How to Choose a Good Private School

When my husband I decided to pull our girls out of the local public school system and put them into the private school sector, we at first thought it would be an easy choice. And the choice to actually do it was easy. It was the decisions after that original choice that was difficult.

We didn't have any idea what we had bitten off and were now trying to chew. There were private schools, and then there were PRIVATE schools. There were parochial schools and Christian Schools. There were schools that you have to be a member of the church that sponsors the school in order to attend. It was a headache waiting to happen.

So like any good journalist and parent, I began to do research. It took us almost 3 months to make a decision, and I think we visited every private school within a 20 mile radius of our home. This morning I was cleaning out my desk and found the notes I'd made while on the phone with the admissions counselors from all these institutions. I threw them into the trash can, and then went and dug them out again.

Because, I thought, if we had trouble making that decision, wouldn't other parents be having those same problems? So I took my notes and came up with a guide to choosing a good school.

The first thing you should do is get a local phone book and make a list of the schools in your area. You might not be interested in all of them. For instance, if you are raising your child in the Catholic Church, you probably aren't going to want to send them to a school that is sponsored by and teaching a religious curriculum from a Baptist Church.
Then get on the phone and make an appointment to tour the school.

You can ask questions of their admissions counselors over the phone, but the best way to handle this interview is to go down there and check it out for yourself. Be ready with your list of questions. Take your children with you, especially if they're older than 11-12 years old. If they're going to be spending every week day for 9 months in the classroom, it's important to allow them to have some input. You're the parent, so the ultimate decision is yours, but they should be encouraged to express their likes and dislikes about what they saw.