Suspended

Great advice - thank you!

Suspended

We'll be moving to somewhere in Broward County. My office is in Fort Lauderdale.

17 Cherry Tree Lane

Florida is a MASSIVE state with at least three distinct weather systems & (as the saying goes) it's the only state in which "the further North you go, the further South you get." As I'm at least a 10 hour drive north of Ft. Lauderdale, ymmv, but school quality can vary WIDELY within Broward County. At the end of the day, much comes down to the karma of the school (which can also change over time). So, while not definitive, I hope my answer helps you stay "loosey goosey" & flexible in mind-set -- their accents will make them socially popular at least!

JAJ

Even if it (green card sponsorship) is "written in", and even if your employer follows through with the promise, you need to understand that the green card is granted by the U.S. Government. Not the employer. In other words, there could be unforeseen reasons that you might not qualify for the expected category, rules/timescales change, your case takes longer to process than usual, and so on.

kins

Not the only state - they call Maine as the Deep South of the far North, and it definitely gets more 'south' the further north you go...

manekeniko

Doesn't Florida also get more suthin' as you travel west along the Panhandle? They call that area The Redneck Riviera.

I personally would have benefited from living in another country or even in a different part of the USA as I was growing up. I would probably be less resistant to change now, as an adult. Kids are more adaptive than we give them credit for.

Portsmouth-Portsmouth

We moved 4 children- schools were part of the criteria we used when picking a house. Socially our school aged children adapted without a hitch. They did find the work load a bit heavier than in the UK comparing primary to elementary and secondary to middle school.

As said- we had family in the UK predicting doom and gloom, but all are happy and loving it.

Suspended

That's encouraging - I'm moving 4 too. What were their ages and where in the US did you move to?

Portsmouth-Portsmouth

We initially relocated to the Portsmouth NH area, and got the chance to move south, and are now in the southern tip of FL.

The schools where we are now are on par with the schools in NH more or less- though this took research. Put the effort in finding a house within a good school district, and chances are you will have no troubles.

That said- make sure the school assignments within the district are set firmly. There are some districts that work on a lottery basis, and you could wind up being in a nice neighborhood while your children are not in a nice school.

Our children range from 14 to 3.

kins

Good advice there. We are in a small town and if you pay taxes in the town then your children are guaranteed a place in the school system. In the city just down the road they use more of a lottery system.

Michael

I've never heard of that before. Generally a school district that has an affluent area has higher ranked schools than then the less affluent areas in the district and children in the affluent areas go to the higher ranked schools. The school districts have to do it that way or else the affluent area will break off and create it's own school district since the school district is funded by property taxes plus state and federal funding and families in affluent areas pay more property taxes.

The Fremont California unified school district has an area that is ranked 10 out of 10 and families in that area have first choice at their catchment school. However registration starts March 1 for school starting in the fall and if a family registers too late and the catchment school is full, the children may be assigned a lower ranking school in the district for that year. Registering after the school year starts is almost a certain guarantee that the child will be assigned a lower ranking school for the remainder of the school year since the high ranking schools will almost certainly be full since the district allows others in the district that are not in the catchment area to apply for spots in those schools just before the school year starts. Fremont doesn't have real low ranking schools so it stays together as one school district but San Jose has some schools that rank 1 out of 10 and there are several school districts in San Jose with the affluent areas having their own school districts.

Possibly if the city is small, there may not be an option to create two school districts.