Middle and High Schools for significant ADHD kid. (Arlington, McLean: best schools, income)

[revheck]

My wife and I will be moving to NOVA next summer and both working in DC. We can afford housing in ~$800K range. We are thinking Arlington/Falls Church/McLean, but open to other suggestions.

We are looking for the best public schools for our 12-yr old son who has significant ADHD, and struggles both academically and socially.

We know that the "best schools" are typically ranked by test scores, which are highly-correlated with income. We can afford most of those school districts, but our son probably won't be getting those highest test scores. We want to challenge him academically, without destroying his self-confidence.

We also want to find a school that will work closely with us as he navigates a new social setting as an early teenager. He is a good kid, but can have difficulty getting along with his peers.

What schools in Arlington/McLean/Falls Church, or similar have good programs and attitudes for kids with ADHD?

[wdwcrazy]

We also have a son with ADHD and currently being tested for Aspergers. Sounds like he may be a lot like your son. We moved to NOVA this past August. We ended up in Round Hill and our son is an 8th grader at Harmony. The staff at the school have been amazing. Can not express how happy we really are.

I know Loudoun County is way out, but my husband says for our son to be in a great school it is well worth that bus/metro ride. I understand may be difficult with both parents commuting.

[Carlingtonian]

If you can get your son into H-B Woodlawn High School in Arlington, he might do well there. It's open by lottery only; it's a sort of experimental high school (if one can call "experimental" a program that's several decades old) run by the students. I don't know if he's focused enough to thrive in that environment, but at the very least, he'd be in a school not dominated by the jock/cheerleader hierarchy.

Best of luck!

[JD984]

The schools in the City of Falls Church (Henderson MS/George Mason HS) are considerably smaller than those in surrounding Fairfax and Arlington Counties, so I'd try to find something there and talk to people there about how they address the needs of ADHD/Asperger's students.

If you do end up in Fairfax, I might try to find something in Vienna that feeds into Thoreau MS and Marshall HS, since they are among the smaller middle and high schools in the county (the challenge there is that most of Thoreau goes to Madison HS and most of Marshall comes from Kilmer MS, and both Madison and Kilmer are larger, fairly high-octane schools). I'd cross off the McLean public schools.