Reply to Please help this clueless family moving to MD target the right schools

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[quote=Anonymous]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? [/quote]

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