Finding School

Finding School for Your Kids
Your kids will probably go to public schools, which are free of charge(unlike private schools, where you need to pay tuition).

There are huge differences in quality of public schools in the USA in various town districts or towns.

If having kids, living (renting a house or appartment) in good school district is beside the commuting distance to work main important thing to consider. For you similarly as for the US citizens this is the main criteria for finding a rental place, so school rating and school boundaries are oftern link together on the home rental websites.

Every public school in USA is rated from 1-10 (10 highest) score. The scores are saying how good is the school in particular state. The score reflects the scores in read, math and science, but it also reflects how the students are making progress and how the school is able to incorporate various needs of students (with english as a foreign language this is going to be your child as well).

All informations about all schools is possible to find at:

https://www.greatschools.org

you can also find there race overview of the students attending the school (which also tells you a lot about the population in particular school district), boys-girls ration, teachers and general info about the school and after school activities. (We have spend a year in US with primary school kids and as the school is ending at 3-4pm kids were pretty tired to do any afterschool activity, even in CZ they have plenty. Lot of the activities are included in normal school curicullum - for our school instrument playing etc.)

Finding a good school district means spend many hours browsing the web, but it is really really worth it.

Other similar aggregator of school rating is

https://www.niche.com

From our experience school rating really reflects the overall quality of the school. There is big difference between school rated 10-8 or 3.

When looking for a home or apartment, both Zillow (even with the map of the school district boundaries)

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_rent/

and Realtor show you rating of schools in the area. The information are not always 100% accurate, but are enough to get the idea. If on border, one side of the street can belong to one and second to the other school district with very different school rating.

Generally speaking, based on where you live, your kids can go only to schools in that particular school district. In general, school district is the same as the city where you live. However it is always better to check with local school district which school your chosen home belongs to, before you sign the rental contract.

In some school districts parents can ask any school to take their children. Again, check with your School District Office.

Kids would walk to school or school bus will be stopping in front of your house or appartment house to pick up your kids, so there is usually no need to drive your kid to school.

School offer for primary school kids Before and After Care (for extra fee) before and after the school. Than you need to pick up your kid at school from it. Also from after school activities, even organised at school you need to pick up your child.

As your child is probably not fluent in english, he or she will need to attend extra English classes (English as a Foreign Language - ESL classes) as a part of his/her everyday school day. Many schools offers ESL in the same building but not all, in this case your child would need to transfer for ESL to other school. School automaticaly assign ESL classes for the children, with no additional costs. Just another thing to consider when choosing a school, if the school is providing ESL and if your child would need to travel for it.

We have chosen a school with rating 10-8 little bit farther from work and we were really really glad that we did.