Forgot to mention. Private schools are not always better than public schools in terms of academics. We can afford a private school, but my two kids were accepted in the best school in town - Jax Beach Elementary (better than the best private elem. school). They hit the lottery! No offense intended, but test scores show that being rich does not imply being smart. As much as teacher quality is important, student competition works wonders, when kids of ambitious parents from around town are put together in the same (public magnet) classroom. Overall, teacher quality in private schools is more questionable, since public schools have more standarts to be met by their teachers than private institutions.

Well, if you are looking for safe areas plus good schools in Jacksonville WITHOUT a lot of driving around town, St. Johns county neighborhoods are your best option. Look up the area of the Nease high school - ZIP code 32081. Property prices are high there but you may be able to find some affordable housing.

Duval county has a good magnet program with the best schools in town, but all comes at a price. Transporation is a problem. Also, the magent program is lottery based - you apply and then hope to get in based on pure chance. Kids who have tested gifted have priority. You can pay $300 a private school psichologyst to test your kid and if they perform above a threshold, they are considered gifted and get priority in the lottery. Military personnel has priority, too.
Also, the best middle and high schools are in the worst possible area in terms of crime. Good luck!

My family has just recently moved from Connecticut to the Jacksonville area, I have a child in elementary & one in middle school. I read that you are concerned with the school & the areas they are in, my best advise to you is get your kids into the magnet school programs.(Both my kids are in the magnets programs, one for college prep, the other for performing arts) They are really outstanding, BUT the best & most desired are not in 'perfect' neighborhoods. (Some of the Magnet schools also offer free after school care, you have to check in with each school to see if there are openings & if the schools offer them)
Transportation is going to be your main concern if you do not live in the magnet schools immediate vicinity. Heck, apparently since funding is so low for education the county is struggling to figure out transportation just for the regular schools, let alone the Magnet schools. Once you've found a place,ask the neighbors where their kids go to school & if the kids & parents like it. (That's one of the easiest ways to see if your local school is worth a dime)
Here is the link for the county schools www.duvalschools.org/
this is a link to the magnet school program
www.magnetprograms.com/
By the way, the school year starts in mid August, a few start earlier.

As for nice neighborhoods, there are plenty of them, you just have to decide what you want, can afford & how far you want to drive. My best advise would be to talk to the neighbors when you go & check out a place, I've found most of them will be really straight forward with you, if that doesn't help, look at the cars in the parking lots aor driveways, that will tell you a lot right there. All else fails go to the local police station for the vicinity you're looking in & ask them what type of calls they run the most in that area.

Good luck, I think you'll probably like Jacksonville, it's definitely a big city... you'll understand that when you come on down & see it.
Hope this wasn't too confusing.

Thanks kindly. We have been looking at the "10 " schools or The "A" schools in Florida. Then hopefully find something nice in that area. Hopefully- :-) Thanks for helping us. :-)

Unfortunately, the chance of finding another family from a particular town, who has children of similar age, is slim. Have you tried using the "Find a School" feature on the green menu bar near the top of this page, where you can enter a location and grade level, and see what schools are in a given area? The public schools are rated based on how their students perform on statewide testing (the FCAT in FL) where 1 is low, 10 is highest. After you narrow your list of schools, you can begin to look for places to live, but that's probably best to do through a local real estate agent or looking in local newspapers...You can do a "google" search to start looking for state aid programs.