Hello. I'm not from San Francisco, but I wanted to say "welcome" and ask if you've tried using the "Find a School" feature on the green menu bar at the top of this page? You can enter a location and grade level, and see a list of all schools in a given area. Public schools are rated from 1 (low) to 10 (high) based on how their students performed on recent statewide academic testing. Parent comments, if they have been made about particular schools, are also visible.

As I said, I don't live in California, but in the U.S., many communities restrict which PUBLIC school your child can attend, based on where you live. Private schools (where families pay the tuition themselves) do not have the same geographic limits.

When you say that your one child needs support in reading, in the U.S. the public schools provide different levels of assistance. How old is that child/what grade? What kind of support has he/she been getting up to this point? There is a rather complex special education system in the U.S., and I invite you to join Greatschools Learning and Attention Difficulties Group at community.greatschools.net/groups/11554 to learn more about it, including terminology like IEP's (Individual Education Plans) and more. You might also contact www.interdys.org (International Dyslexia Society) and see if they have a chapter in the San Francisco area, and you can ask those parents about the best schools and other resources in the community.