Reply to Need School Ideas?? And Insight on schools for new English speakers, & new to the usa/dc kids

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[quote=Anonymous]We are in the process of adoption. Our children will be pre-school and early school age.  While the older child will have learned some English in school it is not going the be their 1st language nor what is spoken in their current home & social settings.  They will be behind academically compared to what is expected for their age and corresponding grade level.  They will also have a huge cultural learning curve.  
We are considering some amount of home schooling if they come home mid-year or miss any chance at the DC lottery.  But we would like to attend school once they are ready and we are able to find the right one for each child.  We are in NE DC.  I would love to not have to drive an hour to take the kids to school but I will if we really need too.  Private school could be a option but the costs here really limit us.  
I am asking so that I can start making a long & short list of school to go and visit.  Hopefully that will help us narrow down which ones we will revisit with our children when the time comes. 
(BTW, Not looking for feed back on adoption. So, please stick to the the school topic. If you have found a specific school to be really supportive or not supportive of adoptive families that would be good to know.)

What we think we are looking for in a school:  
-Experience with non-English learners- not Spanish speakers- but non-English speakers from different backgrounds 
-Welcoming multicultural- yes this includes different skin colors but we are hoping for going beyond that to actual international cultural inclusion 
-Welcoming, respectful & supportive of diverse & non-traditional/different types of  families 
-Support for children with learning or mild behavior differences while still having primarily inclusive class rooms, encourages active parent involvement.  We understand that some services like speech therapy are done outside of a regular class room.  But we do not want our children sent to a all day special class only because they are starting out behind and not because they actually need long term intensive services.  Some issues that present with adoptive kids are not actually learning issue (some are) but often they are normal a adjustment.  A school that is understanding of this would be amazing!
-Multi-age class room setting or at least some classes/parts of the day that are mixed ages: it is likely our kids will be on target in some areas, behind in others, maybe a ahead in others.  It is very likely have had catching up to do the 1st year or two but, maybe on a more normal track later.  We don't want to see them forced into a much lower grade with out the opportunity to excel beyond that grade if they are able to do so.  Also, a multi-age class room would feel more familiar to them and maybe make them not feel out of place as the only 8 year old in 1st grade.

Thanks for your insight. [/quote]

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