This is the first in series, Parenting with Peacock, where I share my parenting tribulations and victories. The photos are from a recent spring family portrait session.

Aka How to NOT Go Nuts During CPS Lottery

My husband and I love the city of Chicago. Yes, it’s expensive. We’ve repeatedly discussed moving, yet we always come back to wanting to stay in the city. Yet the thought of deciding an elementary school where our kids will attend through the eighth grade has always been a huge fear and instigator for leaving. But to be honest, moving seems as overwhelming as Chicago Public School (CPS) lotteries, so I decided to explore what our school options were for our boy and girl twins.

As a little disclaimer, I’m not opposed to private schools, but for a myriad of personal reasons, I want my kids to attend public schools.

I’ll cut to the chase and let you know we chose our neighborhood school after going through the CPS lottery. (The CPS lottery is when you apply to schools outside of your guaranteed neighborhood school.) Crossing my fingers we made the right decision, but I feel confident in our choice because I really did my homework. For those of you unsure where to begin in your search, here’s my process.

1.) Join Your Neighborhood and Parenting Facebook Groups

Your neighborhood and parenting groups on Facebook are a goldmine of info. Over a year ago, I began seeing our neighborhood school among others mentioned in posts. It’s wonderful to ask questions and hear firsthand accounts from parents who have been there.

2.) Attend a CPS Educational Forum Offered at Your Preschool or Community Center

At the very beginning of my research, which was in November 2018 with my twins due to start kindergarten in September 2019, I attended a wonderful forum held by our kids’ preschool. A rep from Chicago School GPS gave a great overview of the terminology used to denote schools and how school choice lotteries worked. Local school principals and representatives were available to speak with parents after the presentation. Don’t worry if you feel super overwhelmed and have no idea what the heck they are talking about. I totally didn’t at this point. It’s completely normal.

3.) Enroll Your Kid in Go CPS

To be eligible for the CPS lottery, you need to enroll in the Go CPS website. You can also learn more about the process including deadlines through this site. This is where you can also sign up for your kid to take the selective enrollment test. If your kid scores very high on this test, he/she will be eligible to apply to selective enrollment schools, which offer a more rigorous education.

4.) Research Schools via CPS Find a School

You can learn a lot about schools, including their locations and student population/testing, via the CPS Find a School website. I also googled each school I was interested in and viewed their ratings on various websites. Online reviews are very subjective, but if a school had amazing reviews online, at least I knew the school was organized enough to encourage a positive public relations campaign. Organization is a good thing in my book.

5.) School Visits

I cannot stress this step enough. Visit the schools you are really interested in. In total, we visited four schools during this past year: our neighborhood school; another good school super close to us; a very popular, well-ranked school we had little chance in getting in; and an extremely well-ranked school we had a decent shot at being offered a lottery spot.

Our first visit was to our neighborhood school and it was like finding the perfect wedding dress on your first try. You know it’s good, but you have no idea how good it is until you try more dresses. After visiting the schools in more prosperous areas, I was really surprised by how more money didn’t necessarily equate to a better community and/or teaching environment. All the schools we visited would have been great for our kids, but our neighborhood school matched our family priorities in education.

6.) Talk to Parents

When you have narrowed your schools to a couple, talk to friends and parents in social media about these schools. Ask questions. After I posted in a Facebook group, I had several moms reach out to me to tell me their experience and why they chose the schools I was interested in. Through these discussions, I quickly realized that each family has different educational priorities, but hearing their rationales and how the schools have matched their expectations really helped me solidify my families decision-making. One mom really helped me by discussing the projects her kids are learning in the school. I could totally envision my kids loving those lessons.

7.) After Deciding

Once you’ve alerted your chosen school of your kids’ enrollment, make sure you sign up for any electronic newsletters and Facebook groups for the school. Also, pour yourself a celebratory glass of wine or shot of tequila, because hey, you just parented your little heart out. No matter which school you chose, the fact that your kids’ parents are involved is a huge indicator of their future success. Congrats!