Which Wilmette/Avoca elementary school for 6 year old with special needs? (Evanston: low income, home)

[katie173]

Does anybody have insight as to whether there are any appreciable differences between the Wilmette elementary schools for a child with special needs? We are looking to move to Wilmette or Avoca school district. My son will be in first grade and I am scouring all the older threads trying to glean any info as to which school may be better, but to no avail. He does have an IEP for educational autism, lots of social challenges, has sensory issues and is exceptionally bright. Any thoughts Avoca West vs. Romona vs. Mckenzie etc? Any ideas welcome.

[nana053]

Join this meetup group and ask

North Suburban Parents of Kids with Autistic Spectrum Issues (Evanston, IL) - Meetup

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by nana053

Join this meetup group and ask

North Suburban Parents of Kids with Autistic Spectrum Issues (Evanston, IL) - Meetup

I have some lovely friends whose children received special education services and I made good allies of most of the parents whose kids I taught that also got special education services but I have found this is the single MOST controversial / personal subject regarding schools -- what one parent finds to be excellent policies / services an equally caring / concerned parent is utterly opposed to. I suspect this has as much to do with the preconception of each parent about the "path" such policies / services will result in and it is understandable that many parents feel this very personally...

I agree that meetup groups can be an excellent resource but you need to get a range of feedback before you focus too much on the often negative feeling that otherwise very nice, thoughtful parents express about special education.

(btw I personally have found that districts that are a bit larger tend to have a more flexibility in how they approach certain kinds of special education situations. It is not so much that smaller districts are any less caring, but the range of services they can offer is limited by the simple fact they have less staff and fewer alternatives...)

[twodoor2]

My son is autistic, and I heard from a realtor who is very familar with special needs programs in the North Shore and Greater North Shore area, that district 27 in Northbrook has a great special ed program. I looked up the percentage of IEP children in that district, and it is very high, as well as in district 30. They were half as high in Avoca and Ramona.

I think school districts with lots of funding do well for children in that arena.

[katie173]

twodoor2-thank you for the feedback about district 27 and 30, now i am second guessing just where we may move! I will need to do further digging,if you don't mind, can you tell me where you got the percentage of iep children in each district? Were you able to find a list that includes suburban schools (for easier comparison) or did you need to look up each school individually?

nana 053-thanks for the group suggestion and chet everett I really appreciate your thoughts, thank you both.

[chet everett]

The IEP data is available via school or district from the Illinois Interactive Report Card site hosted by NIU; there is no "regional rollup"...

It is easy to start "second guessing yourself" and get bogged down in "paralysis through analysis" -- that goes for feedback from other parents or the "hard" numbers. I really would place factors like "ease of commute" above any subjective feedback or even "headcount" of IEP students -- so long as you are comparing high quality schools with good funding levels the differences are likely to be about style / degrees of accommodation vs any particular lack of awareness.

If the home you choose has access to nice recreational options and makes easy for parents to get to after school activities that almost certainly will ultimately mean more than the IEP percentages...

[twodoor2]

Originally Posted by katie173

twodoor2-thank you for the feedback about district 27 and 30, now i am second guessing just where we may move! I will need to do further digging,if you don't mind, can you tell me where you got the percentage of iep children in each district? Were you able to find a list that includes suburban schools (for easier comparison) or did you need to look up each school individually?

nana 053-thanks for the group suggestion and chet everett I really appreciate your thoughts, thank you both.

Katie,
You're welcome. Here's the site fr Illinois interactive report card, that Chat also mentioned.

Illinois Report Card

If I remember correctly, Avoca and Ramona had around 8% IEP students, and distrcts 27 and 30 had about twice that many

I looked up each school individually, but you can do some comparisons. It was just more detailed if I looked up school individually. THere's even more information on academic progress for IEP students for high schools. I went with Northbrook, because I liked what the realtor told me (she also had children with special needs, and she specialized in the North Shore and Greater North Shore) and the amount of funding these schools get, as well as the IEP percentages. I am hopeful it will be an enriching environment for my son. I recently spoke with the district superintendent for 27, and asked her specific questions as well. Everyone has unique concerns about their child, even if they're autistic, and they can be addressed if you contact the superintendents. She got back to me right away and told me about the help he would receive in the areas I specified. It was helpful, even though, they do act very biased about their programs.

I did avoid district 34 (Glenview and Northbrook district) because of some scathing reviews, and lower test scores, in particular one school, despite the small level of low income families. It is important to note that just because a school has high test scores, this is not always the case for their IEP students. I did avoid some really good high schools because the IEP test scores just didn't cut it for me. For example, here's Glenbrook North's IEP test scores.

http://illinoisreportcard.com/School...50162250170001

This is twice as high as many other highly rated high schools that I was looking into. The only school with higher test scores for IEP students was New Trier, but I don't want to move into that district.