Canadian moving from Dubai to Arlington VA (neighborhoods, to buy)

[noc2010]

We need help. We have no idea which school to send our son or what neighborhood would be best for our family. Our son will be 8 years old starting school September 2011. He is leaving a school which has 20 students per class with a teacher and teacher's assistant. Are there schools which have a similar ratio of students/teacher? Which neighborhoods are safer than others? Is there a club/group that deals with newcomers to the area that may have answers to these questions? Any info will help. Thank you.

[penguin_kernel]

I can tell you this much, most of the public schools are very over crowded and their curriculum is sub-par compared to their European counterparts. There are good schools around but usually those come with a high price tag in the form of property ( you would have to live in the good area ) There are private schools ( religious and non-religious ) which have smaller class sizes and better teacher-on-student relationship but again, you will have to foot a hefty bill $.

[tgbwc]

Originally Posted by noc2010

We need help. We have no idea which school to send our son or what neighborhood would be best for our family. Our son will be 8 years old starting school September 2011. He is leaving a school which has 20 students per class with a teacher and teacher's assistant. Are there schools which have a similar ratio of students/teacher? Which neighborhoods are safer than others? Is there a club/group that deals with newcomers to the area that may have answers to these questions? Any info will help. Thank you.

]
Class sizes can vary quite a bit. For example, in my FCPS building third grade classes have between 20-22 students per class. I have an general ed. instructional assistant 3 days a week, but not for the whole day. My spouse's building right down the road has about 30 per class in third grade and no general ed. IA support.

[FindingZen]

Do you know where you'll be working? What is your preferred housing budget to buy or rent? While Dubai is expensive itself, Arlington and Northern Virginia are among the more affluent areas in the US. If the job is in Arlington, there is a fair chance that you will find yourself living further out.

The Canadian Embassy in DC might be a good source of information for you.

[claremarie]

Northern Virginia has some of the most highly-regarded public school systems in the country. As is the case in nearly every community in the country, budgets are being cut and class sizes will most likely be increasing. But it's simply not accurate to claim that "most of the public schools are very overcrowded," because it's just not true. There are many newcomers to the area every year, and most systems are very good at integrating new students at every grade level.
But the previous poster is correct -- you need to figure out your commuting situation and housing budget before anyone can give you meaningful suggestions on neighborhoods and school systems to consider. Not sure how it works in Canada, but most elementary students in northern Virginia are assigned to a school based on their address -- parents only have limited choices with some magnet or language immersion programs, and those programs tend to fill up quickly. In most cases, when you choose your neighborhood, you've also chosen the school.