Top Tips for Parents Looking to Choose the Right School

When you start looking at new homes for your family, choosing the right school becomes a big part of the decision. You want your children to go to the right school, which means you need to choose a home in the right school district. Here are a few of the best tips parents can use to ensure they choose the best school for their children.

Consider Now and the Future

Unless you know you will be moving before your children graduate from elementary to middle to junior high and to high school, make sure you plan for the future. Maybe one school district offers the best elementary school, but the high school won’t be a good choice. Make sure you take this into consideration before making your final decision.

You want to make sure you look at all levels of schooling before you choose a school district. Maybe the neighborhood served by an above average elementary school offers one of the best middle schools and the best high school in the area. This could be a better choice than the neighborhood served by the best elementary school, an average middle school and a below average high school.

Don’t Just Trust the Numbers

School ratings are a great way to choose a school for your children, but they cannot be your only deciding factor. They can help provide a benchmark and reviews from other parents can also be helpful. However, you must go beyond the numbers.

You may consider the english and math test scores as very important. However, they don’t provide a look into the art programs, music programs or other programs offered by the school. They also don’t really show you how well the teachers at the school teach critical thinking to their students.

The right school won’t always be the one with the best test scores, the best teacher-to-student ratio or the best online ratings. Sometimes, the school best fit for your children offers something other schools don’t or just has a better way of teaching problem solving and critical thinking skills.

Look at the Entire Community

While the schools are important, the community is more important. You need to be very happy with the community you choose, even if the school wasn’t your first choice.

One of the best ways to check out the community is to go to the school board meetings. Why are the parents showing up? Are they there because of an issue or because their children are being honored? You can also attend PTA or PTO meetings to find out information about the community schools, as well.

In addition, make sure the community offers more than just great schools. Maybe you need access to excellent after school activities or weekend activities, as well. Take this into consideration before choosing a neighborhood for your family.

Tour the Schools

You wouldn’t buy a home without seeing it and walking through it, would you? The same should be true for the school you send your children. Make sure you tour the school and take the time to see what they offer and where your children will be spending a very large portion of their day.

If a school doesn’t want you to visit, it should throw up a red flag. You should be able to sit in on classes, if you want and tour the school to see the classrooms, where your children will play, where they will dine and other aspects of the school.

Keep in mind, when you tour a school, it should be rather noisy. If not, the principal may be more interested in keeping order than teaching children. Check out the way administration works with students, along with the teachers. You can learn quite a bit about a school by taking a tour and looking for the way students are learning and being taught, along with how students are treating the adults in charge at the school.

Make Sure you Feel Welcome

You should always feel welcome in the new neighborhood you plan to move into. Whether it’s at the schools or throughout the entire community, you want to feel like you’ll be welcomed. If you don’t feel welcome, your children will likely not feel welcome either. This can make it harder for your kids to make the change and succeed at the new school.

Choosing the right school district is a huge part of buying a new home for your family. It shouldn’t be a quick decision and you should take time to fully vet any neighborhood and the schools serving it before making your final decision.