Elements to Consider When Choosing a School District to Move Into
Families and soon-to-be parents can plan ahead and secure the best possible future by thinking through these factors.
Whether you’ve got kids in school, daycare, or are looking for a forever home to start having kids in, the quality of surrounding schools is likely top-of-mind in your search for a home or lot. Compounded with all the other factors of house hunting and moving, this huge consideration can be daunting! Zooming in on these four factors will help you get a clear view of school quality in the areas you’re considering.
School Ratings and Reviews
A quick and easy first step to checking on school quality is visiting sites like Great Schools, which assign ratings to schools. There’s an overall rating as well as a more detailed breakdown of factors like test scores, availability of advanced courses, and equity. You can also search by city or area and see the top-rated schools, then backwards plan based on the location and boundaries for those schools.
While the data on Great Schools is relatively comprehensive and quality-focused, it’s far from being the only data out there. Search the National Center for Education Statistics for numbers like student/teacher ratio, enrollment by race/ethnicity, school size, and number of students on free or reduced-price lunch programs.
For a limited glimpse at student input, checking reviews in Google and Apple maps serves as a starting point. Sifting through them (if there are any) might give you an overall feel for student experiences at a school or district. While it’s best to take these reviews with a grain of salt, they can contain solid information on school culture.
Realtor Input
A major aspect of your realtor’s role is helping you find homes that match your criteria and priorities. Narrowing your search to top-rated school districts means your realtor should be stepping in to help provide local knowledge as well as extra research.
Much of the time, since real estate agents are generally local to the area they serve, they may even have personal experience with school districts nearby to them. Getting a local’s first hand opinion may be far more helpful than any numbers the internet can spit out. If your realtor doesn’t have firsthand experience and you’re new to the area, don’t be afraid to ask them to put out feelers in their network to gain some intel!
Your Family’s Values and Needs
When sifting through data, reviews, and realtor input, being clear about what actually matters most to you and your children is key to making any other information meaningful. Thinking through programs you want to see - like special education, gifted and talented, or IB - and narrowing down schools and districts that way leaves you with an efficiently-produced list of your best options as far as what areas to move your family into.
This step might also include looking outside traditional public school boundaries and considering private or charter schools as well. If you’re not inspired by the data and feedback on schools where you’re moving, these opt-in structures can mean additional options and better opportunities.
Tours
Once you’re down to a few solid options, or before you pull the trigger on buying a home in a certain district, set up a tour if possible. Whether in person or virtual, touring a school is the very best way to see firsthand what kind of culture flourishes there and what is prioritized. Preferably, tour when students are in the building and take note of how the school feels. What’s hanging on the classroom walls? How do teachers speak to students, and vice versa? Is there age-appropriate time for play scheduled into the day? Are there extracurricular options? Does the space feel clean?
Addressing these specifics may feel time-consuming, which is why it doesn’t make sense to try going this in-depth with every school in the city. But touring, or even just speaking to a real staff member of the school, will reveal the true character there and will give you a more authentic view than anything a district could post on a website.
Ready to build a forever home for you and your family to thrive in? Atmos is here to help you through every step of the process.
