How much does school district matter?

[marieangela]

We have our house for sale and are looking for another house in the area. We like our school district and our neighborhood, but there are other school districts that would have more resources and possibily better schooling options for our daughter. She is only 15 months old now, but once me move we don't plan on doing it again any time soon. She has a genetic disorder, but so far is doing way better than I would have ever imagined. I'm pretty sure she'll need some kind of special education, but I'm not sure how much or exactly for what. On the one side we're thinking of moving to one of the better and richer school districts in hopes that when she gets to school age they will have more to offer for her. On the other side, we like that the teachers and people that work at the small neighborhood school near us know all of the kids, not just my 1st grader, but my preschooler and my baby. It's a tightnit community and I have a lot of support. Plus my parents live five minutes away. The other school district is only about 20 minutes away. I worry that my boys won't take well to the move and may have a hard time fitting in with richer kids who have a different lifestyle. Plus the taxes are really high and we wouldn't be able to afford as nice of a house.

Sorry to ramble. I've been trying to look up information on school districts and resources, but am not having too much luck so far. I am in PA and am wondering if they don't have the appropriate resources at my school, would they have to accomadate her or would they send her to another school? Should I worry so much about this so soon or just learn as much as I can and make things work wherever we live?

[2boyzmama]

Yep, exact conundrum we're in. Except that in our case, we started off on the wrong foot with our current school district, so we're trying to overcome some bad blood already, which complicates things.

We are currently looking into our options, and everything you listed is exactly what we're thinking of (minus the family being close by, and also minus the concern about our older son changing schools, he's easy going). There's no easy answer, there are pros/cons for each decision.

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by marieangela

I am in PA and am wondering if they don't have the appropriate resources at my school, would they have to accomadate her or would they send her to another school?

if they don't have appropriate resources and there is a private option that is a good fit, the district has to pay for it. There is a private school that is just for autistic children where we live and every child there is paid for by their home district. There is also a private school for kids with emotional problems and about half the kids are district paid, the other half are parent paid.

However, making this happen can be a long, difficult process that requires your child falling flat on their face first and then hiring legal counsel. It's not an easy path in most cases.

I think that district does matter but I've no idea how to tell a "good" district for a sn child from a "not so good" district." The general measures for schools really don't matter. We got really lucky.

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

I think a good school district is really important when it comes to special education resources. Often good school districts have more funds to sink into special ed programs. Also, since special ed kids scores on standardized testing count just as much as kids who don't have special needs, it behooves the school district to have the services to educate the special ed kids in order to keep their scores up. At least this was the information my sister gave me and she's a special ed teacher. So far, it has proven true.

As far as living a school district where monetary issues are going to come into play, that's where we are. My dh is a law enforcement officer with the US fish and wildlife service, so we have lived on two different wildlife refuges. We could not afford to live either place if we didn't rent from the government. We do live a very different lifestyle than most people in the area, but we've found that the school district is really worth it.

But if the school district can not accommodate your child, they have to finance sending your child to another school that has the resources. This includes transportation to the new school as well.