If I had it to do over, my dream wish list would be close to public transit, close to school, close to work, and with an in-boundary school feeder pattern that is good all the way through high school.

That's a tough list to fulfill and can require a hefty budget. We got most of those pre-kids on a modest budget, but not the in-boundary feeder pattern good all the way through high school and that has made for some very stressful years doing the lottery. The lottery is exactly that, a lottery. Nothing to count on.

Also, I would not count on buying and only being somewhere for a few years, and then selling and buying elsewhere. Transaction costs are very high. We never thought we'd be in the same place this long but it's really expensive to move and we love our neighborhood and commutes so we've worked it out with schools through the lottery so far. We're approaching another school juncture and it's another lottery or another decision point about moving, which sucks.

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

Every elementary school has a boundary, the DCPS web site has that information along with how each school student performs on standardized tests from grade 3-5. You can also see on their web pages a report on each school which shows many other indicators, there is a lot of publicly available data.

But since you do not reveal your budget it is impossible to know what you can afford in terms of renting or buying real estate, and it is your location which will mostly determine school eligibility.