Please help, moving to indiana

storybooklove · October 2014

I have a 4.5 year old and almost 3 year old and we are being relocated to indiana from philadelphia. I have no idea what I'm doing! My daughter will start kindergarten next year so we are looking to move to a good school district. I have found greenwood on the web and it looks like a good SD. We need to live near indianapolis but DH will also need to travel to Louisville KY for work sometimes. We will have $200,000-$230,000 of a budget for a home. Please give me any and all advice!?

becks2012 · November 2014

Have you looked at Greatschools.com ? link fail cause I am on mobile. They have a lot of school information.
With that kind of budget, you should be able to find something nice in just about whichever district you end up picking.

My guys are little still, so no personal experience, but I have friends who are very happy with the IPS magnet program, and others who swear that IPS is the devil. I know some other happy folks in Avon, Brownsburg, Carmel. I haven't heard anything negative about Greenwood?

We are looking at the Butler Lab School, School 84 and school 91 for our oldest.

storybooklove · November 2014

I'm confused about school districts and what a magnet school is. Where we live now in PA you own or rent a home and the school and school district are already assigned to you based on where you Live, there is no changing schools or school districts unless you move. Also my son has an IEP and here is PA the intermediate unit
Evaluates you and then assigns someone to your child based on their
Need, what I'm learning from his therapists is that in most states it's up to the school district to evaluate him and assign therapists? Any one know how all this works? So confused! We are looking to rent a home first I think so we can make sure it's
Where we really want to be before we
Set down our
Roots

Coltsdad · November 2014

Indianapolis school systems are broken down by geography. There are 9 total. Most of them have multiple elementary schools, a couple middle schools and one high school (some have 2). You are assigned more or less geographically to your elementary/middle school. As far as assessments and such for children to best fit needs, I couldn't answer that one. I know that for the most part Center township (Indianapolis Public Schools or IPS) gets a pretty bad rap in general, but I know the 3 northern districts (Pike, Washington and Lawrence) are supposed to be pretty decent, as I grew up on the north side... not sure about the other 5. I have also heard really good things about Brownsburg and Avon school systems. Carmel up north is a good system too.

Your budget for a home should land you a very nice house... cost of living in Indiana is far lower than on the east coast.

storybooklove · November 2014

Thank you thank you thank you for all the information! DH is in Indy now checking things out and I hope he asks lots of questions while there;) one other question, we are noticing that most of the population is Catholic, we happen to be Jewish my family is worried about this that we will be harrased in Indiana (their words not mine) I know not every place in the USA is open to all religions but is this something I need to worry about?? My kids are the only kids right now in their preschool that are jewish(out of about 100 kids) and their is only a Lutheran and Presbyterian church in our town we drive 15 miles to get to our synoguge, but no one seems to care either way here. Advice?

Coltsdad · November 2014

The north side of Indianapolis has multiple temples/synoguges and the Jewish Community Center (around the 6800 block of Hoover Road) is located in Washington Township, which is where I went to school and can say that at least Washington Township is very diverse, ethnically, religiously and economically. I would assume most of the townships may be the same way, but I can only speak to Washington Township from personal experiences. I would not say the city is primarily Catholic... we have Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist churches of significant size, among others. Indianapolis from my experience is fairly diverse... go outside of the suburbs and it gets less so.

Our Children's Museum has an exhibit dealing with tolerance of other cultures, etc., included along side Ryan White and Ruby Bridges (first African American to attend a white school in the south) is a sizable Anne Frank display. Not that a museum display means that there is no intolerance, as that is an individual thing, you'll find it to some level everywhhere, but it shows that the city makes an active effort to include and educate tolerance.

storybooklove · November 2014

Thank you coltsdad for the information. I was hoping to hear that.

selockar · November 2014

I moved to Indy from Allentown Pa in June. So far I really like it. Everyone has been very friendly. I absolutely love the preschool my sons attend. We are probably only here for a year, but if DH accepts a job here we'll move up to Zionsville. My oldest will start kindergarten next year and I have heard wonderful things about the schools.

merebears · December 2014

My husband and I grew up in northwest Indiana, but lived in greenwood for several years and now live in carmel. Center grove in greenwood is a great school district and you'll live comfortably with that budget. We personally like the north side so much more because there are endless things to do, especially outdoors (bike trails are big around here). So I guess it depends how often your husband would need to travel. Good luck! Indy is a great city and there are lots of family friendly suburbs (greenwood and carmel are popular, but you may also look into Avon/Plainfield area and fishers). Good luck!!

Please help, moving to indiana

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