what is the best school/ type of school to send my 13 year old son in northern California,

Hi Danali,

Thank you so much for your reply, and all the time you must have taken to answer so thoroughly, and even reading between the lines....Thank you. Yes my son speaks Portuguese which he has learned in school here during the past 5 years. Jacob has never been evaluated and I am only guessing at dispraxia since I red an article about it. Portugal is still struggling with modernization, the public school system does not recognize syndromes etc. I guess life is more basic....survival of the fittest.

Jacob's father is willing to relocate if necessary to be closer to Jacob's chosen school.

Thank you so much for your info on executive decision, I will look at your recommended site. Jacob does suffer from memory problems and handwriting problems. However he hates when I refer to dispraxia or evaluation and does not want to be labeled...... Do children normally dislike these labels? As for laziness I understand that it is not the problem alone but it does contribute. Or perhaps he hides behind laziness?! But it does seem to me that he has always needed a lot of encouragement ( of all sorts) just to get on and do the things which he enjoys doing.......except video games....this needs continuous discouraging and monitoring

Again thank you sooooo much, I dont get to hear opinions like yours ever, its so refreshing and I will think on it for some time.

All the best, Eilis

Posted too soon.

I am sure that there are more than the three schools I listed -- those are the three that I know well, personally. I have been a board member at the Athenian School (it has a strong international focus). My daughter graduated from Woodside Priory. I know several children who are thriving at Summit (we considered it for my daughter but she preferred the Priory).

Welcome to Greatschools, 916101345.

I am the parent of a college student with dyslexia, somewhat of an expert on the private-school landscape in the SF Bay Area, and a graduate student in education. I plan to work with students of normal to above-average cognitive capacity, who struggle in school.

Some observations.

One: is your son bilingual in English and Portuguese, or some other language?

Two: a word about charter schools. The charter concept is how the school is organized. It has nothing to do with the school's pedagogy or mission. So you need to be paying attention to the school's mission and philosophical approach to children who struggle to do well in school.

Three: Here in the U.S., we don't seem to use the label dyspraxic as much as in the UK or elsewhere in Europe. I don't know why.

I do not believe in the concept of "laziness". I believe that children do well if they can, and the avoidance of schoolwork is an indication of children who have difficulties in some of the precursors of academic performance, such as executive function deficits or delays in maturation (strength in executive function increases as a child matures), difficulties with short- and long-term memory, or handwriting difficulties (graphomotor dysfunction).

The best web-based resource for parents for understanding the concept of executive function and how it impacts educational achievement is at the "Tourette's Syndrome Plus" pages written by Leslie E. Packer, PhD. Don't let the Tourette's label (or ADHD or the other conditions mentioned) put you off. Just read the material, download some of the checklists, and compare your son's behavior to that described by Dr. Packer.


www.tourettesyndrome.net/ef.htm

Four: assessment. Given that your son struggles in school and has been educated abroad, I believe a complete psychoeducational evaluation would be in order, evaluating your son's academic level (because he has been educated abroad, the content areas may be different than in the US), his executive function, memory, and attentional skills.

You want to do this through a competent private practitioner or group practice. There are many excellent evaluators in the Bay Area.

Morrissey Compton is one such group.

www.morrissey-compton.org/

2555 Park Blvd, Suite 20,
Palo Alto, CA 94306
phone (650) 322-5910
fax (650) 322-7075

Their page on evaluations is excellent:

www.morrissey-compton.org/evaluations.html

Another is the Pratt Center

www.prattcenter.com/evaluations/

The Pratt Center
A Professional Psychology Corporation
Educational, Psychological, and Neuropsychological Services
Four Main Street, Suite 210 • Los Altos, CA 94022

E-mail: prattcenter@covad.net
Phone: (650) 949-2997
Fax: (650) 949-2442

I asked the GreatSchools community for more referrals, here:

community.greatschools.net/q-and-a/163739/Private-Psychoeducational-Assessment-in-the-San-Francisco-Bay-Area-especially-for-Executive-Function

Five: About the private school admissions cycle: it typically starts in the fall the year before the child is to enroll. The parents gather information about the schools of interest, and begin the applications process. Most of the private schools use the Independent Schools Entrance Examination

www.erbtest.org/schools/admissions/isee

test as part of of the application process.

Here is a guide to the tests that the Catholic schools tend to use:

www.kaptest.com/High_School/COOP-HSPT/catholic-home.html?cid=7109

Typically the child visits a few of the schools for "shadow day" to see if the child fits in well with the school. Applications are typically due in January, and acceptance letters go out in the late spring (about now). So if you are planning to enroll your child in a private school in the fall of 2008, you may not find any openings.

I know of one charter school in the Bay Area that may suit your son, Summit. Link below.

Six: three schools that may help the disorganized student learn and thrive

Private:

The Athenian School, Danville, CA

www.athenian.org/

Woodside Priory School

www.woodsidepriory.com/

Summit Charter Preparatory school

www.summitprep.com/

I think the quality of ALL schools, not just Charter Schools, depends on who is running them. I have a bright teen with ADHD and he's very disorganized, but he's attending a Catholic High School in my area (Chicago suburbs) and they've got a special resource center/class to help kids like him with organizational and study skills. Not every parochial school does. We chose the parochial school over the local public high school, or other private schools, because with 1,000 students it was large enough to offer "extracurricular activities" like drama, music, and sports but it wasn't HUGE (our public H.S. has over 3,000 students) and there, I was afraid my son wouldn't get any individualized attention...

Just as schools differ, how your son would be "accepted" into them would differ. If he were to attend a public school, you would likely just have to show proof of residency within the district boundaries, and proof the he graduated from some elementary school, and up-to-date medical records showing he's had required innoculations.... If your son were to want to attend a parochial school, there are probably entrance tests that would be given, used to determine class placement and such. (In my area, the tests are given to prospective students in January of 8th grade, in anticipation of autumn enrollment...I think they'd make accommodations for someone just moving to the area, but it probably depends on if the school has a waiting list.)

If your son's father is aware that you'd be relocating, I would ask him to do some investigation. Once you have the names of a few possible schools, you can search their websites to get a better idea of the activities that are offered, etc. There's also a woman I know (named Denali) who sometimes posts on this website, and she's from the Bay area, and might be able to give you some advice. You might try to send her a private message by going to the "Members" section of Greatschools...