Schedule
Come to school on time! The instructional day begins at 8:45 AM (enter the building at 8:30 to be in class by 8:45). Students not attending before care may arrive at 8:30 AM for breakfast in the classroom. If you come after 8:45 AM, stop at the main office to sign in as tardy. Failure to do so may result in your student being marked absent for the day after teachers submit attendance at 8:45 AM. If this happens, please contact the main office so that the attendance record can be corrected.
School dismissal is 3:15 PM. If you do not pick your student up on time, they will be sent to late pick-up.
Before and Aftercare
Dear Families,
The Future Stars registration for Before Care & After Care for the 2024-2025 school year at Van Ness Elementary School is now LIVE! Please click HERE for our detailed guidebook. When you register, the first month’s payment will be required at checkout. This payment will be for the last week in August (August 26th-August 30th) AND the entire month of September. Although the schedule says that extended care and before care begins September 3rd, BEFORE CARE AND AFTER CARE WILL BEGIN THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. The system does not allow us to start payments in the middle of the month. Moving forward, automatic payments will be charged the first of every month beginning in October.
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HERE you will find the Van Ness Membership for the entire year. This membership will also apply to clubs and enrichments. HERE you will find the link for Before Care & HERE you will find the link for After Care. Please note that this specific link already has the site location filtered for Van Ness. If you change the filters, please ensure that you are registering for Van Ness ES. Another way to access registration for "The Future Stars" at Van Ness ES is to visit www.thefuturestars.net and click on Van Ness at the top. This will take you directly to the Van Ness Before & After Care registration.
Follow the steps below to register:
*Please note that a membership fee must be paid to access Before & After Care registration. This is a one-time fee.*
Step 1: Click on Memberships
Step 2: Purchase the correct VAN NESS THE FUTURE STARS MEMBERSHIP for your family. Fill out all forms and waivers.
Step 3: Proceed to the cart and complete the purchase.
Step 4: Return to the main site HEREand add Before Care or After Care to your cart. Your child is now registered, and you will receive information before the school year starts.
*NOTE: Paying for a membership does not mean your child is registered for Before Care or After Care. Please make sure you complete STEP 4.*
**Things to watch out for while registering:**
1. Ensure that you register for memberships first. This is a one-time registration fee for the 2024-2025 school year. You can only access Before Care & After Care with this membership.
2. Ensure the grade level is correct for your child. Our team will do a detailed check after registration to ensure students are placed correctly.
3. If you're in need of financial aid/scholarship, please emailaisaacs@thefuturestars.net.
* Registration for our Enrichment Clubs will go live in August, and there will be a discount on enrollment for those signed up for Aftercare. More information about this will be coming in August.
If there are any technical issues, please email info@thefuturestars.net. We are available for technical support.
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Best regards,
The Future Stars Team
Lunch and BREAKFAST
The school provides breakfast and lunch to all students free of charge. (This is new as of February 2020.) Unlike prior years, families do not need to set up accounts to pay for lunch.
However, we strongly request that all families, no matter their income status, fill out a Free and Reduced Meal (FARM) form, no matter the income status. This helps maintain the school’s status and ability to provide free lunch to all students. Click here to fill out the FARM form.
Please find the tentative school menus here.
Families can choose to provide lunch from home for students. If you choose to provide lunch to your student they must bring it with them to school. We will not accept drop off lunches from restaurants or orders from delivery services (Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub, etc.).
PLEASE NOTE: We are a nut-free school, so please ensure all items from home a free of peanuts and tree nuts.
If your child has dietary restrictions, be sure to complete the request forms. You can find them here. Email the forms to food.dcps@dc.gov or turn them in to our main office and they will be submitted for you.
Get involved!
As a parent/guardian of a Van Ness student you are automatically a member of the Parent Teacher Organization, and you don’t have to be on the Board of Directors to get involved. Click here to learn more.
Feeder Pattern
A feeder pattern school is one that a student has the right to attend based on their current school. For Van Ness Elementary, that school is Jefferson Academy, followed by Eastern High School. Click on each school to learn more about their school models and curriculum!