We know that access to quality education that fits your child’s needs is extremely important to you and your family. However, the educational landscape of St. Louis can be confusing with little information on how to locate the right school for your child. We want to help you determine what’s important to you and your child! Our website is packed with information and resources to help you find the school that will allow your child to thrive. To get started, let’s talk about how to determine your school priorities.

Determining What Is Important For You And Your Child

There may be certain values that you would like to have present in your child’s school and others that are not as important. These factors should be determined before starting the evaluation process. The values and criteria for finding the right school for you and your child will be organized into three categories: school vision, school logistics, and the unique needs of your child.

We Then Suggest That You Organize The Priorities You Decide On Into Three Types Of criteria:

1. Musts
2. Nice to have
3. Deal-breakers

This priorities worksheet will help organize your thoughts and allow you to reference them as you work through the school search process.

1. Establish A Vision For The School You Want Your Child To Attend

What Would You See At Your Ideal School If You Made A Visit?

• What are the feelings you want to have when you walk into your ideal school?
• How would staff be interacting with students?
• Would technology be in every classroom and used frequently by students?
• Would there be a focus on play and creativity?
• Do you want the school to have a commitment to maintaining a diverse student population? A commitment to a diverse staff population?
• How would your ideal school support students when they make mistakes, need correcting, or have misbehaved?

2. Identify Logistics That Are Important To You And Your Child

What Are The Services A School Must Offer For Your Child?

• How far from home is your ideal school?
• Is bus transportation a requirement for your child?
• Are you comfortable with your child walking to school?
• Is having before and after school programming a requirement for your child?
• Is offering breakfast and lunch at school required for your child?
• Is paying tuition for school something you plan on doing?
• Are the resources, such as a school nurse, librarian, or counselor, available to students and families important to you?

3. List Your Child’s Unique Needs

What Should The School Do To Best Serve Your Child?

• Does your child have any unique learning needs? For example, do they receive special education services or need support in learning English?
• In the past, what services have been successful in supporting your child at school?
• What specialty programs are important to you and your child? For example, a school could offer increased art programming, STEM programming, or the Montessori model of instruction.

By using our School Search tool, you can use your priorities worksheet to quickly filter out the schools that do not match with the criteria you’ve deemed important to you and your child. Our search tool has 12 different filters built in to help you narrow down your search results and find the perfect match for your child.

For more information about determining the perfect school for your child, as well as other important school search factors like visiting schools, enrollment and application, standardized learning assessments, and more please visit the resources section of our website.