One of the most important factors to consider when you are moving your family is education. Finding the right school within the right school district for your children is a factor that trumps many others. In many cases, the need to find good schools when moving to a new area supersedes many desired home features. But how exactly should you go about finding the best possible school for your children when you move? Read these tips from Champion Movers.
What are you looking for in a school?
Whether you are moving to Las Vegas or moving across town, the first thing to consider when you’re moving your family into a new school district is what exactly you are looking for in a school. Before you load up the moving truck, you should write up a list of aspects of a school that matter to you. You’d be surprised how often that the desired aspects of a good school outweigh the desired aspects of a new home. For example, does the school have accommodations for special needs, are test scores high, what subjects and programs are available, what is the class size?
Other factors that you should consider are:
- Transportation.
- Sports and extracurriculars that are offered.
- A diverse student body.
- Retention and graduation rates.
- Facility features.
- State education rankings.
While most of the items on your new-school wishlist may be just preference, there are plenty of incentives to find the right school. You just have to figure out which are requirements and which are just preferred. You might find that a diverse student body or higher average test scores might be more important to you than convenient transportation or a particular sports program that is offered.
Compare Schools Online
When it comes to finding good schools when moving to a new area, you should let your fingers do the walking. This is, after all, the age of reference and search engines can be your best friend. Most, if not all, schools and school districts are ranked online and you can view and compare rankings between schools that are down the road from each other or on either end of the school district.
Find Local References
One of the best ways to gauge if you want to send your children to a new school after your move is by asking parents who send their kids to that school what they feel about it. This may be hard if you are moving out of state or across the country, though. If you can meet people within the school district and ask about the school you should! Alternatively, you can head back online and read reviews, find discussion forums, and other parental resources like a local PTA that you can ask for recommendations.