I know students at several DCPS aftercare programs who report watching TV almost every afternoon in school. That would be cheaper. Should we do this? No.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu Ying & Mundo verde posters who qualified for reduced rate that are not FARMS: what do you have to make to qualify?

YY reduced rate family: for a family of 4, the cutoff is $59k/year (for a family of 5, it's 69k; for a family of 3 it's $48k, going up & down @ basically $10k per person added/subtracted from each family).

Thanks for posting this.

So a family of four, two kids, both parents work full time, with a HHI of $70K/year is expected to pay over $400/mo per kid for aftercare.
Clearly this shuts out many families from schools like YY and MV.

I think both schools offer a small sibling discount, but yes. The cost of raising children in DC is part of why we only had one child.

I guess it seems reasonable to me that parents making above (or just below) DC's median household income of $64 k don't get a discount.

I'll also add that because Fridays are half days, you can save $130/month if you're able to pick your kid up at 1 pm on those days. (I know it's not an option for everyone, but it has worked for our family.)

And yes, there's a sibling discount--the 2nd/3rd/etc child is only $340.

THat's good that it makes sense to you and works for you. There are a LOT of families where it is still unrealistically high, and there are families that were passionate about Mandarin (talking about YY only obviously) and beat the odds to get admitted, only to have to turn it down because of the aftercare costs were too much. The YY school community just needs to figure out if that's acceptable, if there's anything that can be done about it, and what that might be. But obviously that is an internal YY issue and no parent trying to figure out schools for next year can count on anything being different until it's offiically going to be different.

A LOT of families turn down YY every year because of aftercare prices? Correct me if I'm wrong, but only about 10 or so families turned YY down. I find it hard to believe that all of them were both PASSIONATE about mandarin AND unable to come up with the extra $180 or so per month to afford the aftercare. Don't get me wrong, I'd like very much to see aftercare costs be reduced for middle-income families, but you are completely exaggerating.

Charter schools need to balance the needs of all different kinds of families on a much smaller budget than DCPS. Perhaps pursuing equal funding as mentioned up thread is one way to help cover costs.

Read it again.... There are a LOT of families who can't afford it... and "there are families that were passionate about Mandarin that had to turn YY down". Nowhere does it say "A LOT of families turn it down". Some of you guys really get kicks overreacting to things that no one said, don't you!

So is it acceptable for one or two families every year to turn down YY or MV because they find the costs of aftercare too high? Hard to say, but I think it's fair to say that there are many, many more families who willingly embrace the extra cost for the high quality programming, even those of us for whom it is a stretch.

You know what, you get to value what you value, I get to value what I value. I think that given how few new slots open up at YY every year, I think that it's doable and important for the school to figure out coverage for aftercare so that if a family qualifies for FARMS, there is a way to cover their fees appropriately. If you are a YY parent, you get to disagree with that. But to answer your question, no, I don't think it's acceptable for a couple of parents a year who really wanted the school to have to turn it down because of cost.

And your point about there being many other families willing to embrace the extra cost, well yeah, thank you Captain Obvious. People were sleeping out for the waitlist, so OBVIOUSLY there is a great demand. That is not the point. The point is whether, after going through all that and beating the odds to be offered a spot, the question is how YY as a school and a school community feels about being a public school that 1, 2, 4 families every year may have to turn down because of the cost of aftercare. No one is suggesting that quality aftercare isn't a bonus and worthwhile. The question is, does that prevent a few kids each year from being able to take a lucky spot. Me, I want to be part of a school community that does whatever it can to make sure that doesn't happen. If you are a YY parent, you are free not to care or to work against that goal.

Anonymous wrote:In response to some of these posts--

--I think DCPS aftercare used to be in non-Title I schools (eg Oyster) but it has been cut at those schools over the past few years. It has also been cut back in the Title I schools (eg this year my school had to bring in an outside provider to take over some grades).
At the same time, a few years ago DCPC didn't make much effort to get anyone to pay, even middle class families. The budget comes from OSSE. I don't know the whole story there (why they fund it at all, whether it will be eliminated altogether--although that is my suspicion).

--As for fees of over $400/month, somehow many DPCS schools that are not Title I and run their own aftercare programs manage to charge quite a bit less than that, more like $230-$270 (eg Stoddert, Eaton, perhaps Janney--unfortunately there's no one place to see all their fees so I'm going by memory).

From what I've read on DCUM in the past, YY charges so much to subsidize its schoolday programs. That does not seem fair to the families who are being shut out. Seems like you will end up with a skewed student body--poor kids, wealthy kids, not much in between. (Although I'm not actually at YY or MV so I don't know if this is the case. But anecdotally, the families I know at those schools are all pretty well off.)

Thank you, that's really helpful. Further, unless I'm mistaken, the $230-270 is what the families paying full aftercare fees pay. At my last 2 schools (one DCPS, one Charter), there was an income guideline (I think it was higher than FARMS but not totally sure) where parents paid much less than that, and some parents got it free. Not totally sure about the free part, but definitely abotu sure some families paid even less than the $230-270.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu Ying & Mundo verde posters who qualified for reduced rate that are not FARMS: what do you have to make to qualify?

YY reduced rate family: for a family of 4, the cutoff is $59k/year (for a family of 5, it's 69k; for a family of 3 it's $48k, going up & down @ basically $10k per person added/subtracted from each family).

Thanks for posting this.

So a family of four, two kids, both parents work full time, with a HHI of $70K/year is expected to pay over $400/mo per kid for aftercare.
Clearly this shuts out many families from schools like YY and MV.

I think both schools offer a small sibling discount, but yes. The cost of raising children in DC is part of why we only had one child.

I guess it seems reasonable to me that parents making above (or just below) DC's median household income of $64 k don't get a discount.

I'll also add that because Fridays are half days, you can save $130/month if you're able to pick your kid up at 1 pm on those days. (I know it's not an option for everyone, but it has worked for our family.)

And yes, there's a sibling discount--the 2nd/3rd/etc child is only $340.

THat's good that it makes sense to you and works for you. There are a LOT of families where it is still unrealistically high, and there are families that were passionate about Mandarin (talking about YY only obviously) and beat the odds to get admitted, only to have to turn it down because of the aftercare costs were too much. The YY school community just needs to figure out if that's acceptable, if there's anything that can be done about it, and what that might be. But obviously that is an internal YY issue and no parent trying to figure out schools for next year can count on anything being different until it's offiically going to be different.

A LOT of families turn down YY every year because of aftercare prices? Correct me if I'm wrong, but only about 10 or so families turned YY down. I find it hard to believe that all of them were both PASSIONATE about mandarin AND unable to come up with the extra $180 or so per month to afford the aftercare. Don't get me wrong, I'd like very much to see aftercare costs be reduced for middle-income families, but you are completely exaggerating.

Charter schools need to balance the needs of all different kinds of families on a much smaller budget than DCPS. Perhaps pursuing equal funding as mentioned up thread is one way to help cover costs.

Read it again.... There are a LOT of families who can't afford it... and "there are families that were passionate about Mandarin that had to turn YY down". Nowhere does it say "A LOT of families turn it down". Some of you guys really get kicks overreacting to things that no one said, don't you!

So is it acceptable for one or two families every year to turn down YY or MV because they find the costs of aftercare too high? Hard to say, but I think it's fair to say that there are many, many more families who willingly embrace the extra cost for the high quality programming, even those of us for whom it is a stretch.

In response to some of these posts--

--I think DCPS aftercare used to be in non-Title I schools (eg Oyster) but it has been cut at those schools over the past few years. It has also been cut back in the Title I schools (eg this year my school had to bring in an outside provider to take over some grades).
At the same time, a few years ago DCPC didn't make much effort to get anyone to pay, even middle class families. The budget comes from OSSE. I don't know the whole story there (why they fund it at all, whether it will be eliminated altogether--although that is my suspicion).

--As for fees of over $400/month, somehow many DPCS schools that are not Title I and run their own aftercare programs manage to charge quite a bit less than that, more like $230-$270 (eg Stoddert, Eaton, perhaps Janney--unfortunately there's no one place to see all their fees so I'm going by memory).

From what I've read on DCUM in the past, YY charges so much to subsidize its schoolday programs. That does not seem fair to the families who are being shut out. Seems like you will end up with a skewed student body--poor kids, wealthy kids, not much in between. (Although I'm not actually at YY or MV so I don't know if this is the case. But anecdotally, the families I know at those schools are all pretty well off.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu Ying & Mundo verde posters who qualified for reduced rate that are not FARMS: what do you have to make to qualify?

YY reduced rate family: for a family of 4, the cutoff is $59k/year (for a family of 5, it's 69k; for a family of 3 it's $48k, going up & down @ basically $10k per person added/subtracted from each family).

Thanks for posting this.

So a family of four, two kids, both parents work full time, with a HHI of $70K/year is expected to pay over $400/mo per kid for aftercare.
Clearly this shuts out many families from schools like YY and MV.

I think both schools offer a small sibling discount, but yes. The cost of raising children in DC is part of why we only had one child.

I guess it seems reasonable to me that parents making above (or just below) DC's median household income of $64 k don't get a discount.

I'll also add that because Fridays are half days, you can save $130/month if you're able to pick your kid up at 1 pm on those days. (I know it's not an option for everyone, but it has worked for our family.)

And yes, there's a sibling discount--the 2nd/3rd/etc child is only $340.

THat's good that it makes sense to you and works for you. There are a LOT of families where it is still unrealistically high, and there are families that were passionate about Mandarin (talking about YY only obviously) and beat the odds to get admitted, only to have to turn it down because of the aftercare costs were too much. The YY school community just needs to figure out if that's acceptable, if there's anything that can be done about it, and what that might be. But obviously that is an internal YY issue and no parent trying to figure out schools for next year can count on anything being different until it's offiically going to be different.

A LOT of families turn down YY every year because of aftercare prices? Correct me if I'm wrong, but only about 10 or so families turned YY down. I find it hard to believe that all of them were both PASSIONATE about mandarin AND unable to come up with the extra $180 or so per month to afford the aftercare. Don't get me wrong, I'd like very much to see aftercare costs be reduced for middle-income families, but you are completely exaggerating.

Charter schools need to balance the needs of all different kinds of families on a much smaller budget than DCPS. Perhaps pursuing equal funding as mentioned up thread is one way to help cover costs.

Read it again.... There are a LOT of families who can't afford it... and "there are families that were passionate about Mandarin that had to turn YY down". Nowhere does it say "A LOT of families turn it down". Some of you guys really get kicks overreacting to things that no one said, don't you!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu Ying & Mundo verde posters who qualified for reduced rate that are not FARMS: what do you have to make to qualify?

YY reduced rate family: for a family of 4, the cutoff is $59k/year (for a family of 5, it's 69k; for a family of 3 it's $48k, going up & down @ basically $10k per person added/subtracted from each family).

Thanks for posting this.

So a family of four, two kids, both parents work full time, with a HHI of $70K/year is expected to pay over $400/mo per kid for aftercare.
Clearly this shuts out many families from schools like YY and MV.

I think both schools offer a small sibling discount, but yes. The cost of raising children in DC is part of why we only had one child.

I guess it seems reasonable to me that parents making above (or just below) DC's median household income of $64 k don't get a discount.

I'll also add that because Fridays are half days, you can save $130/month if you're able to pick your kid up at 1 pm on those days. (I know it's not an option for everyone, but it has worked for our family.)

And yes, there's a sibling discount--the 2nd/3rd/etc child is only $340.

THat's good that it makes sense to you and works for you. There are a LOT of families where it is still unrealistically high, and there are families that were passionate about Mandarin (talking about YY only obviously) and beat the odds to get admitted, only to have to turn it down because of the aftercare costs were too much. The YY school community just needs to figure out if that's acceptable, if there's anything that can be done about it, and what that might be. But obviously that is an internal YY issue and no parent trying to figure out schools for next year can count on anything being different until it's offiically going to be different.

A LOT of families turn down YY every year because of aftercare prices? Correct me if I'm wrong, but only about 10 or so families turned YY down. I find it hard to believe that all of them were both PASSIONATE about mandarin AND unable to come up with the extra $180 or so per month to afford the aftercare. Don't get me wrong, I'd like very much to see aftercare costs be reduced for middle-income families, but you are completely exaggerating.

Charter schools need to balance the needs of all different kinds of families on a much smaller budget than DCPS. Perhaps pursuing equal funding as mentioned up thread is one way to help cover costs.

Anonymous wrote:no...it is certainly not shutting you out from the educational program. you can choose to find more affordable aftercare somewhere else. many of us do. if you break the aftercare cost down (remember, fridays are early closing), it's really only about 8$ per hour (with a discount for sibs). where are you going to find quality (no tv, structured classes, grouped by age, stimulating content) aftercare programming for less?
are you sure you're not acting as though the world owes you something because you decided to have children???

Either you meant to post in the joke HRCS thread, or you are ridiculously clueless about the realities of a hardworking family trying to manage aftercare. Are you seriously proposing that a family that can't pick their kids up so they don't need aftercare... can somehow magically get their kids from the school to an alternate care place instead?

Please, you apparently have strategies no one else knows about, please do share: if I can't afford the aftercare at the school I most want my kids to go to - which automatically means I can't afford a private nanny or whoever to pick my kids up and take them somewhere else - do tell, how do I get my kids from school to a much more affordable care option while I'm at work?

no...it is certainly not shutting you out from the educational program. you can choose to find more affordable aftercare somewhere else. many of us do. if you break the aftercare cost down (remember, fridays are early closing), it's really only about 8$ per hour (with a discount for sibs). where are you going to find quality (no tv, structured classes, grouped by age, stimulating content) aftercare programming for less?
are you sure you're not acting as though the world owes you something because you decided to have children???

Does DCPS subsidize non-title I schools' aftercare, which are not run by DCPS?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu Ying & Mundo verde posters who qualified for reduced rate that are not FARMS: what do you have to make to qualify?

YY reduced rate family: for a family of 4, the cutoff is $59k/year (for a family of 5, it's 69k; for a family of 3 it's $48k, going up & down @ basically $10k per person added/subtracted from each family).

Thanks for posting this.

So a family of four, two kids, both parents work full time, with a HHI of $70K/year is expected to pay over $400/mo per kid for aftercare.
Clearly this shuts out many families from schools like YY and MV.

I think both schools offer a small sibling discount, but yes. The cost of raising children in DC is part of why we only had one child.

I guess it seems reasonable to me that parents making above (or just below) DC's median household income of $64 k don't get a discount.

I'll also add that because Fridays are half days, you can save $130/month if you're able to pick your kid up at 1 pm on those days. (I know it's not an option for everyone, but it has worked for our family.)

And yes, there's a sibling discount--the 2nd/3rd/etc child is only $340.

THat's good that it makes sense to you and works for you. There are a LOT of families where it is still unrealistically high, and there are families that were passionate about Mandarin (talking about YY only obviously) and beat the odds to get admitted, only to have to turn it down because of the aftercare costs were too much. The YY school community just needs to figure out if that's acceptable, if there's anything that can be done about it, and what that might be. But obviously that is an internal YY issue and no parent trying to figure out schools for next year can count on anything being different until it's offiically going to be different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu Ying & Mundo verde posters who qualified for reduced rate that are not FARMS: what do you have to make to qualify?

YY reduced rate family: for a family of 4, the cutoff is $59k/year (for a family of 5, it's 69k; for a family of 3 it's $48k, going up & down @ basically $10k per person added/subtracted from each family).

Thanks for posting this.

So a family of four, two kids, both parents work full time, with a HHI of $70K/year is expected to pay over $400/mo per kid for aftercare.
Clearly this shuts out many families from schools like YY and MV.

Let's look at it a different way. Who, instead of you, should be paying for the after care? Is it a government obligation to pay for care for children from 3:30-6 on weekdays? It's a valid question, I would assume that many European countries do that, or something like it. And DCPS subsidizes aftercare, from tax dollars. So maybe the real issue is why aren't the charters receiving the same payments DCPS gets for it's aftercare programs? Does anyone know the pot of funds that pay for DCPS' programs?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu Ying & Mundo verde posters who qualified for reduced rate that are not FARMS: what do you have to make to qualify?

YY reduced rate family: for a family of 4, the cutoff is $59k/year (for a family of 5, it's 69k; for a family of 3 it's $48k, going up & down @ basically $10k per person added/subtracted from each family).

Thanks for posting this.

So a family of four, two kids, both parents work full time, with a HHI of $70K/year is expected to pay over $400/mo per kid for aftercare.
Clearly this shuts out many families from schools like YY and MV.

I think both schools offer a small sibling discount, but yes. The cost of raising children in DC is part of why we only had one child.

I guess it seems reasonable to me that parents making above (or just below) DC's median household income of $64 k don't get a discount.

I'll also add that because Fridays are half days, you can save $130/month if you're able to pick your kid up at 1 pm on those days. (I know it's not an option for everyone, but it has worked for our family.)

And yes, there's a sibling discount--the 2nd/3rd/etc child is only $340.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu Ying & Mundo verde posters who qualified for reduced rate that are not FARMS: what do you have to make to qualify?

YY reduced rate family: for a family of 4, the cutoff is $59k/year (for a family of 5, it's 69k; for a family of 3 it's $48k, going up & down @ basically $10k per person added/subtracted from each family).

Thanks for posting this.

So a family of four, two kids, both parents work full time, with a HHI of $70K/year is expected to pay over $400/mo per kid for aftercare.
Clearly this shuts out many families from schools like YY and MV.

I think both schools offer a small sibling discount, but yes. The cost of raising children in DC is part of why we only had one child.

Yes, 400/month is a lot for aftercare, but it beats fulltime tuition from daycare which we were paying 1300/month. However, this is something we did look into when deciding on a school since we were expecting child #2.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yu Ying & Mundo verde posters who qualified for reduced rate that are not FARMS: what do you have to make to qualify?

YY reduced rate family: for a family of 4, the cutoff is $59k/year (for a family of 5, it's 69k; for a family of 3 it's $48k, going up & down @ basically $10k per person added/subtracted from each family).

Thanks for posting this.

So a family of four, two kids, both parents work full time, with a HHI of $70K/year is expected to pay over $400/mo per kid for aftercare.
Clearly this shuts out many families from schools like YY and MV.

I think both schools offer a small sibling discount, but yes. The cost of raising children in DC is part of why we only had one child.