Choosing A School Contra Costa County

 

View the Contra Costa County School District Directory

Key Fact in School Choice

You don’t pick a school. You pick an address, either by renting an apartment or buying a home or condo. The address determines what school your child attends. www.mccormacks.com

There are exceptions, which include charter schools and alternative schools, but they are few in Contra Costa County. The county has 17 public school districts and for the most part they run traditional programs.

Private schools number about 90. Many are parochial schools affiliated with a religion. See Private Schools.

www.mccormacks.com

School Boundaries

California is divided into school districts, each in control of specific area. The districts build the schools and, typically, assign each school an attendance zone, usually the immediate neighborhood.

To find out what school your child will attend, call the local school district or school and give them your prospective address. The school personnel will identify the neighborhood school. www.mccormacks.com

Many Realtors and school district web sites will have this information.

Our recommendation is that you confirm the address with the district and secure information about the schools — before you buy or lease. Just say, I am moving into 1234 Main Street or whatever. Which school will my children attend? www.mccormacks.com.

For the great majority of parents, choosing a school will be a simple and happy experience. The house will be coupled with a neighborhood school that you will like, even love. www.mccormacks.com

But some choices are more complex and there are situations that you may want to avoid.

Recommendations

• Review the scores for local schools, the SAT scores and the college attendance numbers. See SAT and School Scores .
• Read What Scores Mean and Organization.
• Secure the School Accountability Report Card. All schools and school districts are required to issue these reports annually. Many will be posted on the web. These reports contain information about programs, ethnic makeup, student-teacher ratio, scores, crime and more. www.mccormacks.com
• Visit the school. Check in first at the office; security requirement. Ask for an enrollment or information packet.
• Find out the school progression. Elementary School A advances its students to Middle School B, which moves them up to High School C. Get the scores and reports for each. www.mccormacks.com
• Ask about alternatives to the neighborhood schools.

How School Districts Are Organized

• Elementary district, usually kindergarten to eighth grade but may also be K-to 6 or, rarely K-3. www.mccormacks.com
• High-school districts, mostly grades 9 to 12 but some start at the 7^th grade.
• Unified Districts. Kindergarten through 12. www.mccormacks.com
• County Office of Education. Schools for kids in juvenile hall or under court supervision. May also fund schools for handicapped children and may serve as the supervising agency for some charter or alternative schools.

Each district or agency is responsible for its own budget, sets its own attendance rules and many policies and has its own school board. Other policies are set by the California Department of Education and the federal government. www.mccormacks.com

All levels — local, state, feds — fund the schools and with the funds come policy directives and programs.

Types of Schools

• Traditional schools. The great majority fall into this category, the typical neighborhood school that teaches the general curriculum and adheres to the education code. www.mccormacks.com
• Charter Schools. About 600 in state. Some of these schools are managed by the districts, many are run by private firms, such as Edison, Aspire and KIPP. Charter schools are publicly funded but have the discretion to ignore many provisions of the education code and set their own policies and programs. Some charters compete with the neighborhood schools for students, others work closely with the local district. Charters often do not have attendance boundaries; they can accept students from anywhere.
  
• Alternate Schools or Academies or Schools Within a School. These schools are regular schools with special programs for certain students. These programs may stress performing arts or advanced academics or technology or other fields. Students attend their programs part of the day and the rest of the time may blend with the other kids at lunch and physical education and certain classes. Each school decides its configuration. www.mccormacks.com

In some situations, the regular side of the school enrolls the neighborhood children and the “alternate” side is open to all students but they may be screened or accepted by lottery. www.mccormacks.com

Sometime scores for “schools within schools” are broken out but usually they are lumped with the general scores for the school.

• Magnet Schools. Similar to alternate schools and some districts may use the term interchangeably with alternate schools. Magnet schools got their start about three decades ago when schools were encouraging integration without resorting to forced busing. They set up enriched programs at certain schools to attract students from throughout the district and mix them by ethnicity. www.mccormacks.com
• Theme Schools. For example, Performing Arts Academies. These schools take the academy or alternate concept a step further, a whole school dedicated to an alternate program.
• Exam schools. Among the highest-scoring in the state. Admission by exam or by screening that in effect is an exam. May also be called gifted schools.
• Middle College High School. Designed for underachieving students, these schools are housed at community colleges. The hope is that the college environment and an enriched curriculum will shape up the kids and give them college ambitions.
• Continuation High Schools. For high-school students, usually ages 16 to 18, who are in danger of dropping out or failing out. www.mccormacks.com
• Newcomer Schools. For immigrants learning English.
• Immersion Schools or programs. The kids are taught in Spanish and English. www.mccormacks.com
• Independent Study. Students study at home, completing assignments developed with their teacher.
• Home schools. Some parents want to educate their kids themselves so they set up their own “schools.” The state allows this as long as the kids are in fact receiving an education. An informal support system has been developed to help these parents. www.mccormacks.com
  

The Concerns

• District and school choices. In deciding upon a town and neighborhood or even block, many times you will be making a choice between school districts or schools.

Say you are looking at identical homes within blocks of one another and in the same town. The major difference: one home is in School District A and another in School District B. And there may be lurking nearby a District C.

In California, many cities have multiple school districts or one school district will serve several towns or parts of towns.

In the ideal world, it should not matter which district you chose.

In the real world, some districts manage their finances better than others or their voters tax themselves higher for schools than the people in the next district.

In some parts of the county, low-scoring and mid-scoring schools and high-scoring schools are located within a short distance of one another in the same school district. The difference between enrolling your child in one or the other can be as short as a few feet.

You drive around the neighborhood and see a school close to your prospective home. The school looks nice and you are thinking happy thoughts about the neighborhood. This may not be the assigned school.

When you sell your home, you might command a higher price if you are in District A as opposed to District B.

Some differences are minor but if you have a choice between school districts or schools, it pays to research these choices. Ask the districts if they have passed bonds. Compare the scores and programs offered — that sort of thing.

• Calendar. To cut construction costs, the state gives extra money to districts that run year-round schedules. A year-round school may start in early July or August and take, for example, a week off after Thanksgiving. Many parents dislike year-round schools because they interfere with vacations and work. Even regular schools will sometimes follow irregular calendars.
• Conflicting policies. You have two children, one in elementary, one in high school.

The elementary school is in its own district, the high school in its own district. They may have different schedules. One district may provide busing, the other not.

• Low scores. The school may pace its instruction to the abilities of its children. See What Scores Mean.
• Shifting scores. Your child attends Elementary A, then moves up to Middle School B and later to High School C. Each may have different scores, which will influence what programs are offered. See Scores and What Scores Mean.
• Hidden Choices. For a variety of reasons, some having to with money and competition, districts sometimes don’t publicize the choices. You call the district and say, I am thinking about moving into 1213 Main Street. What is my assigned school? And you’re told, your school is XYZ Elementary. You may not be told that a charter school is also located in your neighborhood. www.mccormacks.com

Ask if alternative or charter schools are available.

• Crowded schools.If the neighborhood school is crowded, the school district might assign a school some distance from your home. Or it might run double sessions for some grades or short schedules.
• Busing. Some districts provide busing for a charge. Some bus certain kids free. Other districts don’t provide busing. In districts with public busing, the transit company will sometimes route buses to the schools.
• New schools, closing schools. If the town is building a lot of housing, it will usually be opening schools. Often home construction runs faster than school construction, leading to temporary crowding. When the new school opens, attendance boundaries are often changed at other schools.