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I am looking to move to Arlington. We are happy to buy a condo or a fixer single family for $350-$400k. We obvioulsy won't be buying a palatial mansion within that budget. My two criteria are the following:
1. good schools
2. generally safe neighborhood
Any of you have experience with the Arlington schools? I have read that you can open enroll your kids to other schools. Since we probably won't be able to afford living right near the best elementary schools in Arlington, I need to know if I can get my kids in to those better schools, even if I don't live right by them.
Any scoop on waiting lists? chances of getting in, etc??
North Arlington schools are as good as any in further out suburbs. Key, Taylor, Tuckahoe, Nottingham, Jamestown, and McKinley are all very good elementary schools, Swanson and Williamsburg are good middle schools. Yorktown is an excellent high school, as is Washington-Lee, although some are turned off by the poor immigrants who go there. Nonetheless, many also like the fact that it's diverse but still has lots of kids in honors/AP.
South Arlington is the same school system, but the quality is generally not as good as N Arlington. I know people who have moved to get their kids out of Wakefield High and Jefferson and Gunston middle schools.
There's a plan to redistrict now in N Arlington that has parents upset, but it would just move kids between good schools.
Watch out around Clarendon, some expensive homes just over the attendance boundary lines in some questionable South Arlington school districts, and you want to make sure you're getting either Swanson or Williamsburg Middle.
While parts of North Arlington are nearly as densely populated as DC, its crime rate is almost as low as many outer suburbs. You shouldn't have a problem north of Route 50.
For your price range, there are actually quite a few 1950s homes in the good districts that you should be able to afford.
There are some options for attending other than your neighborhood school, but these are special focus schools. It is not generally possible to live in South Arlington and send your children to one of the higher-performing North Arlington neighborhood schools, many of which are overcrowded to begin with. Most of the alternative school options are lottery-based, which means that you cannot count on them to escape your neighborhood school.
If you're willing to take a condo, you should be able to find something in North Arlington.
Arlington Public Schools | School Options (http://www.apsva.us/154010811517240/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=54218 - broken link)
Thank you to each of you for your feedback! This is very helpful information for me. I love a diverse school ethnically and socio-economically. A great way to prep our kids for the real world.
If we can find something we can afford in N. Arlington, we will give it a go!
If you think of anything else I should know, please leave a note.
Thanks again.
Don't discount South Arlington right off. The homes are cheaper down here and you'll find a much better place in your price range, which are going to be very limited in most parts of N. Arlington. Crime here is no worse than N Arlington, with the exception of a few very small pockets, and even those aren't that bad. As far as schools go overall school test scores aren't as high in the south, but children of similar socio-demographic backgrounds do just as well test-wise as kids in the north part and have similar opportunities to go to county wide schools. It can be too easy just to look at test scores for a school and make conclusions without looking at the school as a whole.
It can be too easy just to look at test scores for a school and make conclusions without looking at the school as a whole.
True enough, but it is also true that schools with many low-income or limited-English students are often overwhelmed with these children and their special needs, leaving their teachers with little time or energy for the "regular" kids. Many such schools are so focused on bringing up the test scores of the kids who are struggling that those who have already mastered the SOL material may be overlooked.
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