Fifteen schools—and four admissions systems hiding inside one market

Do not mix the rules

One regional market contains four admissions systems

Ranking a charter higher does not improve the child’s priority there. A selective-school application is not a lottery ticket. A private acceptance is not proof of sufficient aid. Keep the family’s guaranteed public option active while uncertain outcomes unfold.

The grade chart is not the admissions map

Kindergarten, Grade 6, and Grade 9 produce different shortlists

Fall 2027 My School DC dates and public-school seats were not published when this guide was reviewed. Prior-cycle counts show structure, not a promise. For independents, a newcomer estimate is not an acceptance rate and does not disclose applications, offers, yield or aid-supported spaces.

Educational identity belongs in the week

Mission is useful only when it changes daily practice

Inquiry, independence and school-designed advanced work

GDS, Maret, Sidwell and Potomac all use versions of advanced study that cannot be reduced to an AP count. Sidwell and Potomac explicitly moved away from AP courses. GDS and Maret use current advanced-course labels, although stale official pages make their exact AP status worth confirming. Ask how colleges read the transcript and how students are placed—not whether a familiar label appears.

Faith and gender are not side notes

Sidwell is coed and Quaker. NCS is girls’ and Episcopal. St. Albans is boys’ and Episcopal. Georgetown Prep is boys’ and Jesuit Catholic. Chapel, worship, theology, service, reflection and coordinate courses shape different communities. A student should want the model rather than accept it as the price of a famous school.

International, classical and city-as-classroom

WIS builds from bilingual primary years to the IB Diploma curriculum. DCI combines daily language with MYP and later DP or CP options. Washington Latin centers Latin, Socratic seminar and public oratory. School Without Walls uses the city and requires particular AP and research experiences. Banneker is more prescribed, with AP, optional IB and a large Community Laboratory requirement. These pathways ask different things of an organized teenager.

Our conditional read

What each school adds to a serious family list

Headcount is not a service plan

Support must survive the proposed schedule

GDS publishes seven learning specialists and six counselors. Potomac describes in-class, individual and small-group help, then states a meaningful ceiling: no significant curricular modifications. WIS describes short-term counseling and outside referral for longer-term care. Georgetown Prep likewise frames counseling as short-term. Public schools provide IEP and 504 services individually, but a school profile cannot promise a particular placement or intensity.

Ask for the adult, minutes, group size, missed class, progress measure, added cost and exit rule. If the child needs daily structured-literacy remediation, one-to-one support, major course modification or ongoing psychotherapy, do not translate a learning center or counselor list into a service the school has not promised.

Three jurisdictions, one family week

A regional school can still be a local decision

Potomac has the strongest published regional private-school bus model in this set; most students in Grades 1–11 generally use it. GDS offers Hopper routes from more than thirty stops. Maret relies more on Metro, a Woodley Park shuttle and family planning. Sidwell and WIS operate across divisional campuses. Georgetown Prep has Metro and limited shuttle access. NCS and St. Albans publish no broad commuter-bus network.

DC public students can use Kids Ride Free, and Washington Latin offers unusually substantial paid charter buses. That still is not door-to-door transportation. Test the walk, transfer, missed bus, late activity, winter darkness, two households and parent fallback before treating a route as solved.

Compare unlike prices honestly

Private tuition, boarding cost and resident public access are different equations

Fall 2027 independent-school families will pay still-unknown 2027–28 rates. Compare tuition, fees, transport, care, meals, devices, trips, athletics, residential travel and annual renewal. An aid average is not an award. A tuition-free public school is not a planning option for a Maryland or Virginia family unless the lawful nonresident process actually produces a seat and tuition agreement.