Possibly Moving to Boston -- HELP

[kcr]

I am going out next week for a job interview with a compnay in cambridge. its a good job, and if a million things go right, I will be working for them. One of the things that has to go right is taking care of the kids. Our eldest has Asperger's syndrome, so we are concerned about the schools. So, if anyone could give us a decent idea on

1) School systems that are good at handling special ed kids
2) school systems that are bad
3) Decent neighborhoods with houses under 400k or similiarly priced rents (and good lord, housing is expensive!) near the train/t lines
4) Anything else that might scare us away :)

Thanks

[Breeze54]

1. Here's a few schools and good luck on your interview!

http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/schools_camps.html

# Boston, Massachusetts
McLean Hospital - Kennedy Hope Academy

The Kennedy Hope Academy is a 13-bed residential school providing intensive treatment for children
with pervasive developmental disorders who have serious psychiatric illness or behavior problems.

If you are interested in more information about this program, please contact
David Rourke, MS
Program Manager
[phone]
or visit our website at www.mclean.harvard.edu/patient/child/kha.php

# Belmont, Massachusetts
Pathways Academy
McLean Hospital
115 Mill Street
Belmont, Massachusetts 02178
617-855-2847
For more information send an e-mail to Sarah Medeiros at [e-mail]
Visit their web site at www.mclean.harvard.edu/cns/pathways.htm

This school is for AS children from ages 1st -12th Grade.

McLean Hospital is a Teaching Facility of Harvard Medical School and an Affiliate of Massachusetts General Hospital

# Sudbury, Massachusetts
Corwin Russell School

"The Corwin-Russell School at Broccoli Hall is an independent school for high-potential students
11-19 years old with varied learning styles, average to superior intelligence, exceptional creativity,
attentional issues, untapped interests, talents, and strengths, and disparity between innate ability
and past production."

For more information:

Phone: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
Or visit their web site at: www.corwin-russell.org

[Pithlet]

2. Thanks!

I'm kcr's wife. We appreciate your response. We'll check it out. I'll also give this a kick for the afternoon crowd.

[zanne]

3. I hope you get the job and find what you need! nt

[kcr]

13. Thanks -n/t

[Gormy Cuss]

4. On neighborhoods, transit and housing

Cambridge has a commuter rail station colocated with the Porter Square T stop. If the company is located near a Red Line stop it's a fairly easy commute from the less costly and less congested towns far out on the Fitchburg line. The caution there is many of those areas are small towns or older towns and there may not be much "there" there for your family.

Less transit friendly areas are cheaper and offer some decent nbhds -- some parts of Framingham and adjacent towns are within your budget. There are commuter rail stops in that area (Framingham/Worcester line) but the commute is doable if cumbersome. That line would require riding all the way into South station and transferring to the Red line. Framingham is a small city with some walkable neighborhoods and lots of services so as a home base it's not a bad place for a family with kids. I had many coworkers who lived in that area and most had kids in the public schools. I have friends whose children attended schools there in recent years and all are college age now and seem to have received decent educations. I don't know of any with special needs kids however.


From south of Boston (Quincy, etc) there are some nice towns with commuter rail links to South Station and Quincy itself is on the Red line. I always lived west of Boston and don't know the South Shore very well.

Commuting from the North Shore to Cambridge is a pain on mass transit because the commuter rail links to North Station, requiring a Green line to Red line transfer to get to most of Cambridge.

If the company is located nearer to the Green line in that small corner of East Cambridge then a North Shore commuter rail trip would be doable.

[kcr]

5. Gormy

Thanks for the advice! The company is located near the Science Museum, if that is an indicator of neighborhood.

Do you know what Somerville and Waltham are like?

[Breeze54]

6. ah....

Somerville has a lot of gang activity and Waltham is suburbs and
middle class to upper middle class with some lower and poor thrown in.

Nice houses in Waltham, close to Cambridge. Buses and trains go into the city.

My cousins live in Waltham. Nice houses, on the border of Lexington (Minutemen)

and route 2 runs right through it, which goes into Cambridge. The Science Museum

is right in the middle of the city and it's VERY expensive living in the city.

Very busy traffic/highway area. You don't want to live near the science museum. ;)

[ET Awful]

7. Really depends on the area of Somerville - much of it is college town or borders on Cambridge

Some of the areas surrounding Davis Square are decent, and there are many spots near Alewife Parkway that are pretty nice too (basically on the border with Arlington). You get a lot of Tufts students (and Harvard students for that matter) in Somerville.

Waltham is very nice, but houses are pretty pricey.

[Breeze54]

9. Yeah, all towns have nice places. That's true but the OP

said a house in the $400, 000 range. I think that's possible in Waltham or close to it.

[kcr]

12. That explains

why the housing in Somerville is so all over the place :)


And, eah, the cheapest house I saw listed for Cambridge proper was like a million two. Unless this job pays MUCH better than I have been lead to believe, that is a wee bit out of my range ...

[Gormy Cuss]

8. Museum of Science is on the Green Line

That's in the corner of East Cambridge near Lechmere station.

I lived in Somerville and wouldn't recommend the public schools based on the experiences of my friends and neighbors. Other than schools Somerville can be a nice place to live. West Somerville (from Porter Square to Tufts) has the best neighborhoods.

Waltham has some good neighborhoods, don't know about the schools. The areas bordering Belmont and Lexington are nice. It has a more suburban feel than Somerville yet it's close in to Cambridge/Boston. From Waltham the mass transit can be cumbersome depending on the neighborhood but driving to Cambridge isn't that bad, relatively speaking.

[Breeze54]

10. Information on house prices, taxes and everything else about Waltham, MA.

Waltham, MA
http://www.city-data.com/zips/02451.html

[kcr]

14. Thanks for the link

That is a great resource.

[A-Long-Little-Doggie]

11. My son is an Aspie, too...

And he went through the Acton school system. I have to say, they were fantastic! We did not have a diagnosis for him until he was in college, but his teachers and counselors in grammar school were absolutely incredible with him. They recognized his need to be in a quiet place for part of the day, and let him go do his worksheets in the resource room. They had him on the kind of plan that they create for kids with diagnoses, and worked with him the whole time. He saw the school counselor for work with his social skills for all 8 years (2Xkindergarten), and that was a huge help. Junior high was not as pleasant, but he really found his way in high school. The very last term of his senior year was the first time he made the honor roll!!

He is now finishing up at UMass-Lowell with a BS in Computer Science, with honors. I well up just thinking of all the effort it took him to get where he is today, and I know so much of his success was because of the Acton schools.

You can get to Cambridge fairly easily taking the commuter rail out of South Acton, and there are lots of homes in that area that would be within your price range. Acton has an open enrollment for the grammar schools, meaning your kids could go to any of the 5 grammar schools regardless of where you live in town.

My younger son always found school and athletics came easy to him, and the Acton schools were good for him, too, as they kept him challenged.

Good luck in your search, and PM me if you have any questions that I may be able to help you with.

[kcr]

15. That is fantastic information

And congratulations on your son's success.