San Francisco parents: need help on appealing school placement

[codex57]

I can't understand why or how they would separate the brothers. I've always heard that having a sibling in a particular school is the number 1 factor considered in the lottery. What's sad for your nephew is that starting next yr, the lottery system is going to switch to more of a neighborhood based system (with a lot of wild cards thrown in), so he could have a chance of getting in to a good school in the Sunset.

Nephew1 (the one now going to middle school) was registered shortly after birth. Nephew2 (the younger brother), wasn't registered until over age 1. Apparently, because he didn't register "early" enough, Nephew2 had to go to another school for "space" reasons. Yes, siblings get priority, but it's no guarantee. Didn't help that Nephew1's elementary is in the top 5 most requested schools or something like that. Might be in the top 3.

Not all school districts are that bad though. I tried to register DS when he was 1 out here. The school lady official laughed (in a nice way) and told me not to worry about it.

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OK, I am taking this as a sign. We have to move before DD has to deal with the whole elementary school lottery. Albany, Palo Alto, anywhere with good schools minus the BS - here we come.

This is the main reason we live in the 'burbs. We couldn't subject our kids to the lottery, and with three born within four years, private school is financially prohibitive.