Relocating to Scottsdale, AZ

Our family is going to be relocating to the Scottsdale area. We have not bought a house yet, but are looking seriously at 85254 zip & Paradise Valley. We have young children (Kindergarten & 2nd grade by the fall), so are of course researching schools.

Scottsdale Unified School District seems very good, but I want to get more input about each school. There are some on this website, but not very many that are recent.

Any wonderful experiences or horrible ones?! Even private school recommends are welcome.

Thank you for any advice you might have...

Parent Answers to "Relocating to Scottsdale, AZ"

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we live in the 85260 zip, and our children attend a smaller private school camelback desert, the scottsdale campus. the school has been going through some changes in the last few years, and we have treaded the changes and remained pleased, next year the school will have a large change which will lead to enrollment from 2 yrs of age to 8th grade. I will have a preK and a 3rd grader. We have been there 6 years. Very please with class size and the academic progress, and individualized planning, as my son is excelling. Love the technology curricuum which really has lending my 2nd grader to well surpass mom on the Mac as well as the pc. ------------ trying to keep up. Real 21 C learning.

I would go private if you can. The public Schools in AZ are not the best. I do not know where you are moving from but when we moved here we tried public for several years and were really disappointed. It you can afford private look at Rancho Solano Greenway campus. Awesome school! Good Luck!!!

I live in the 85254 zip code, I researched this site for months before making a decision. I can tell you from experience, Liberty Elementary, Sunrise Middle, and Horizon High school consistently rate among the top 3 in PVUSD, that is one of the districts available to you in that zip code.

We actually moved our smallest to Basis Scottsdale (better academic schedule) and Business Week just rated them #1 (based on Great School scores) in AZ.

Basis is a charter school that is excellent! Starting grade 5 thru high school. As another posted, Charter Schools are an excellent alternative and have many positives if you decide to look into them.

If you don't have a child with special education needs, I would also look at the Cave Creek Unified School District. As a parent who recently relocated to Scottsdale with a home in the Cave Creek District--I am happy about some things, conflicted about others. I wish I had looked more at private and charter schools for at least one of my children. You should know that Arizona has numerous charter schools and you can fairly easily transfer your child from one public school district to another--in fact most districts market to potential transfers. You also get a tax break for donations to private schools.
On the positive--sunrises and sunsets in Arizona are amazing! And so is the weather. . .now. . .just don't ask me about the weather in July. . .

Thanks april!

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