Best school districts for special needs? (Bloomington, Eden Prairie: how much, house, neighborhoods)

[leighmae]

I will be moving to the Twin Cities and am wondering if any of you are familiar with which school districts have the best special ed. programs. My daughter is only 2 1/2, but special-needs children her age are already involved in special ed. with the school district because they get therapies and such through the schools. We are looking to live in the western 'burbs somewhere, and I'm wondering if there are particular districts I should avoid or particular districts I should gravitate toward. Thanks.

[sushigirlie]

It would probably help for us to know how much money you are willing to spend on a house before people start recommending you neighborhoods.

[Anneee]

Bloomington is a great town for families. There are lots of well-funded special ed programs in the public schools and their Parks & Rec staff are fabulous with kids with special needs. As a bonus, their housing prices have really dropped off in the last year so you could get a real deal. Stick to the west end of the city.

[Random Hero]

I grew up in Eden Prairie, from what I have seen(went to ep schools 2-12), it seems like we have a very good education system, for both special-ed students and non special-ed students. The kids are (mostly) accepting, and easy on kids that are different, but you do get kids making fun of other kids as you would in other schools.

One thing I hated about the schools here was how they split up the kids. Elementary school was 1-4 and there were 4 schools, 5-6 are in one building, 7-8 are one building, and 9-12 are one building. The high school is huge(university of eden prairie as we call it), and there are a lot of kids, but I still felt as though there was enough student to teacher contact, to make the students feel like if they had a question it would get answered.

Hopefully EP will get on breaking the high school up into 2 or 3 different buildings.

[golfgal]

If you are looking in the western burbs you are not going to have a problem with any of the schools. Why specifically the western burbs? One thing to keep in mind is that for the most part, that is the most expensive place to live in MN.

[nick is rulz]

District 287