You may want to consider the cost of a Nanny or Nanny Share in your house buying or renting budget too. If you are both working you will likely need some amount of before & or after care, school PD days, breaks & summer coverage. Camps for the Prk and sometimes under 6 ages can be in short supply and summer camps can be pricey. If you do need to pay for some or most of the above you won't save as much as you might think over private daycare/Prk as you might think.
Also, there is less flexibility for days off for public PrK and of course K+.
We love a lot about raising our family in DC and don't like some things (mainly the summer heat). But ever places has its pros & cons. In DC there is pretty much always something going on for families if you are willing to try new things. best of luck!

Ps DC is a GREAT place to raise young children. You will enjoy it.

Capitol Hill is filled with kids and parents and many other neighborhoods are great too.

Prioritize short commute (really. It’s so important.) and schools.

I wish I would have realized nearly any school is fine for Prk. But, also how the lottery is school chance not school choice. We needed up with 2 pretty positive school experience. But had I realized the crazy of the lottery I would have paid a little more attention to the schools & location when buying. I may have rented

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you were brand new to DC with children pre-school age 3-5, where would you start in researching schools?

If YOU relocated here, what do you wish you knew before coming as it relates to navigating the school system. (with children that don't have special needs and with children who do)

What advice would you give to a family brand new to the area DC interested in Public & Charters?

Resources? websites, consultants ect.

TIA

MySchoolDC.org is the resource I'd recommend. I would avoid Great Schools entirely as I have yet to see any kind of useful information there for DC schools.

That is the only thing I would recommend to a person moving to DC with school-aged children. I would not recommend any consultants as the best information comes from MSDC and is free.

What is so great about myschooldc?

It explains the lottery system and has data that can be useful for evaluating the popularity of (and your child’s chances of getting into) various schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you were brand new to DC with children pre-school age 3-5, where would you start in researching schools?

If YOU relocated here, what do you wish you knew before coming as it relates to navigating the school system. (with children that don't have special needs and with children who do)

What advice would you give to a family brand new to the area DC interested in Public & Charters?

Resources? websites, consultants ect.

TIA

With two children in HS, my biggest regret in life is that I raised them here in DC. So what advice would I give? Don't do it. It's a horrible place to raise a family.

What high school? Most people I know with kids at Wilson or Walls don't feel this way.

I couldn't disagree more. My kids have grown up in DC and have attended DCPS from PK to now high school and they're had a phenomenal school experience and childhood.
I think they're extremely lucky to have grown up in DC and they would agree.

Totally unrelated point:

Frank Luntz, the Republican propaganda consultant, has been telling conservatives to talk about hating “Washington DC” for 20 years.
(If you haven’t read it, Google “GOPAC memo Luntz Gingrich”.)

It’s not exaggerating to say that there is a coordinated, billionaire-funded propaganda campaign to denigrate DC.

Some of the trolls probably picked up on that, other trolls here probably spread lies like that for their day jobs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you were brand new to DC with children pre-school age 3-5, where would you start in researching schools?

If YOU relocated here, what do you wish you knew before coming as it relates to navigating the school system. (with children that don't have special needs and with children who do)

What advice would you give to a family brand new to the area DC interested in Public & Charters?

Resources? websites, consultants ect.

TIA

MySchoolDC.org is the resource I'd recommend. I would avoid Great Schools entirely as I have yet to see any kind of useful information there for DC schools.

That is the only thing I would recommend to a person moving to DC with school-aged children. I would not recommend any consultants as the best information comes from MSDC and is free.

What is so great about myschooldc?

For starters, Myschooldc is the website you use to enter the school lottery.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you were brand new to DC with children pre-school age 3-5, where would you start in researching schools?

If YOU relocated here, what do you wish you knew before coming as it relates to navigating the school system. (with children that don't have special needs and with children who do)

What advice would you give to a family brand new to the area DC interested in Public & Charters?

Resources? websites, consultants ect.

TIA

MySchoolDC.org is the resource I'd recommend. I would avoid Great Schools entirely as I have yet to see any kind of useful information there for DC schools.

That is the only thing I would recommend to a person moving to DC with school-aged children. I would not recommend any consultants as the best information comes from MSDC and is free.

What is so great about myschooldc?

Anonymous wrote:I realize if you're a realtor you won't want to give this advice, but if someone I cared about was moving to DC I would definitely tell them to rent first and get the lay of the land. Figure out more about commuting patterns, if they liked their jobs here, the various schools and districts, and stuff outside of school or work like houses of worship and kids' activities. Different people are going to like different parts of the DC area and it's hard to know that at first. Transfer costs for selling in DC are too high to make buying and selling a good idea.

I second this!

I realize if you're a realtor you won't want to give this advice, but if someone I cared about was moving to DC I would definitely tell them to rent first and get the lay of the land. Figure out more about commuting patterns, if they liked their jobs here, the various schools and districts, and stuff outside of school or work like houses of worship and kids' activities. Different people are going to like different parts of the DC area and it's hard to know that at first. Transfer costs for selling in DC are too high to make buying and selling a good idea.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you were brand new to DC with children pre-school age 3-5, where would you start in researching schools?

If YOU relocated here, what do you wish you knew before coming as it relates to navigating the school system. (with children that don't have special needs and with children who do)

What advice would you give to a family brand new to the area DC interested in Public & Charters?

Resources? websites, consultants ect.

TIA

MySchoolDC.org is the resource I'd recommend. I would avoid Great Schools entirely as I have yet to see any kind of useful information there for DC schools.

That is the only thing I would recommend to a person moving to DC with school-aged children. I would not recommend any consultants as the best information comes from MSDC and is free.

This is the closest thing to a Great Schools type source in the city but has more data for each school https://dcschoolreportcard.org/

Anonymous wrote:If you were brand new to DC with children pre-school age 3-5, where would you start in researching schools?

If YOU relocated here, what do you wish you knew before coming as it relates to navigating the school system. (with children that don't have special needs and with children who do)

What advice would you give to a family brand new to the area DC interested in Public & Charters?

Resources? websites, consultants ect.

TIA

MySchoolDC.org is the resource I'd recommend. I would avoid Great Schools entirely as I have yet to see any kind of useful information there for DC schools.

That is the only thing I would recommend to a person moving to DC with school-aged children. I would not recommend any consultants as the best information comes from MSDC and is free.

I'd suggest they look at myschooldc (including data on matches and waitlist movement), dcschoolreportcard, the DCPS lottery results, charter QSRs, and the websites or social media of individual schools.

I'd also suggest that they rent first so as not to lock in to a specific neighborhood or feeder pattern if they are new to DC. And let them know that most PK programs in DC are quite good so they are not failing their kids for life if they don't get into or can't afford to live IB for the most highly-regarded schools.

Anonymous wrote:OP: DC proper - is there a website or resource to answer these questions?

Folks relocating will often ask their real estate agents theses questions, due to fair housing agents need to be careful how they answer. Best practice is to provide resources versus discussing school ratings especially as they correlate to economics.

So you are a real estate agent hoping for a referral source?

Anonymous wrote:If you want your kids in public pre-k or a charter K in fall 2020, you need to have an address and residency in time for the lotto. Otherwise you'll be stuck until 2021.

This is not true. You can participate in the lottery if you haven't moved here yet. You just won't get in-boundary preference for a DCPS. You do need an address by the May enrollement deadline, though. This is all explained on My School DC's website under the FAQs (https://www.myschooldc.org/faq/faqs):

"If you are planning or considering moving into DC, you may submit a My School DC application without a DC address. However, you will not receive in-boundary or proximity preference at DCPS schools.

If you are matched with a school through the lottery, you must enroll at the school by the enrollment deadline or you will lose your space at your matched school. Accepting your space requires submitting required enrollment forms and proving DC residency."

I understand OP to be asking not about themselves, but about what advice could a real estate agent give to a perspective family. If that's the case I would point them to:
- The video on My School DC's website that explains the lottery process
- The STAR rankings
- The Charter School Tier rankings

I think you would be safe to note that in general, both public schools and public charter schools do ECE really well and most families who get into a school for ECE are happy (perhaps noting that WOTP schools start at PK4 and those, as well as many PK3 spots in other schools end up being taken by siblings).

Obviously none of that gives a full and complete answer, but if you're looking for resources to point people to, those are a starting point.