Moving home can be an exciting experience, but also an emotional one. Finding the right schools for your children often adds to the stress and sense of upheaval. Understandably, many of us look for continuity - schools and local amenities with comparable or better services than the school area our children currently attend.

However, as every empty nester will tell you - the time really does fly by. Your 6-year old artist who lives for their after-school painting class might well turn into a 16-year old tech whiz in search of a local robotics club. So how should parents prepare for that?

Looking Ahead

When moving home, always keep one eye on the future, rather than concentrating all your energies on the present. It is, unfortunately, not uncommon for parents to move house for the fantastic elementary school everyone raves about only to find that the high school doesn’t have the program or after-school activities their children now want. You need to consider both continuity (‘can my child keep doing X as they move schools?’) and change (‘my child loves X now, but they might like Y in future’).

Education & Language Programs

Look at the services offered across the different school grades to understand how the language program or special education services you need will grow with your child. Does the high school offer the IB program or AP classes? What are the options for dual enrollment or career & technology classes?

You won’t be able to prepare for every eventuality, but having a rough understanding of what lies ahead will help you navigate the school system down the line.

Capital Improvement Plans (CIP)

Moving to an up and coming area? Exciting, but it’s likely that many others are too. Northern Virginia is a case in point.

Increased population brings more traffic and greater pressure on local resources. Review the school district’s population growth predictions and how they will affect local schools. Take a look at their capital improvement plans while you’re at it to see how they are preparing for the future: from modernizing/expanding current school buildings to constructing new schools to increase capacity.

Be aware of area redistricting plans too. It can be very annoying to find the perfect pyramid only to discover that your child’s current school will feed into a different middle or high school than planned for. Some due diligence may highlight potential red flags and avoid upset down the line.

Bottom Line

Selecting a school pyramid for your child takes a certain leap of faith - as teachers and principals come and go, school ethos can change along with them. Your children will likely change their interests a dozen times over their school years making it hard to know what they might need.

While you can’t predict the future, you can take a look ahead and find areas which give your family options and prepare yourself for navigating the school system you’re moving to.

When the day comes to empty the refrigerator and finish packing up your ‘soon-to-be-old’ home, you can rest easy that you have done the best you can to prepare for your family’s needs in the years ahead.

For those moving to the Northern Virginia region, we can assist your search for the perfect school and can recommend a local realtor we work with to find your perfect home to go with it.