Choosing a School Before You Move.

So you're relocating and need to find a school inarea,if you move often and want to maximize
your new area for your children. The hard part isacademic consistency for your child, or if you
that you want to make sure it's the right school,work from home and can monitor your children's
and you might not yet know the localactivities. However they don't work well if your
neighborhoods yet. Here are some things tochild is the type to spend their day playing
research so that when you decide on a school,computer games.
you can be confident it's the right one for yourCity web sites are also usually a wealth of
kids.demographical information. If you want to know
Whatever the region you are moving to, chancesthe average income or racial profile for a city or
are they have a city web site. These usually havesub-area within a city, this information should be
a list of local schools. If this isn't possible, ask yourthere. It can help you to understand the area you
real estate agent if they have any informationare moving to, and in extension, the types of kids
about local schools or districts.yours will be going to school with. Perhaps you've
While public schools don't necessarily have theirchosen a home that's close to a new job, but the
own web site, school districts often do. Privatebest schools are in another part of town. You'll
schools, at least the good ones, will definitely havewant to know, and plan your routines in advance.
their own web sites. Many communities haveSchool District web sites should have contact
more than one denominational school as well as ainformation for individual schools, allowing you to
variety of specialty schools such as Waldorf,find information about available bussing, school
Montessori or those offering an advanced orstart and end times, etc.
university prep curriculum.Waiting until you move to research local schools
Online schools are gaining popularity and manycould mean your child misses more school days
school districts now offer distance educationthan they have to. In addition,6 a.m. the Monday
programs, which essentially act as onlinemorning after your big move is NOT when you
extensions of their regular curriculum. These allowwant to be wondering whether the local public
students the flexibility of studying from home atschool will suit your child, or if a bus goes by the
their own pace, while providing them with aneighborhood of your chosen school. Planning in
teacher to email their questions and assignmentsadvance will save you stress at moving time, and
to. These programs work well if you have anconsidering everything that is involved in a move,
advanced, self-motivated teen, live in a very ruralthe more stress you can remove, the better.