How Easy/Hard to get Child into Lincoln Elementary School in Oakland?
Hello all, first time poster - excited to join the community here!
I grew up in the East Bay but was away for many years, but just moved back with my wife and 20 month old daughter. I am looking to buy a home in Uptown Oakland but am definitely thinking ahead to the implications for my daughter's school situation.
As you may know Uptown Oakland is right on the dividing line between being in the Lincoln Elementary boundary and the MLK Elementary boundary.
From my point of view, Lincoln would definitely be acceptable for my daughter (who is about 20 months of age) while MLK sadly would be less than ideal to put it lightly. Note: we really, really would prefer not to have to travel far out of the neighborhood to bring our daughter to school, so for elementary those are really the only two options for me that are walking distance as far as I can tell.
Unfortunately many of the buildings in Uptown Oakland are on the MLK side of the boundary line.
Let's assume I end up buying on the MLK side. I know that Oakland has a lottery system that prioritizes sibling school attendance first and residence within a school boundary 2nd, but makes it theoretically possible to have your child attend a school outside their boundary.
My questions are:
- Does anyone have any information whatsoever on how easy/hard it is to get your child into Lincoln elementary currently if you live outside the district boundaries?
- Another way of asking the above - does anyone know if Lincoln ended up with "extra"/unused student slots this past year, or were all the slots filled by students?
- Let's say I couldn't get my daughter into Lincoln for kindergarten and had to settle for MLK School for kindergarten. Would it get progressively easier or harder as she enters 1st grade or 2nd grade to transfer her over to Lincoln?
Thanks so much!
Nick
Parent Replies
Lincoln doesn't fill with neighborhood kids, but it is very in demand so tends to have a long waiting list for non-neighbor spots. (So I guess that's to say: you would definitely have a shot, but a lot would depend on the luck of the draw.) Fewer people change schools in 1st and 2nd, but there are also fewer available spots, so whether it's easier or harder just depends on the year. Lincoln is a very large school, though, which helps. I do recommend that you visit, if you haven't already.
I get that you're trying to plan, but schools change a lot-- by the time your kid is ready for kinder, you may not even want to send your kid there.