Define your ideal school.

Before you even start looking, it is important to decide what is most important to you for your child. You can use criteria like foreign language opportunities, strength in arts and sciences, or a variety of other factors you find important to narrow down your choices. Once you decide what is important use the school is website, information available in pamphlets, or in-person visits to make sure the prospective school has proper offerings.

• A great way to understand how important something is to a school is to look at their available faculty and resources. Schools that have a lot of teachers and a demonstrated willingness to invest will be more likely to be strong in an area.
• Also keep in mind things like travel time. If it is a public school, find out whether where you live have available bussing. If you are going to need to drive your child to school every morning, make sure the distance and start-times work with your own schedule.