My DD is now in 9th grade at an excellent private school, and she previously attended public school in a similar profile public school district as the poster. We had enormous difficulty getting records sent, despite putting in our request more than 6 weeks ahead of the deadline and providing all materials (stamped addressed envelopes, etc). Other applicants in the district had the same problem, and when I called each school to check on the records and apologize (even though it wasn’t our fault), they told me they were accustomed to this from our school and similar schools. When I confronted our public school guidance counselor about that status of the records transfer, I was told that the deadline wasn’t hard and fast and didn’t matter as long as it was dropped in the mail on the deadline or the day after. The records did eventually get to the schools, but I think it might have been sometime in early February.
I don’t think there is any vendetta against private school applicants. It’s just business as usual. I think it just shows that some people can’t follow through on simple tasks and have other priorities. For us, it was yet another example and confirmation that we were making the right decision to move to private school. We did not have trouble with the teacher recommendations, and the schools that my DD applied to did not hold the tardiness of the records against her application.