How old are your children - what other activities are they involved in?

We have lived in our home since before kids, so my charter school children know the nieghborhood kids from block parties / the park etc.

My kids do not do soccer - so we do not have the neighborhood soccer team experience - but I am looking (thinking about) getting my daughter into a more neighborhood girl scout troop to reinforce neighborhood relationships.

I expect as we begin doing baseball, this will be another way to establish neighborhood relationships.

We are considering this issue as well (though I am not anxious about it and definitely not worried about "shunning") and have decided that the answer differs by neighborhood. If we decide to move within walking distance to Murch or Janney then we will switch the kids. Those schools seem to have a higher percentage of IB kids so there would be more of a community, plus the commute would be way worse to our charter. If we move to Hearst or Eaton then we will keep the kids in the charter (for the reverse of the above reasons). Honestly though I love our school and appreciate that having our spots allow us to consider the EOTP neighborhoods that also offer yards, such as Crestwood and Shepherd Park. I suspect we'll end up in one of those areas.

^^ I want to thank you for this very supportive comment. I'm very high anxiety when it comes to my kids. I'm a worrier, etc... I know it may appear neurotic. Anyways, I'm very glad to hear about the diversity and am excited about the potential option to live in that area. Again inventory is awful, but that's another discussion.