Hey all,

I work for an LA-based company from the UK and my company is increasing the pressure to convince us to move to LA. It's big, it's crazy, I'll likely have lots of questions about that later, but the most important one on my mind is how a move would affect my kids?

I have two girls, 11 and 8, and the oldest will enter secondary school next year. I'm concerned about taking them out of their community at such a late stage and I'm concerned about the quality of education they would receive. Being an immigrant myself as a kid and suffering from racism in the UK, I'm hyper-sensitive about putting my own kids in a similar situation. But I know nothing of LA, so...

Does anybody have any experiences to share moving similarly-aged kids?

Thanks!

We moved to Boston in 1991 with children aged 9 and 6, so a little younger. But they adapted really well. We put the success down to the fact that we moved to a really multicultural suburban school district, where their peers were from Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Korea, South Asia, etc. Also plenty of American born kids, again from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Our white English kids didn’t stand out as outsiders at all!

As you know, LA is a big place. It’s a gorgeous city, lots to do in LA and the region in general. Don’t know much about schools except to say - if you move there, the school district will be one of your main factors in choosing where to live. Another factor is travel to work. My son lives in Pasadena and works in LA, a fair distance, but he has a great commute in via public transport, but other situations, you’d be forced to use your car to get to work. So .. lots of factors in making your various decisions.

I will qualify that a bit - there are parts that are nice, generally those areas up in the hills and mountains (Pasadena for example) but the majority of the city and county are not at all gorgeous in my opinion. The flatlands of LA are quite scruffy and parts are just dirty. It's also quite polluted still, despite years of work to improve air quality. And everywhere is congested and over-priced.

Agreed. Lots of good things in surprising places, but I’m sure you can say that about any city or urban area.

To the OP's question about schools... My kids moved to LA as adults and my grandkids are not yet school age, but there are multiple school systems in LA county. The main one is the LA Unified School District which is the largest school system in the country. But some areas are self governing and have their own. Around me i have Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena all with their own school districts which seem to be well regarded. Choosing a good school district might be your most important decision.
LA is overall probably one of the most racially diverse cities in the world. Around me i have significant Latino, Armenian and Asian (Japanese, Korean) populations but i don't feel they mix very well - they operate in their own worlds in their native languages. LA to me seems a mosaic of individual cultures.
For your kids ages, with the eldest at 11 I would say that is just about the upper limit to get adjusted to a new school system. At 14 they enter high school and that's where it gets difficult to transfer UK to USA.

Downtown LA (just been for work) is literally strewn with tents, needles, and human faeces.

Suggest stay in the burbs

Like any of the world’s great cities, it’s a curate’s egg. Lots of world class architecture in LA, downtown and other places. Great museums, concert venues, the opera house obviously. The Catholic cathedral is grandiose and .. let’s just say, disappointing & mediocre. I’m sure some people love it, though. A real gem in LA is the central library. Probably the single best “tourist” thing I did in LA was go on one of the free tours of the building that the library provides.

Neighborhoods - Little Tokyo is lovely. Lots of interesting restaurants and bookshops and other retail and food surprises. UCLA, probably the most spectacular major university campus in the US. It has a very nice museum, too.

When we moved to Houston in 1987 our kids were younger than OP's, at ages 5 and 7, and they both adapted really quickly to the move. We expected to move back after 2 or 3 years but ended up staying 29 years so I don't have any experience of moving them back (they moved back to England in their late 30's.) They both prospered well in US schools and universities.

Our daughter moved to the LA area to start a new job in 2013. For the first 6 years she lived in Santa Monica which is where the company was located but within a couple of years it had relocated to a new campus near Culver City and our daughter switched from walking to work to riding the new extension to the LA Metro. She couldn't afford to buy a house in Santa Monica so bought one in Mid City, LA close to the Metro line and continued using it to commute to work. This was in 2018 and Mid City was going through gentrification so she was able to buy a 100 year old 3 bed house for $800,000, mortgage $500,000 which needed a little work but she could easily afford it. When she moved to England in 2022 she sold it for $1.2m. We visited quite a few times and very much enjoyed the experiences.

Air quality is bad, we've stood at the end of Santa Monica pier gazing out at the brown haze on the horizon. When our daughter moved back here (her house is in the N. Yorks Moors National Park) she was going to buy an air purifier for her house but discovered that the outside air quality here was better than inside her house in LA even with its air purifier.

Our girls were 9 and 11 when we arrived. I thought they adapted well but, in hindsight, they struggled more than I appreciated. One moved back to UK at 20, the other still lives in US and is now a citizen. We actually left this year after 24 years. It was a ride - a real adventure - but I am relieved to be away now. High school was a real issue for both girls with lots of bullying and lack of support. One home schooled very successfully, the other graduated, just, and was voted The Slacker of the Year. There was one method of teaching to one style of learning. I cannot compare to UK as we have been gone for 24 years but I know, from my US teacher friends, that teaching to the test is still prevalent, parent power has gone rampant and bullying and racism to still alive and thriving.

And like any city, living the daily grind is not at all like visiting and doing the tourist stuff. OP has indicated more LA living questions to come later, and I've given other folks advice previously on what to expect. His immediate concern is schools and that I'm not sure. My grandkids are a few years away from kindergarten. I have a general feeling that the smaller school districts of the incorporated cities in the burbs might be better than LAUSD, but i don't have any actual data. And OP has not indicated if he will be in LA itself, somewhere else in LA county or even Orange county. Some folks lump that into LA but it is administratively totally separate.

Yes, I absolutely agree with you. And yeah, OP hasn’t said where they’ll be working.

its so subjective. I moved with a 12 & 14 year old. one of my kids found it much more difficult to adapt than the other. 6.5 years on, they are both happy and enjoying college more than they enjoyed school.

I think they will adjust better than you, or at least more quickly than you. They'll be in a more 'open' environment of a school system with new kids popping up all the time. Socially I would expect them to find a groove quickly, if in a good area with a nice, diverse school. You should really check out the areas to find a community in which they will have some support from others like them. LA is huge so you'll probably find some areas better than others.

The bigger question, though, is what your long-term plan is. Is your 12-year-old (or you) thinking about a UK university? What is your plan to keep them in America after they 'age out' (i.e., after they are no longer covered by your work visa but have to find a visa on their own)? If you want to send the older one back to the UK, then it might be worth considering an international or IB school program. You'll also have to deal with the international fees if they go back to the UK with you no longer being a resident.

Thank you for all your thoughtful replies, they really help. I might be overthinking all this but my real worry is that they don't grow up with the experiences I did.

For context: as a result of moving overseas early on in life at a sensitive stage, and being made to feel immediately unwelcome by the children around me and their parents; I've moved around the world throughout my years with an inability to settle anywhere I call home or integrate fully in any community. In stark contrast, my children have been in the same place all their lives and are thriving. The last thing I want to do is tear the roots out of their support network.

My job is in San Gabriel and according to information posted on this board, my income would be over the average required to live comfortably for a family in LA. My company needs me to grow them fast so the plan would be to return to the UK in 2 years and give our oldest a year to prepare for GCSEs: I have no interest in putting them through the US university system.

I'm not sure how the US education system stacks up against the UK's...probably worse for many schools, better for others. Pick a good school area and I think they'll be fine.
Our four girls were 13 to 3 years old when we moved to the US 25 years ago. They've had their ups and downs, but overall they got a good education, made lifelong friends, have higher degrees and great careers. The BEST thing about the US education system is that it gives you and your children access to the US economy...which is significantly more dynamic than the UK's. Our girls aren't exceptional, but they all now have interesting and extremely highly compensated careers. They've occasionally mused about returning to their homeland in the UK...but a quick google on their standard of living puts that idea to bed. We visit the UK regularly, but our home is now in the US and we're staying here.