I've had to move a bunch of times because of my xdh job. I've had the best luck with medium sized districts. This is when I've had no info and had to make decisions.
Too small-not enough resources and too personal so everyone knows everything. That's fine if they're good, intelligent competent professionals and parents, but they aren't always. Then the huge districts--like Houston ISD--have a lot of choices but not a lot of flexibility. If they do it for one kid then the other 500 will want it. The in between (the one now is 5 elementary, 2 middle and 1 high) has the been the easiest to deal with. Power is a little more spread out but it isn't so big that no one is responsible.
So maybe you could check medium districts in the northern part where friends are. And BTW your child's quality of life also depends on your sanity. Last year I went out once. ONCE!! To a hockey game which was great but this year I'm buyin' season tickets. I'm losin cause I have no life. I'm rambling again.
Good luck.
pat
going out with friends is an issue for me. i got to go out for a night in June of last year, for my birthday, but then didnt go out again AT ALL until April of this year. i went out once in April and once in May, but both times were a waste. a friend of mine had to drive an hour and a half just to pick me up, then we had to wait until my daughter fell asleep (after 10pm) then drove an hour to the cities, tried to find a place to go, and had to drive an hour back to my house so i'd be home at a relatively decent time (2am). very worthless. i didnt even bother trying to celebrate my birthday this year. and being a single mother, i want to date! i live in a small town and have had NO luck finding anybody here. i'd have much better luck in the city! but... blah... i always feel so guilty when i think that way, because my daughter is so much more important than me or my social life or dating. i currently live in southern minnesota, but for a while now i have been considering moving to the north metro, where i am originally from. almost my entire family and my friends live there; i have lived in southern minnesota for six years. i hadnt decided exactly where in the north metro i wanted to move to, but last week a realtor said that since i have a special needs child, i should research the school districts, pick the best one, and find a place to live within that district. i had originally (stupidly) picked district 11, since that is the district i was in from kindergarten until i graduated high school. it is a very large district and i (stupidly) assumed it would have great programs for special education. so i sat down at my computer today to do some research.parents are not provided current procedural safeguards notices in a timely fashion, the ISD 11 does not routinely provide parents prior written notice of changes to educational programs, and IEPs are regularly developed, reviewed and revised outside of the mandated IEP. This deficient team process results in IEPs that are not developed by a lawfully constituted team, does not ensure parental participation and fails to provide meaningful educational benefit. See, Par. 33-40.
IEP teams routinely fail or refuse to fully consider related services such as counseling, physical therapy, speech therapy and special factors such as positive behavioral interventions, communication needs, assistive technology needs, and extended school year services that some students need to benefit from their special education, in part due to ISD 11 district policies on those same issues. See, Par. 34 (Physical therapy), Par. 34, 35, 40 (Speech therapy), Par. 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40 (Assistive Technology), Par. 33-40 (ESY), Par. 37 (counseling), Par. 38, 40 (positive behavioral interventions).
Defendant ISD 11 routinely creates generic or “one size fits all” IEP programming, which is inconsistent with the individualized nature of IEPs. Defendant ISD 11 fails to have IEPs that include the child’s objective present levels of educational performance, measurable annual goals and objectives designed to meet the child’s ability to progress in the general curriculum and a means of objective progress measurement. See, Par. 33-40.
Defendant ISD 11 routinely creates IEPs that do not contain the individualized services, interventions and specially designed instruction to address the specific disabilities of the individual student. See, Par. 38, 40 (positive behavioral programs, including applied behavioral analysis), Par. 37, 39 (techniques to teach learning disabled children to read).[/QUOTE]
Sunny -
I read your posting with interest ... we are finding it very difficult to find information about special needs programs and school districts. If I had know all I know now about Santa Barbara County, we would not have moved here.
We are experiencing all sorts of issues including school district personnel lying, not showing up for IEP, not providing services, not mainstreaming but warehousing our children, not providing a FAPE, etc. The list goes on and on. The violations are so obvious I can't believe they are still on going but they are. I am begining to wonder if this is just it ....
See my posting about the "Best places to live".
Marie
I know. I'm a single mom and I struggle with the same kind of stuff. I just moved again (we've moved a lot of times) within the same district but to a different house. I know what that kind of change might do to Paul--it has turned out well but I was really torn about whether to move or not. It was a move more for me than him. But I also know that how he is doing is in part a reflection of how I'm doing. So I'm trying to find a balance somewhere that I can have a better quality of life. It will benefit him. It's just how to do it. But I think it's really important. His dad moved overseas for a job last year so it's me 24/7. That's new and I'm fried!!
I know it's hard. And we each have to do what works. Part of the reason for this move was to get closer into an area where things are more convenient and I can maybe do somethings. One thing for sure are my hockey season tickets!
Good luck. It's such a balancing act. Paul is doing so well right now--if he goes downhill I'm sure my plans will go out the window.
pat