risky proposition. (As others have mentioned, you're better off buying somewhere cheaper and paying for PK).

I would say buy IB for Seaton or Cleveland. That way you have a very strong chance of getting in for PK3, Langley as a backup option if by that time not all IB kids are getting into Seaton or Cleveland, and a lot of great charter schools within a manageable drive.

The only down side to this is living in a small, expensive row house, but with just the one toddler it should be no problem. I live here with two young kids and I adore it-- no need for a yard because we have so many playgrounds full of our little friends, and the short commute is wonderful.