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Knowing the catchment area for each elementary school really will not be of any help. It all depends on where the proper services are housed for your child. You can live next door to a school, but if the program the school feels your child needs, or the open space in a program is at a school across town, that is where your child will go.
True, our school district sent him to a therapeutic school which was over an hour each way on the school bus. There just wasn't anything closer.
That being said, choosing the right school district is still very important, because many districts will not obey the laws that require them to give proper services to our children.
You may want to hire a "parent advocate" before deciding where to move. Parent Advocates deal with unhelpful districts all the time & may be able to point you towards one with which they have not had much trouble.
If you're looking for a short-term rental you may find one on a sub-let basis. Admittedly, much harder than long-term to find. Try craigslist for the town of your choice to look for rentals, or get in touch with a local real estate agent, they handle rentals also.
Montville is a good option, schools are good, be careful of some of the apts in the Pine Brook area as several of those are a bit sketchy. Your commute from the Morris School District to the 287/80 area will not be bad (less than a half hour) so keep those towns in mind. Cedar Knolls and Whippany are also worth checking out, they fit your criteria well.
HTH
KoalaNJ
Is Pine Brook a town in itself or part of Montville? I ask this because I see address with cityas Pink Brook, NJ.
With Morris school district, you meant Morris Plains or Morris town school districts ? Bcoz there are no apt communities either in Morris Plains. Any thoughts on special ed in Morristown ? I am guessing that the commute in the morning will be in opposite direction (from Morristown to Parsippany) because all will be driving eastwards into NY and hence less traffic ? Would that be right ?
Other than PPTH, I will focus on Montville, Cedar Knoll and Whippany (both not towns but part of Hanover town)..boy..lots of unincorporated areas...I dont quite understand what unincorp means but its a topic for a different day .
True, our school district sent him to a therapeutic school which was over an hour each way on the school bus. There just wasn't anything closer.
That being said, choosing the right school district is still very important, because many districts will not obey the laws that require them to give proper services to our children.
You may want to hire a "parent advocate" before deciding where to move. Parent Advocates deal with unhelpful districts all the time & may be able to point you towards one with which they have not had much trouble.
If you're looking for a short-term rental you may find one on a sub-let basis. Admittedly, much harder than long-term to find. Try craigslist for the town of your choice to look for rentals, or get in touch with a local real estate agent, they handle rentals also.
As KoalaNJ suggested, I reached out to SPAN today. They took my information and said, someone will call be back by tomorrow evening.. I looked in their website for information on what they do, how they survive (who funds them) and why they do what they do (advocacy for Sp Eds)...does anyone know how they operate ? As long as I get the info I want, I should not bother much but want to know how much to expect from them..
As KoalaNJ suggested, I reached out to SPAN today. They took my information and said, someone will call be back by tomorrow evening.. I looked in their website for information on what they do, how they survive (who funds them) and why they do what they do (advocacy for Sp Eds)...does anyone know how they operate ? As long as I get the info I want, I should not bother much but want to know how much to expect from them..
SPAN = expect nothing from them (speaking from personal experience.)
I think the main thing you have to remember is that there are a lot of services for ASDs NJ, since we have the highest rate in the country. Any school you go to, regardless of their reputation for special ed, you will have to stay on top of them. My 8 y/o DS has Mild ASD dx which I think is more or less the same as HFA. He's obviously "quirky", and once you spend some time with him, you know something's up, but it's not clear. The schools need to be convinced that there's a problem. We live in Hanover Twp (Whippany) and they have a social skills group that meets once a week during lunch. A lot of schools do not want to provide services unless it's something that is affecting your child's schoolwork. I've done OK with our school by being a very squeaky wheel. I don't think they dread hearing my name yet, but as long as they keep listening to me and helping my child, we're good.
I've heard good things about autism services in the Morris School District (Morristown + Morris Twp). They do have an ABA program at one of the elementary schools (dedicated autism/special needs class for kids that are not mainstreamed; but they may go to a regular PE / Art etc class). If you live in a neigbhorhood going to another elem school, they will bus your child to the specific elem school providing the special ed class for autism. I think what they are offering in-district is much more comprehensive than what other districts are *trying* to offer (ie, the staff is also well-trained in autism / ABA; vs. just putting aides in with no real training)...and I think they offer much of what you are asking about. If the needs are more mild, the child would be mainstreamed.
They are trying to serve the needs for autism in-district instead of paying to send kids out-of-district to private schools (which is more common in the smaller districts).
I would contact someone at P.A.C.E. as mentioned above. And maybe SPAN can help too.
Morristown is close to Parsippany. (I would avoid Parsippany). There should be apartments, but you should find out which areas to avoid. Overall most of Morristown (and probably all of Morris Twp) is safe, there are just a couple of sketchy areas.
Morristown Memorial Hospital has an Annex Building on Rt. 202 where specialists that you mention (OT, Speech Therapy, etc) are all located.
Is Pine Brook a town in itself or part of Montville? I ask this because I see address with cityas Pink Brook, NJ.
With Morris school district, you meant Morris Plains or Morris town school districts ? Bcoz there are no apt communities either in Morris Plains. Any thoughts on special ed in Morristown ? I am guessing that the commute in the morning will be in opposite direction (from Morristown to Parsippany) because all will be driving eastwards into NY and hence less traffic ? Would that be right ?
Other than PPTH, I will focus on Montville, Cedar Knoll and Whippany (both not towns but part of Hanover town)..boy..lots of unincorporated areas...I dont quite understand what unincorp means but its a topic for a different day .
Thanks for your responses KoalaNJ !
h
Pine Brook is a part of Montville, and sends kids to the Montville School District. (Towaco is also part of Montville)
There are several towns that joined together to form the Morris School District. Kids from Morristown, Morris Township, and Morris Plains all go to the Morris School District.
There really is no "against traffic" during rush hour in Morris County or (northern NJ for that matter), there is just as much traffic heading north on 287 towards rte 80 as heading south both in the AM as well as PM.
You really should not limit yourself to only seeking out large apt complexes. I may be wrong, but that is what you appear to be doing. There are hundreds of small complexes, duplexes and "independent" small individual apt bldgs all over Morris County you should consider. Firstly finding any decent rentals can be difficult, esp since there are many who are now in rentals because their homes are uninhabitable, after damage from Sandy. I am not sure where you are searching for possible rentals, but you need to do a wider search it appears, since you indicate you found no apts in Morris Plains. Try looking at New Jersey Real Estate - Homes for Sale in NJ - NJ.com they seem to have good coverage on rentals in Morris County. Sites like Apts.com, forrent.com and Rentals.com tend to steer you to the larger complexes who have paid to advertise on their site and totally ignore all the other rentals available (such as duplexes, small apt bldgs, and single rentals)
SPAN = expect nothing from them (speaking from personal experience.)
My experience as well. The following was based on my experience..
The support had nice people and did try to help, but that they just didn't have the skills nor the knowledge.
They did call me back and tried to answer questions, but twice I had to explain the regulation to the person answering the call and only to have them to agree with whatever questions I asked (eventually I put a call to NJOSEP). Bottom line, the person answering the calls didn't know much. I attended their trainings, again not much.
As far as advocacy (or accompany me to the meetings) was concerned, when I raised the question, they immediately told me that they did not have the resources, they told me the person in my area was "new".
I knew it was not productive to complain, right? Therefore I volunteered to be trained so that I could help other parents. Long story short and without going into specifics, I found out they could not back up what they told me..(may be it was a theory vs reality) but it will be for another thread.
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