Please help this clueless family moving to MD target the right schools
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Anonymous
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Not sure if I'm posting in the right place, but here goes...
We are an African-American family, new to the DC area, and looking to buy a home in MD in the next 3-4 months. Our budget is 650k and we have no commuting concerns other than the need to live fairly close to an airport since I travel (or will resume travel) occasionally for work. Our search is somewhat complicated by our lack of knowledge of the different school systems in the counties we're targeting (Howard, Anne Arundel, Montgomery) coupled with having a child with special needs. DS is a 4th grader with severe ADHD. He has a decent IEP that we fought tooth and nail for with the support of an educational attorney. I say decent because I anticipate we'll need to further tweak his supports with the next school. His issues are all emotional/behavioral (lack of attention/focus, impulsive, struggles maintaining peer relationships, highly sensitive to perceived criticism, etc.). Yet, learning comes easily to him. He's naturally bright -- not sure the level of gifted -- but for sure his ADHD masks his true capabilities like many kids with his profile. As DS is a little black boy, part of our past battles with school officials included keeping unconscious biases and perceptions in check so that DS is set on the best possible course to have a good educational experience in spite of his disability (I get that we also own some of this as his parents). All that to say, we don't know what public school systems in which counties to target. Ideally, we'll find a diverse community within a school system that has proven experience supporting students with DS' profile. It's also important to us that DS is surrounded by kids that look like him. Unfortunately it seems the more diverse the neighborhood, the more poorly performing the schools, but we've been told by our realtor to look beyond GreatSchools and Niche ratings. This makes total sense to me, but then where do we turn for better perspective? I'm hoping the collective wisdom on this forum will help guide us a bit. Even anecdotal information would be helpful at this point. For example, we've had our eye on the Crofton/Gambrills area. Would we be a good fit for this area? How are the schools in this area for minority kids with special needs? |
Anonymous
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No Crofton/Gambills
Try parts of Rockville in Montgomery County meaning look for schools that feed to Richard Montgomery. Or maybe Dufief Elementary which feeds to Wooton. Dufief has a few pockets of older homes that might work. Or even schools that feed to Walter Johnson HS. Price point might be difficult but there are some houses out there. Howard county has good schools as well. I don't know those areas but there are areas there that would work better than Crofton/Gambills. |
Anonymous
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OPPS read your post incorrectly. Skip Dufief and Wootton that might not work. Sorry about that.
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Anonymous
| OMG. Not Dufief. Please. Utter mediocrity. I would do silver spring and Grace Episcopal... the only private school in the region that has laddered tuition. MCPS is an utter joke... |
Anonymous
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Ask on the special needs forum re school districts and ADHD. I have not been impressed with the two MCPS schools in Takoma Park re supports for ADHD and dyslexia. I don't know if Howard and Anne Arundel are any better than MCPS, or they just have fewer parents on the special needs forum.
One thing to think about are the test scores of diverse schools--if there's a big achievement gap, that's a red flag. School-level data broken down by race is available online. |
Anonymous
| MCPS is not a joke. They have worked with me and my ADHD child throughout ES and MS, and we have had good success at Blair with sibling. Putting in supports and meeting with me regularly to make sure he is well cared for and gets what he needs. Are you worried about demographics - do you want to make sure that he is not one of the few AA in his class, but also want to make sure that he is challenged and supported? For that, I would recommend the WJ cluster in Montgomery County - looking at Garrett Park and Farmland ESs and Tilden MS. Also Einstein and Blair clusters would both fit the bill - Blair is huge and emphasizes social justice issues across the board to a degree I haven't seen in many public high schools (I don't know much about the ES/MS that feed into those schools though there are definite differences in infrastructure and quality). I am not denigrating other schools in MoCo, just that the schools I mention I definitely recommend. |
Anonymous
Second this, though Silver Spring is a hike to Grace. Gaithersburg or Rockville would be closer. Alternatively, Silver Spring schools are supposed to be pretty good with IEPs. |
Anonymous
If diversity is important to OP, I would not choose Wootton cluster. I would not choose MoCo if you need to be close to an airport, either. Go up near BWI - HoCo. |
Anonymous
| You might also want to post in the Special Needs forum. |
Anonymous
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Based on your various criteria, I would recommend that you look in Howard County. First, you are not likely to find a house in MoCo that will meet your price restrictions in a good school zone. In your price range, you are getting the weaker parts of the school system.
If you look in Howard County you will get more bang for your buck and you will have an easier time finding a home in your price range, in a stronger school. Additionally, Howard County is a lot more accessible to airports (very close to BWI, which IMHO is the best of the three DC area airports). Additionally, Howard County has decent special needs and IEP processing. Although my children are NT, I have a few friends in the school system who have special needs children and although they did have to work actively to get all that they wanted into their IEPs, once they had their IEPs in place, the school system did well to honor the IEP and help the children. The fact that you already have an IEP from your current school system will be a bonus that should make getting accommodations easier for you wherever you decide. Unfortunately, I will caution you that there are race biases in the various MD school systems. AA actually has more race segregation in both housing and school. It's not overt, but you'll see that in many of the more upscale areas, that there are fewer minorities and significantly higher concentrations of white residents and students. The same can also be said of Montgomery and Howard, but to a lesser extent. I believe that there are fewer race issues (not none, but fewer) in Howard County schools than in Montgomery or AA counties. The Columbia/North Laurel areas are ones that I would recommend you consider. |
Anonymous
| We are not AA. We moved to Howard County from the Albany NY area a few years ago. We have been very happy with the diversity of the school system (ie we like that it's not majority white), but also occasionally a little underwhelmed with the quality of education. I DO wonder whether we would be dissatisfied no matter where we lived (probably..we are pretty picky). But I have to say that I really like the "feel" of this area, and the county in general is very welcoming and accepting (we live in the Wilde Lake/Dorsey area). I love the proximity to everything from international food markets to Costco/Target to hiking in Patapsco. 25 min to Baltimore and 45 to DC (non commuting hours) and BWI is 20 minutes away. It's been a great place for our family. |
Anonymous
| I think Howard county has an outstanding public school reputation |
Anonymous
| I was also going to suggest Columbia area. We are in moco, but I agree with PPs that you’ll get more bang for your buck in hoco and closer to the airport. |
Anonymous
| OP please know that when people say “ good schools” on here they mean majority white schools. There is more to learning and getting an education than test scores. I would choose Howard over AA and both are closer to the airport. We are in the NE section of moco and can get to BWI in 25 mins. You could check out Silver Spring, Burtonsville, Cloverly areas. |
Anonymous
we looked in Hoco big got more for our money in moco. The Howard taxes and Columbia Fees took money from our mortgage. Moco was a better deal. |