Originally Posted by markcst

As someone who has gone through the conversion to the Texas School system just make sure you are prepared to do some work beforehand to make sure your kids get what they need and deserve.

1) Get reports from their current school which breaks down their current level of education, the subjects they have done, the amount of time they spent on each and their achievement in each. Ironically its the hours things that seems to matter most to councilors who will place your kids in class and give them credits.

2) Be prepared, no matter where you think they are for your kids at High school level to be put in a catchup lab or classes. This happened to my son, who is WAY ahead on Physics and Maths compared to kids here and is now, ironically because he zoomed through the catchup, got bored, and did a load of other modules in catchup, even further ahead, such that the Physics teacher he now has wants him in year above classes, but the councilor is refusing... US schools don't get that GSCEs are ahead of what they do, at the same age, is the long an short of that anecdote.

3) Immunizations. Texas schools are strict. If your kids haven't at least started the course of injections, they'll stay at home until they have. BTW they also have the saying no kid left behind...

4) ACTUALLY when you are in the system its great. My daughter is blooming and my Son, despite all the messing him about, is getting a more rounded education rather than him being able to become Sheldon Cooper. (Not that I have a problem with knowledge, I'd just rather he understood there was more to life than String Theory).

5) Just remember where you live picks the school in the Texas public system, there are no exceptions. Make sure you check that your area is NOT being rezoned in the next few years too. The biggest criticism I hear from locals is rezoning of schools. It can literally just be a change of a couple of feet and your door is in a different zone next year.

Originally Posted by Bomjeito

We have our kiddos in preschool now. We simply can't justify the expense of BISH, AWTY, Village or even Yorkshire Academy. Most people we know sending their kids to these schools have the education subsidy with their package here.As we do not, we researched the various church-based schools and picked a very nice, small preschool (they have a k-12 as well), that is half the price of the others. Our cachement area in Cy-Fair for elementary is abysmal. We DO know we won't do public schools, so this gives us some nice education with reasonable cost and a few years to figure out if we are staying or going back to Aberdeen.If they were in high school, having already started the IB programs, we'd find a way to pay for BISH. We have twins, which is pricey!

Originally Posted by Owen778

I have to admit I'm surprised by your thinking. Which elementary school in CFISD are you zoned to that's so bad it deserves being called "abysmal"? Our eldest has been in three different elementary schools (Sampson, Warner and Pope), and they've all been good. I understand some in the eastern parts of the district are worse, though.