Yeah I’d caution against the lady who grew up in Deanwood in the 80s and 90s vs today. With all respect for how tough that may have been. DC crime isn’t what it was.

Anonymous wrote:

Deanwood could give you a triple shot: IB for Houston, an easy commute to Stokes EE, and even a reasonable hop-off/hop-on commute to Tyler if you take the metro downtown (and assuming your child will pass Spanish dominant test which is your only chance oob).

I would not move to Deanwood unless you are okay with the crime-ridden area. Some blocks are quiet, for example, my parents live on a quiet street and have for years. Their neighbors look out for each other but my parents do most of their shopping in Prince George's county or the new shopping center off of US 50.

Columbia Heights is the same yet folks live there.

You could also try to get your kid into one of the two bilingual schools in Arlington. Those schools feed to a bilingual program in one of the middle and high schools. Not all of Arlington is crazy expensive.

He’s not starting PK 3 in MoCo...

In MoCo there are 5 options (starting at K or later) for “2-way-immersion” schools https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/elementary/two-way-immersion.aspx. You’d have guaranteed access’s to these programs, but you must live IB. There are 4 (lottery) immersion programs https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/elementary/immersion-spanish.aspx

I would stay in DC and play the lottery for pk3 and 4. I’d look at Powell and Bruce Monroe vs these suburban schools since you could get in sooner IB.

Some good replies here. We know a family that put Spanish dominant for their kids and got into Bruce Monroe and their kids were in no way Spanish dominant and not even 50/50. (They're pretty conversational, but not dominant and definitely not fluent.)

Our child went to a Spanish immersion daycare and heard Spanish at home but I did not feel confident calling her Spanish dominant because (1) if she stubbed her toe she was more likely to say "ouch!" in English than Spanish (2) if the test giver didn't believe she was Spanish dominant we would forfeit our lottery spot late in the game (3) I felt like it was against the intention of the program.

Your mileage may vary, especially at school to school and during the time of the year.

(Also, as a former SSMA parent, I'd recommend against considering SSMA as a bilingual option. It was a pilot, and only for a limited number of classrooms. You'd be doing another lottery within the school to get into one of the classrooms, and there was zero transparency about the process. Supposedly there was a waitlist for these classrooms, but it was poorly managed and parents who had requested to be added never were put on this wait list, etc.)

Deanwood could give you a triple shot: IB for Houston, an easy commute to Stokes EE, and even a reasonable hop-off/hop-on commute to Tyler if you take the metro downtown (and assuming your child will pass Spanish dominant test which is your only chance oob).

I would not move to Deanwood unless you are okay with the crime-ridden area. Some blocks are quiet, for example, my parents live on a quiet street and have for years. Their neighbors look out for each other but my parents do most of their shopping in Prince George's county or the new shopping center off of US 50.

Based on anecdotal evidence of several people - if you get a spot based on your DC being Spanish dominant, I would strongly suggest that a Spanish-fluent parent bring your DC to the test/enrollment paperwork. Technically not a requirement, but it helps a lot to show that you're not going the "but they had Spanish daycare/nanny" route.

Also - I would second what everyone says here. Play the lottery, see how it goes, make you housing decisions based on that. If you feel comfortable claiming Spanish Dominant, then you should be able to get an OOB spot at Bruce Monroe or Powell or Tyler (or one of the other good options people have suggested - CentroNia, Communikids, etc.)

Anonymous wrote:jubilee jumpstart is bilingual too and on the community-based option list.

Spanish Education Development is another community-based program.
http://www.sedcenter.org/

OP you need to understand that even IB is no qaruentee for bilingual PK. I live IB for Bruce Monroe and can tell you that as if the last two years most IB English dominant kids are NOT getting into PK. The principal reserves 60% of PK seats for Spanish dominant kids. So yes, OOB kids are more likely to get in over IB English these days. There are also quite a few English dominate boundary cheaters as well.

jubilee jumpstart is bilingual too and on the community-based option list.