One of the most common questions I get from buyers about an area they are considering is the following:
How good are the schools?
It is a fair question. It factors in to their quality of life, the future welfare of their children, and resale value of the home they are considering. I also can't answer the question. It is a fair housing issue, and licensees who recommend one town or district over another may in engaging in illegal steering.
So what are we to do? Well, silly as it may sound, while licensees ought not compare school districts, we can give our clients sources of the information they seek. It actually makes some sense; we don't answer legal questions either, but we can refer people to a lawyer.
Here are some good sources of information on school districts:
- Westchester School District Report Cards- published by the State of New York.
- National Center for Education Statistics- published by the US Department of Education
- Westchester School District Profiles- map based, put out by the Westchester County government. Mostly census data.
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I hate that question because I always want to weigh in with my opinion. After all, I made those choices for my own children after much research. But I just give them the package of informtion that is provided by my local Chamber. It gives web addresses for up to date data, but is pretty current in print form.
I get asked that question all the time, too, and it's unfortunate that we can't address is correctly, but that's the law. I ask buyers to determine the boundaries of the streets where they want to live, and I draw a map search for them that incorporates those boundaries. Another thing about school districts in CA is there is no guarantee that even if you buy a home in that district that your kid can get into that school.