any advice on sending my child to catholic vs. public kindergarten?

Catholic Schools are GOOD! Luckily we knew which neighborhoods and locations had the best public schools before we bought our house and were fortunate to also get full day kindergarten and after school child care. This is a waiting list for Catholic Schools where we live and they and private church based schools were not the most cooperative or friendly when we attempted to line up after school child care, but I will say two distinct advantages about Catholic Schools are (i) discipline and (ii) reasonable costs through 8th Grade. Depending on your child’s age where full-day kindergarten is great, the only other fact important consideration if your local public schools offer separate Gifted & Talented Program is it is advisable not to wait in moving your child too late to public schools bec selection where we live is very competitive and testing along with teacher recommendations for a Gifted & Talented Programs is done in 2nd Grade… bottomline it is important to not overlook that a child’s success and ability to adapt and grasp important reading & writing skills is more than just teachers and schools…and requires parent’s involvement and role modeling!

Best of Luck!

Send her where she will go the rest of her years. But where I”m from…. the Catholic school is much smaller and more expensive, however, the “close knit family” here produces many more “bad kids.” The classes are so small the kids have very few friends and the school has a much higher percentage (weather the adults know it or not) of kids actively involved in serious/hard drugs and alcohol. In my opinion, catholic school isn’t worth the money, your child will have many more opportunities and a lot more friends and fun in a public school and can grow up to be just as good of a Catholic.

You should send him wherever you plan to send him for elementary school. Whatever you choose, remember that your involvement can make a big difference in his education. Take an active interest in his school days. Ask “What book did you read today?” rather than “What did you do at school today?” Be excited about his science projects and history papers. Discuss them with him and help him to make choices. Volunteer a little time whenever you can, especially in the early grades, and go on the field trips. Always attend parent teacher conferences so that your child sees that you value his education and that what he is doing is important to you. It will make a big difference in his education.

Catholic school always has better education than a public school. The uniforms are ok, I guess. Lol. The price for Catholic school can be expensive and public school has many different obstacles that you won’t see coming.

i went to public school for my elementary and middle school yrs and then i transfered to a catholic high school. for me it was so worth it. i loved the structure of the catholic school, the people (teachers and students), it was clean and if i started to fall behind they wouldn’t let me fall, they would be there for me to help me with whatever i needed. in public school i felt like i wasn’t noticed. i wasn’t a great student and they didn’t do anything to help. they only cared about those who did well and in catholic school i excelled because of the attention i received. i went from being a c/d in middle school to being on the A honor role.

I would send her wherever she will be attending school for the remaining elementary school years. I will say that public school will allow your child to be more diverse as she will eventually have to deal with things she will not see in parochial schools. Public school have a better educational system.

It depends on where you live. Here, in upstate NY, most of our public schools are better than our Catholic schools.

if you plan to keep sending your child all through his/her school days the its alright but if for any reason they might go to public school later then send them now to public because privet schools are way behind public school i found that out the hard way with my son

well I go to a catholic school and I really enjoy it. there are no bullies at our school so it is really easy to focus on important stuff- we do have a uniform though