Moving to Good School Zone

I would stay if you know what area you want to live start looking now. If it's like here you will not enroll him till next spring. But you have to live there at the time of enrolling him. We moved where we wanted my oldest to go to school the summer before he started and didn't get to enroll him till the end of summer. But 9 years later if we did that now they might tell us we have to go to a school that's farther aways because they are full. I would sugest that you shoot for about Jan. if not sooner. That way you can get settled in before worrying about that.

My advice.. if you want a particular high school.. and a particular jr. high.. and a particular elementary.. go to the school district office and get a map of the school district boundaries.. so you will make sure that your new house is in the district. you would hate to buy or rent a house and find out it is on the wrong side of the street and your child will nto go to the school you want.

however... my opinion... do not put to much emphasis on test scores. our districts has great test scores.. it took me a while to realize that I didn't care what the schools overall test score is.. as long as my kid was learning and passing.. our school has many resources for struggling kids.. but does almost nothing for my kid cause he is above the level....

Also.. you want school to be a happy place.. not a military academy where they are forcing the kids to learn things they are not developmentally ready for.. a friend complained her daughters had timed math tests in kindergarten and spelling words in kindergarten.. Our school does not do this at all.. So... visit the school.. ask for a tour.. try to see a classroom in action.. but test scores are not the only factor.. parental involvement is the biggest factor in student success..parents make the difference in how well a child does. a school cannot succeed without parents that care.

I live in Irvine. We moved from West LA when my son was two, largely to be near family, but also for the better schools. If you can come down here, I totally recommend it!!! I love living here - great friends, great schools, parks everywhere, dozens of supermarkets and Targets, etc.

Anyway, in most OC schools, kindergarten registration usually opens in March. However, kids who move to the neighborhood anytime before the start of the school year can generally enroll without a problem. Occasionally, a neighborhood school will fill up and a kid will have to go to another nearby school, but that is rare. And, since all the schools in Irvine are excellent, it's not really a big deal anyway.

If you're staying in LA, a lot of the best schools are local charter schools (public and free), but they do have lottery systems. If you don't get your paperwork in on time for the lottery picking, you'd have virtually no chance of getting in later in the summer, since there will still be a long waiting list. If you're coming to OC or the valley, it's not as crazy.

If you can shoot to be in your new neighborhood by spring, the enrollment process will probably be easier. But as long as you're there before the start of the school year, you should be fine.

The thing about LA is that if you are in a nice neighborhood, it doesn't mean the schools are good so it's hard to figure out where to go. When I was looking for houses my son was 2 years old and I wound up moving to Northridge for the schools. I picked a nice area where all 3 of the schools have great scores and great reputations so he could go K - 12 without any worries. If you go to LAUSD website you can put in the address you are looking to move to and it will give you all the local LAUSD schools. If the website does not recognize the address, you can email someone at LAUSD and they will get back to you with the schools. You can then check out the schools to see if they are right for you. If you move during the school year your local home public school must let you in. A lot of the local schools have become Charters but they still have to let you in if they are your home public school. The public Charter school lotteries are for people outside the school's boundaries that want to come to the school and they get whatever spaces are left.

It was nice that my son started Kindergarten in our home school and he is now finishing that school and going to 6th grade with all his friends. Hope this helps!

Generally, no. You can look on the district's website to see what school he would attend and how to enroll. Some areas have a lottery or you have to show up early to get your kid in x school. Some it's just a matter of location assignment. Here, we are assigned a "home school" for Kindergarten. Then we fill out all the paperwork, attend orientation and registration, etc. We do not get a choice of elementary schools in our area, just the one closest to us.

ETA: also look at how often they change school boundaries. There are a couple of large local districts that have redrawn the lines a few times and parents are mad b/c they moved for school x not school y. And my friend's DD is being bussed "for diversity" to another school. If that happens often, you might want to be really close to the school you want the kids to attend.

www.greatschools.org
Once you identify the schools that have a high academic rating and excellent parent reviews, look for the school boundaries on the link to the school website. Then, you look for the houses within that boundary.
This is the only way to go! We shopped for our house this way, and my son will be starting Kindergarden in a top rated, CA distinguished school next year.

Here in Portland, there is open enrollment and because of this, the lotteries for various schools get overwhelmed pretty quickly. This really depends, too, on if the school has room/funding to take students who lottery in. My son's school is highly desirable and I think there are more than a few families who moved into the neighborhood for the school specifically; some live in very nice houses and some live in some not-so-fancy apartments, but they all want the same good education for their kids.

I have known people who have sold their house to buy in good school neighborhoods. You can also find websites like Great Schools which rate the schools based on test scores, and I know one parent who made a district-wide schools spreadsheet. Warning: you can make yourself crazy.

Lisa O. had some good advice, too. We decided to go with our neighborhood school not because of the test scores, but because I spoke with a lot of other parents, at the park, at coffee shops, walking around the neighborhood, to see what *they* thought of the school. :)

Don't just look online, go to the school and visit before school is out!

My husband moved to a so-called "great" school district and enrolled his daughter in first grade. It was HORRIBLE! So you can't just go by what you see online.

Visiting the school will help you get a feel for how it really is.

Once you've chosen a good school district, be sure to see what middle and high school the grade school feeds into. Also, know that they do change boundaries and that sometimes it is dependent on the teacher you get. Nothing is certain! You can just do the best you can.

Hi Bumblebee,
This is a tough situation you are in. I am a homeowner, mother and real estate agent in Los Angeles and let me tell you- it's all about the schools! There are some really great schools and not so great schools... what I encourage you to do is go to the open houses that the schools hold (usually in the winter/february and spring/may). They are able to answer alot of questions about the important things--- most important (in my mind) is class size. When my husband and I were looking at houses/schools, we went to an open house one morning and discovered that in elementary school the class sizes went up to 39! That really worried me and so we continued our search. As you may know, LAUSD is a district in financial crisis, but there are many schools doing their best with active parent participation and fund raising. Many schools with lower ratings on the "great schools" meter are actually wonderful schools--- they might just have a high percentage of students for whom english is not a first language, and so the test scores are lower. Generally in any area, you are assigned to a school and then many of the better schools have lotteries for other kids (outside the area) if they don't fill up the spaces with district kids.
They usually fill up the spaces.
There are also alot of wonderful charter schools in LA, and they act almost as a private school without the cost. The enrollment in charter schools is based on a lottery so it is up in the air until the spring before you son starts school.

If you have any questions about all this, feel free to message me. It can be really confusing and having gone through it myself, I'd love to help out if I can.
Good Luck!

Call the school district, or go online and look at their boundaries. You can't just assume because a school is the closest it will be the assigned school.
Find out cut off dates, age restrictions and enrollment dates.
Find out what happens if your neighborhood school is full, where would your child be sent if that was the case.
Here kindergarten evaluations and registration start in February.
Do your homework NOW, before you make any moves!