How to Start Looking for a School

I have lived in Dallas my entire life. You will deffinetly need to look at the area in which you are being placed. Dallas Independent School District (public school) is not the best, but they do have some wonderful private schools.

Wow, I thought moving from Chicago was a bit far. Start with the area you want to live. Public schools are free, private school tuitions vary greatly by school. Kids don't start public school here until the September after they turn five, so if you're only going to be here a year or two you will be doing maybe kindergarten. For kids under five there are a variety of preschools to choose from, but they are privately run and cost depending on the program, some are just a few days a week and some are every day, some have real academic programs and some are glorified daycare. There are two things I would recommend. Start by talking to a realtor, someone who can find you a house to rent, they tend to know a lot about the neighborhoods and consequently, the schools. Once you know where you kind of want to live, post on here and ask for preschools within however far you want to drive from approximately where you want to live. Change your zip code in your profile to the area you want to live first, that might put you in a different discussion group on mamasource, beacause they group us by zip code. For Kindergarten, the first year of public school, your 4 year old would start this fall if he/she turns 5 before Sept 1st otherwise not until next year. There is a website www.greatschools.net that ranks our public schools by test scores and teacher ratios and stuff, so once you know approximately where you want to live, you can look up individual schools in that area on that site. Sounds complicated, sorry. If you have any more questions, send me a message. My husbands work is considering sending us to Brazil for a couple years, so I empathize.

Hello V., I have lived in Dallas for 35 years. I went to public and private schools. We are moving our children into the Highland Park Independent School District. We are going to live in University Park. It was just rated the #1 suburb in all of Dallas/ Fort Worth. The schools have been top of the line nationaly since I was a child and probably even before I was born. The district is over 100 years old. This is where you want to be if you don't want to move when it is time for middle and high school. The senior class won $320,000,000 in scholarship money this last year and they only have 1000 graduates. In the area the Dallas Magnet schools are in the top 30 in the country so check them out as well. Another nice area near your husbands work is Lakewood They have good elementary schools and then you will have to move somewhere else. You need to check out what kind of demographics you want as well because the areas are changing fast. Carollton is getting a very large Korean and Musulim population, North Dallas is getting a very strong Jewish and Hispanic population. There are lots of very nice suburbs but not many are in Dallas proper or near where you say you might be living. Most of University Park are poeple who are willing to live in smaller houses than they can afford to get their children in the good schools. The best thing you can do is get the July D magazine which rates all 62 of Dallas/ Fort Worth suburbs and start from there and then come and visit. Let us know how it works out for you there are lots of houses for sale in University Park as many of the older couples are now moving into nursing homes.You should get a great exchange rate and the economy will allow you to buy well. Good luck. Miriam

I can tell you that you probably wouldn't want to live in SE Dallas, therefore you don't want your kids going to school there either. You may want to look at communities in North Dallas or even Mesquite, you will have better luck finding acceptable schools and homes in those areas.

sorry i didn't answer the whole thing.

if you choose public schools, they are free and the 5 yr. old would be ready to start. As for a 2 yr. old, you have the option of day care(100+ dollars a week)pre-school(200 or so per month)and if one of you doesn't work but just want to expose the kids to other kids, there are many very inexpensive ways(mommy's day out)to do that.

Hi V.

I'm E., german and living since April'06 in the north of Dallas with my family. Two girls who are almoust 8 and 5 years old.
My husband got the offer to work over here, so we moved from Bern\Switzerland to Dallas.
What a big differrent, but interresting.
Even from Belgium to Switzerland is a huge differrent in the school system. Switzerland is similiar to Germany.
But the USA seems to be similiar to your system.
It's just, the preschools in the States are paylable.
If you know the area where you will move in, you can check the churchs. The churchs has mostly a lot of offers for preschools. Mostly the are not for the whole week, just for 2 or 3 mornings in the week.
Preschools starts from the age 2-3 on.
Children starts over here with school with the kindergarten year, what means the need to be 5 latest in August.
The public schools are sometimes a lot differrent in the school districts. You have to watch close the school.
We had our younger girl with age 3 started in a Montessori school. They are some in Dallas. We made really good experience with this kind of school. Our costs was around $2.400 for 1 semester (fallsemester) - half day (8.15 - 11.45am). The same for the spring semester.
The second year our little one was able to attend the whole day, (8.15am - 2.30pm) and it was $3.200 for 1 semester.
The privat schools are mostly more expensive.
Now she will start at the same public school like our older one. We got a really good elementary school in our neighbourhood. What was lucky! They like your help as volunteer at school.
I'm maybe not confirm with every thing, but I learned a lot in the past 2 years. If you have any questions or need a little bit help in what ever, send me an personal message.
Good luck, E.

V.,

When you say SE Dallas, the city of Mesquite comes to my mind. They have a pretty good public school system (free) that has won several awards for their preformance. A 2 to 3 bedroom home in the Mesquite area is much less expensive than what was quoted to you for the other areas. It will run between $700 to $1200.

Another option is montessori schools. Just google "Montessori schools in Dallas" and you will find all the info you need on that.

I don't know if it is like this in other parts of the world or not, but if your husband's job will be in (let's say) Mesquite, many people live in Plano, Forney, Rockwall, Arlington... in other words, we live all over and then drive to where our job is. I suggest finding the school system you like, living there, and your hubby commuting to work. I will tell you though - the commutes here are a bear! :)

Whatever you do, STAY OUT OF BALCH SPRINGS! We bought a house here about 6 years ago when it was a nice, quiet town. Now, we can't sell our house and HATE living here.

Good luck on the move! Oh, something you might want to consider - our summer utility bills range from $200 - $300. That is something you might want to consider when deciding how much to spend on a house.

If you look in the "Lower Greenville" or Lakewood area there are two really good elementary schools. There's Stonewall Jackson and Lakewood elem. If you go a little farther north to Lake Highlands you're still in east Dallas but a different school district - Richardson ISD. There are some good schools over there, like Whiterock and Merriman Park.

Good luck!

Hello,
I don't know how far South and East you're looking to move, but we used to live in the "M-Streets" (south of Mockingbird and east of Hwy 75), also known as "Lower Greenville". We really enjoyed the area but unfortunately, the school zone we lived in was not very desireable (there are others that are great though). The area is close to pretty much everything in Dallas proper. We have a modest 2 bed home (we leased it out) and moved up North to Plano where public school is free and exceptional. Public school in the US begin at age 5. It is very common to lease in that area and average rents for a 2-3 bed home go for $1500 - $2500/mo.

So, on to the school suggestion - our son attended Dallas International School for 2 years www.distexas.org . It is a French-based curriculum and the primary language is French (40%), English (40%) and Spanish (20%). Our 5 year old is very well-versed in Frensh now and does fairly well in Spanish too. The cost was approximately $9,000/yr + uniforms, lunch, elective afterschool programs, etc. considering the cost of average day care and other private schools in the area, we thought this was very economical. They begin enrollment at age 3. (I am fluent in Spanish and Italian.)

In the city of Dallas you have areas that have good public schools, and others you would want to stay away from. Should you choose Highland Park, you've got it made - but you've also got a shack that cost $1 million.

I've done so much research. Please let me know if you have additional questions. I just went through the stress of choosing a new school that was only 15 miles away - I could never imagine a move across the world!!!

C.

I have just moved into Red Oak which is a very small town on the southeast side of Dallas and I would very much suggest that you look your neighborhood over before making a choice.I have no children but most of the children around go to private schools.Which I feel is a sign that the teaching here isnt going to be as strong in public schools.Please come and check things out before you take the job offer.I am origanly from a sub in Houston and that is my home we came here for a job and that is the only reason for the stay.Guess there is no place like home.

When you say "Southeast Dallas" exactly what area are you talking about?

I have lived in a suburb of Dallas my entire life so I was just curious.

Are you talking about the areas of Lancaster, DeSoto, Cedar Hill?

V., I live in Lakewood/East Dallas. It's a great area, with close proximity to White Rock Lake, but you will not find any free schools for a 2 and 4 year old here (unless your children are special-needs students, in which case, they can attend a public elementary school for speech and social development therapy). There are many very good private preschools to choose from, though. My child's preschool costs about $4000 a year.

Here's a website that might be worth looking into:
http://www.greatschools.net/city/Dallas/TX

You can search by Dallas and surrounding cities for K-12 grades.

Hi there! My brother and his wife were in Belgium for 2 years and loved it. Welcome!
Have you checked out Ovilla Christian School? It is south of Dallas and there are many great neighborhoods around it. Ovilla Road has what we call "Mother's Day Out". It's a Tuesday,Thursday program for the little ones. It runs from about 9 until 2, I believe. During the school year, OCS has a K-4 for your older child. Great school! We have 3 children there this year and have been very pleased. Call them and check it out. Donna Garrett or Glynnis Morales would probably give you a tour. They are great folks. Price will be the cheapest in the area- around 4 thousand or so. The number is ###-###-#### for the school and ###-###-#### for Mother's Day Out. You would probably be speaking to Jeannie Funderburk or Lisa Ball about that program. You will like them all!
Hope that is helpful! J.