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I am currently in TN and looking to move to North East for better Sp ed services for my 4 year old who is HFA. I have a prospective job offer close to Parsippany, NJ (Northern Jersey) and I have to confirm in couple of days if I accept it or not. Based on research and what everyone is saying on other forums too, overall the chances of getting better services in NJ is better to best...does anyone has a first hand information/experience about the kind of services offered in Parsippany Sped Ed schools (or surrounding towns) ? My kid already has an IEP from Memphis City schools and it currently getting ST and OT in school but not ABA. My employer's insurance covers ABA for certain hours during the year but it quickly adds up to a big amount.
Some of the questions I have is -
1) Do the schools support Mainstreaming/Inclusion ?
2) Do the schools provide ST/OT and ABA in school ?
3) Are the ABA therapists that provide services ABA certified or in house trained ?
4) Anyone heard of Social skills training in schools ?
5) How is availability of other private therapists in the area (ST/OT/ABA) ? are there any hospital rehab kind of hospitals where all of these could gotten under one roof (for Private therapies).
6) Any support group's names/websites/ SEPAC's ?
My work location would be Livingston which is the next town but it is very pricey in terms of apt rents (2400+)..so I am hoping if I accept the offer, I would like to first start apt hunting in Parsippany which seems to have tons of apt communities with decent rent and depending on school feedback, I may look for other towns around Livingston (in radius of 10 miles).
Though NJ provided better Autism services, I do realize that different school districts in same state may be at distinct ends of spectrum in terms of quality and also that, a good school may go downhill in couple of years just bcoz of a change of guard (in management)..But still having some data will help me in making this decision...I am making a decision of moving from TN (where cost of living is so low and warm climate) just for the better services even though the cost of living in North East is more and winters are harsh. So dont want to go terribly wrong with this move decision... So please help with whatever information you have to share..
If you need to put your child in daycare until school starts, check out the Morris County Arc. Home | Arc My son who has ADHD & ODD went there for about a year and a half and they were amazing. Sandy Cunningham was the Director, I assume she's still there.
Bump for the OP. I talked through many of the South Jersey options with the OP and she is weighing her options and job offers. I know there are plenty of folks here on the main NJ board that have experience in this area and can lend good advice. I'm sure everyone can appreciate everything that goes into this decision when you have a child with special needs, so let's hear those suggestions.
Thanks NJGOAT for helping my cause by pushing it up. but it seems I asked far too many and detailed questions with respect to Special needs which I understand most people may not have must information about. So I will make the questions more generic. also I have more clarity about my work location. It is going to be on intersection of 287 and 80 in Parsippany (and not Livingston). Keeping that in mind, I need help with the following information -
1) Is Parsippany a good school district with respect to Special needs ? Any information about Sp Ed in other nearby towns (Denville, Mountain Lakes, Morris Plains) ?
2) Are there really good or bad neighborhoods in Parsippany ? I dont think so but still thought should ask to be sure. Any recommendations for good apartment communities in PP town ? I am budgeting around $1400 for a 2 BR...I see couple of communities but not sure if those are good areas or not and hence this question.
3) Does Parsippany school district following zoning system (kids going to neighborhood schools only kind of) ? - I tried looking for this info on PTHSD website (Parsippany Troy hills school district) but havent been able to find the link there. Can anyone provider pointers about where I can get this information ?
4) I read on couple of posts about low lying areas in Parsippany and flooding from lakes during heavy rains.. I will be renting an apartment ? Keeping that in mind are there any specific areas/neighborhood I should be avoiding ?
5) Is Mt Tabor a part of Parsippany town ?
I am hoping I get some responses so that I can filter out neighborhoods and plan my apt hunting accordingly. Thanks for reading.
If you need to put your child in daycare until school starts, check out the Morris County Arc. Home | Arc My son who has ADHD & ODD went there for about a year and a half and they were amazing. Sandy Cunningham was the Director, I assume she's still there.
Thanks for providing the list of schools. I am assuming these are Private Special Needs schools ? Do these schools enroll kids directly or only through Sp Ed school district when school district send kids to them as "out of district" placement ? I am assuming Sp Ed school districts send kids that require more help and may be on lower end of spectrum ?
About the Special Ed schools themselves, do you know if they follow any zoning system in Parsippany school district ? and if it does would you know where I can find that information (zoning maps) ?
Thanks for providing the list of schools. I am assuming these are Private Special Needs schools ? Do these schools enroll kids directly or only through Sp Ed school district when school district send kids to them as "out of district" placement ? I am assuming Sp Ed school districts send kids that require more help and may be on lower end of spectrum ?
About the Special Ed schools themselves, do you know if they follow any zoning system in Parsippany school district ? and if it does would you know where I can find that information (zoning maps) ?
Thanks for writing.
I'm not sure how those schools work. I don't know if you have to go through the Parsippany schools to get in, or if you can just enroll yourself.
You can probably just call those schools and ask yourself, if you can't get through to anyone in the school district.
Regarding some of your other questions, I'm pretty sure most of the area towns following zoning, you attend a school in your neigborhood. Not sure there are any bad neighborhoods in Parsippany, but I'm sure there are more desirable areas. I believe the Troy Hills section is desirable. From what I understand, the flooding areas are in the lake communities. There are soo many different apartment complexes in Parsippany, you'd have to do some research. Mt. Tabor - I believe it is Parsippany, but has some either Denville or Morris Plains addresses?
[quote=kapil_takeit_easy;28069758]Thanks for providing the list of schools. I am assuming these are Private Special Needs schools ? Do these schools enroll kids directly or only through Sp Ed school district when school district send kids to them as "out of district" placement ? I am assuming Sp Ed school districts send kids that require more help and may be on lower end of spectrum ?
About the Special Ed schools themselves, do you know if they follow any zoning system in Parsippany school district ? and if it does would you know where I can find that information (zoning maps) ?
I would avoid Parisppany, for several reasons, but in your case especially because of their schools. The school district has many problems, not the least of which is that had it not been a special waiver, they would have lost all their federal funding because they did not meet the guidelines of NCLB. They also nearly lost their state funding as well. As a whole the elementary schools are over crowded and under performing. They keep on cutting the curriculum budget and programs as the budget keeps getting voted down. Despite having to cut educational programs drastically, the board of ed apparently thinks it wise to enter into a costly legal battle with the state by offering a new contract to their superintendent giving him a huge raise, even though his contract was not up. I have heard many parents complain about being able to get any services for their child let alone all of the service they feel their child is entitled to.
There are many other local towns with better schools that can better meet your child's needs. (that also have more reasonable housing costs to fit your budget) In Parsippany you also need to be careful of flooding, and several of the large apt complexes are know to have long standing problems with drugs and crime issues.
If you are considering moving to NJ with a special needs child, I'd recommend contacting SPAN a statewide parent advocacy group for parents of special needs kids. They can give you much better specific advice and information. Statewide Parent Advocacy Network, Inc. | Supporting Parent Advocacy-SPAN Generally speaking, you can always enroll your child in a private school, but it would be at your expense. If you are wishing to have your local district to pay for the schooling, you have to go through your local school district, and their process (child study team, evals, etc) and then the district would determine what they think suits the situation/child. Most districts do not place kids out of district, instead they offer them services within their district. Often this decision is heavily influenced by cost factors. Since your child is not yet in kindergarten, and is HFA, he will most likely only be eligable for the pre school program, which is quite limited in scope and time, (most pre school programs are ~20 hours a week) so you will have to think wbout finding care for your child before/after school (transportation too) as well as on school holidays. Know too that the kindergarten is not a full day program. I know that most elementary schools do have an after school program, which parents pay seperately for, but not all programs accept or are suitable for special needs kids. (Although if a child is high functioning, it is more likely that the after care program would accept them and be suitable for the child)
I'd also recommend you check out Florham Park, which is located adjacent to Livingston, so your commute will be quick, there is a decent amount of affordable rentals, and the schools are better. You could also look at Madison or Chatham, although they are a little further from Livingston than Florham Park, they are still within a reasonable commute (half hour or so during rush hour) and have top notch schools. I have also heard good things about the services offered in the Morris School District (Morristown, Morris Twp, Morris Plains) especially for services to kids on the spectrum. You would be able to find reasonable rentals in the MSD, and your commute to Livingston would be good.
First step is to enroll in a school district. You have to prove you live in the school district that you're enrolling. You'll have to show them either a signed lease if you're renting, or deed, or some paper work proving that you own a home in that district.
The school district will decide if they think your child can be maintained in-district, or given an out-of-district placement. If you enroll in a special-ed private school yourself than the district will not pay.
Unfortunately, no school district will even talk to you until you are enrolled, which makes it very tough to choose where to live.
Also, once you've decided on a school district, don't assume you're moving into that district just based on your mailing address. Example: large parts of West Windsor have a Princeton mailing address, but are in the West Windsor school district, not the Princeton school district. May examples of that all over NJ.
Before you sign a lease calll the school district to make sure that your new address is in that district.
I would suggest renting at first, so if the school district is not friendly towards your needs it will be easier to move.
Last edited by daliowa; 02-03-2013 at 10:26 PM..
Reason: gramar
First step is to enroll in a school district. You have to prove you live in the school district that you're enrolling. You'll have to show them either a signed lease if you're renting, or deed, or some paper work proving that you own a home in that district.
The school district will decide if they think your child can be maintained in-district, or given an out-of-district placement. If you enroll in a special-ed private school yourself than the district will not pay.
Unfortunately, no school district will even talk to you until you are enrolled, which makes it very tough to choose where to live.
Also, once you've decided on a school district, don't assume you're moving into that district just based on your mailing address. Example: large parts of West Windsor have a Princeton mailing address, but are in the West Windsor school district, not the Princeton school district. May examples of that all over NJ.
Before you sign a lease calll the school district to make sure that your new address is in that district.
I would suggest renting at first, so if the school district is not friendly towards your needs it will be easier to move.
By reading on all prior posts on Special ed, I realize that school district will not want to talk without proving them that you are a resident of the school district. The reason I wanted the zoning information is so that I can decide which of the 10 elementary schools are better and look for apt communities accordingly. Apparently, they dont have the zoning info published and the only way it to call the transportation dept (whcih I did) and tell them what apartments you are looking at and they can tell what elem school it falls under. but I guess there is no way to rate the Sp Ed schools so I cannot put a finger on one school and decide on the apt community...Again, I am assuming that after the whole process of IEP ,I WILL be placed in my neighborhood school (bright changes if high functioning since they have inclusion classes in almost all schools)..but I could be wrong too..So it is like rolling a dice.
I will be renting an apt only (even long term) so I do have that option of changing schools if I am on a shorter lease in apt like 6 months..Also, I am told my work location will be in Parsippany (not livingston) close to the intersection of 287 and 80. so even if I have to look for other towns, my preference would be to go immediate next towns like Denville, Mountain Lakes, Morris Plains, Cedar Knolls, Montville etc.Just want my work location to be close to home/school.
By reading on all prior posts on Special ed, I realize that school district will not want to talk without proving them that you are a resident of the school district. The reason I wanted the zoning information is so that I can decide which of the 10 elementary schools are better and look for apt communities accordingly. Apparently, they dont have the zoning info published and the only way it to call the transportation dept (whcih I did) and tell them what apartments you are looking at and they can tell what elem school it falls under. but I guess there is no way to rate the Sp Ed schools so I cannot put a finger on one school and decide on the apt community...Again, I am assuming that after the whole process of IEP ,I WILL be placed in my neighborhood school (bright changes if high functioning since they have inclusion classes in almost all schools)..but I could be wrong too..So it is like rolling a dice.
I will be renting an apt only (even long term) so I do have that option of changing schools if I am on a shorter lease in apt like 6 months..Also, I am told my work location will be in Parsippany (not livingston) close to the intersection of 287 and 80. so even if I have to look for other towns, my preference would be to go immediate next towns like Denville, Mountain Lakes, Morris Plains, Cedar Knolls, Montville etc.Just want my work location to be close to home/school.
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.
As far as housing, finding a short term lease will be hard, most complexes and landlords require a minimum of a 1 yr lease. Denville is close and the schools are decent, but Denville also has frequent and severe flooding issues (search for "flood Denville, NJ" on youtube.com to get an idea of how bad) so be careful of where the apt is located. You'll likely not find any apts in Mt Lakes, as the town is quite small and almost exclusively SFH, though I do know there are some that have small apts above the garage or in out bldgs/carriage houses. 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
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