How Did You Find a School or Daycare?
Asim Bharwani
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DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Ask Downtown is an occasional series in which we put a reader's Downtown question to you, the real Downtown experts. Help a reader out and share your knowledge.
Over the last decade Downtown has become hip for young singles to move into, which inevitably became couples, and now, parents. Meanwhile, the perception has been that the central city is not a place you would want to raise a family.
Any unscientific survey of the growing number of toddlers seen exploring South Park and the Historic Core can tell you the situation isn't so cut and dry.
We're doing a feature on education for next week's issue of blogdowntown Weekly and are hoping that some of our Downtown parents could fill us in on what they've found out about the area's options.
What was your process of finding a school or daycare for your kid(s)?
Have your own Downtown question? Send it our way via Twitter (@blogdowntown). We'll either answer it ourselves or, if we think it's particularly relevant, make it the subject of an Ask Downtown.
Guest on September 03, 2010, at 11:42AM – #1
This is my story when searching for schools that I had shared on a different discussion board. I hope sharing my experiences can help others:
"When we first moved to downtown from the westside in 1999, my oldest daughter was 2. When she was 3, we first placed her in a private preschool/kindergarten and started our search of elementary schools about 2001. At that time, there weren't very many good websites to do searches.
We first started out checking the L.A. Times where they would post the annual API scores for all public schools in the state. We highlighted the ones in and around L.A. with the best scores and began mapping out where these schools were.
We had about 9 schools pinpointed and they ranged from San Pedro to West L.A., Miracle Mile, Chinatown, and Mid Wilshire. We visited each school along with checking out our home school, 9th Street elementary (which as most people know isn't in the best area) but we wanted to keep an open mind.
We found the teachers and staff at 9th Street to be dedicated and serious about their careers but learned also that they were a lot of outside distractions that makes the learning environment that much more challenging. I think it's hard to instill hope in a child to go to college or have a good future when their immediate worries are whether they would eat or whether they had a safe place to stay for the night.
We pretty much had in mind that we would either have to move or we will be spending a lot of time commuting. Kind of why we moved to downtown was to get away from commuting so we narrowed down our search to look at schools that would be within a 30 minute commute from home. We found some good public schools in which we applied through open enrollment. The schools we felt fit what was important to us were: Rosewood Elementary in midwilshire, Solano Avenue elementary near Dodger Stadium, Community Magnet School near Brentwood, Southwest Museum Magnet near York and Figueroa, and Crestwood Elementary in San Pedro. There were a few others that I can't remember at this time but will post them if/when I do.
Private schools were another option, many were reasonably affordable, others were completely out of budget for us. We found many private Catholic schools that seemed to be good in the area. Not being Catholic, we continued with searching the public route.
We luckily were accepted to both Rosewood and Solano and ultimately chose Solano for its commute, test scores, environment, and reputation.
During our search and experiences over the past 7 years, we've found that a successful school needs not only good teachers, but strong administrative leadership with clear educational goals, a process and plan for monitoring the progress of students, involved and supportive parents with a clear means of communication between themselves and the school, and a location/environment that provides the kids with few outside distractions or disruptions.
There is a mantra at Solano that is instilled in everyone involved: Believe in yourself, work hard, get smart. I believe this has helped set the tone for everything they do at this school.
The drawbacks to the school would have to be first and foremost, space. It is figuratively and literally a small school, K-6, with about 245 kids total, the building was built over 100 years ago so ventilation on hot days is a challenge, the auditorium is used to house the library, a pre k class, and additional desks for administration. Assemblies, school performances, and meetings are done in shifts inside the small auditorium or outside on the playground. Morning traffic and parking is also inconvenient. It may not be a school for everyone but is definitely worth a downtowners time to consider and visit."
Guest on September 03, 2010, at 11:48AM – #2
I think the best way is to network with other Downtown parents. There is an active Facebook parents group with a list of daycare center/preschools in the downtown area.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111729386466
A lot of government buildings in downtown have daycare/preschool for public employees. Waiting lists can be long for people who aren't government employees (though they've gotten shorter with the economic downturn), but the nice thing is they are right in the neighborhood and accessible by public transportation.
For elementary school kids, the situation is much tougher. Unfortunately, the school zoned for downtown is in poor shape. Most parents who have other options are applying to send their kids to schools outside of downtown or paying for private school. You can learn more about that process at the Facebook group.
David Markland on September 03, 2010, at 01:31PM – #3
Hey, commenters #1 and #2, I'd love to cite your comments if I quote from them. Would you be able to email me with your info to david at blogdowntown dot com? Thanks!
Ginny Brideau (@ginnycase) on September 03, 2010, at 11:18PM – #4
Daycare for our daughter... From 0 to 18 months - total nightmare. Infant care - regardless of the neighborhood is at a premium. Waitlist for many of the infant care centers - esp the ones downtown are longer than a typical pregnancy term. (Thank you to the many people who sign up for infant care who aren't even expecting yet...)
We were able to get inhome care for the first 18 months - about one week before we both had to go back to work. When we needed to find a daycare, it was a referral from someone totally awesome at the CCA, who clued me into a new daycare that was just opening. Hope Street Friends....
That is one big huge benefit to having kids Downtown...many of the facilities for our children are very new, very clean, and will last while we are down here.
Finding daycare is very much word of mouth anywhere you go. Families in DTLA are no different from families in West LA, Highland Park, East LA, Silverlake... We just don't have to use our cars as often.
Finally - please keep in mind that Children have ALWAYS been in Downtown. South Park has the greatest concentration of Children in the neighborhood. When these kinds of questions pop up, it is very frustrating because maybe we all want to think we are the first to set up homesteads in Downtown LA.... Nah, we are just the first to do it with stainless steel appliances.
Simon Ha on September 05, 2010, at 08:49AM – #5
My wife and I are in the process of searching out a preschool for our 2 year old daughter. Online search gave us a list of schools around our proximity but we mostly depend on word of mouth from other parents in DT.
As downtown continues to grow as a community, it's imperative that we stop suburban exodus and retain families by providing services and amenities only perceived to exist in nearby bedroom communities.
El Dabe Sherif on September 07, 2010, at 03:20PM – #6
I have a 12 week old son. Now you rally have me stressed out. Did I miss the boat already?
I find that speaking with other parents seems to be the most productive way of learning of all the options. My wife's maternity leave will end early October, so we are starting to scramble.