Moving to New Yawk...?

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Help please...

We're moving somewhere in the beginning of '11. Originally we planned to move to NH. For some weird reason I started looking at Upstate NY and discovered it was more affordable than NH so it looks like that's where we're going now. I'm not sure WHERE, and I need suggestions.

Rochester seems to have a nice concentration of good districts, but I have had a few people suggest Syracuse. At this point we're pretty open about what part of the state we'll move too so long as it's not insanely expensive. I'm originally from LI which is out of the question. It's so upsetting because my family is there and we have no support where we are right now at all.

Thanks in advance to anyone responding. I am just desperate to be closer to home and be in a place where people can't exclude my kid and treat him like a freak.

I've lived all over the state and just recently left after 32 years for a job relocation. I grew up on LI and my family is still there. I lived in and around Albany and Syracuse. My in-laws live in western NY, near Buffalo. I can't speak too much about northern NY. I've never been north of Lake George but I do have a friend that lives near Lake Placid.

LI's awful, IMO. It's so expensive and full of a**holes (except for my family, of course ). I love upstate NY. The Albany region was my favorite. There's a really good mix of city and country along with friendly people and plenty of things to do. The schools are very good, as long as you don't go to the urban districts (albany, troy, schenectady). They get about 60 inches of snow during winter and it does get very, very cold. Cost of living here is a bit higher than anywhere else upstate, but certainly nothing like LI.

I liked the Syracuse area too. It is cheaper there and there's less to do. The snow is a big consideration. North of the thruway you could get well over 100 inches in the winter. Snowblowers are mandatory. The first year I lived there we got almost 5 feet in less than 1 week. It was quite surreal. It's not quite as cold as Albany because of the lake, but it is more cloudy. The schools are also very good (except syracuse city). My son recieved services in the area and it's a very inclusive environment, which I thought was a very good thing. Beware of property taxes, though (some of the highest in the nation).

We considered Rochester, but my hubby didn't get the job there. It's an up and coming area. I did some research on the schools and housing, but my recommendations would be second-hand. The Museum of Play is lots of fun!

If there's anything else you'd like to know - just ask. I have a wealth of information about upstate and the school districts. It's a nice place to live .

If you are not particular about where, look into the Greece NY School district, near Rochester. As an educator, I am highly impressed by their stuff.
There are lots of nice schools in the Albany area, just not in Albany itself.
I would imagine most places on LI to be hellish for a person on the spectrum. I'm sure there are exceptions, but the high schools tend to be exceedingly clickish with a hair / nails / money mentality.

I agree with both of you about LI. My son loves visiting our family, but I don't think he could handle living there. I know I couldn't and I am about 95% certain it would make my husband nutters too.

We haven't looked at Albany much - any good area suggestions? Initially we were more focused around Rochester because my job had an office thereabouts but we keep hearing that around Albany is really nice.

number5 - I'm not too worried about the snow. Trust me - we had two storms in Oklahoma last year that dumped almost 2 ft each. They don't plow much if at all and everything shuts down for days. My son couldn't really play in it either because we didn't have snow clothes. We're not supposed to need them here.... It looks like my husband and I will office out of the house so as long as we can get out and play in it, it won't be awful. I'll have to find a good winter activity for all of us. That was suggested when we were looking at NH and I think it's a good idea. I got a few recommendations for the Syracuse area as well. I will probably message you really soon - thank you so much for the offer!

PenguinMom, funny you mentioned Greece, we were just looking at there two days ago. We liked it quite a bit. My husband was very fond of it actually. Thanks for the mention. My mother is an educator in NYS also - she doesn't have many connections in that area because she's in the city schools.

I think the hardest part is deciding what will be a good fit for my son. We would like good services, but he's really in great shape and doesn't need anything intensive. We want to find people who have the resources to support what he needs and allow him to get a good education. I would really love to see more activities for him to be included in too - bowling or sports, art classes - anything that is AS friendly. I am so confused about where that will be.

The schools in Albany itself are notorious. There is an area just to the west, known as the Albany Hill Towns, google that. Also, look in Greene County. I believe that Niskayune (maybe I spelled that wrong) is the best school district near Albany. The local paper there (The Herald-Union) does a good yearly school ranking.

Greece has a phenomenal literacy program and is on the forefront of standards driven education. Living there you would have one of the nation's best public school systems without being ridiculously overtaxed.

When we were looking to move out of NYC, my husband did a spreadsheet of all the school report card results for NY State. The area around Rochester (not in Rochester) is pretty nice looking. If you have the time, look at the school report cards for all the districts you are considering.

I never heard of "Albany Hills," but Niskyuna (Schenectady county) is indeed a good school district - smaller and not very diverse, but good. The best district in the Albany area, IMO, is North Colonie. Taxes are particularly low in this district as well (they are absurd in Niskyuna). My favorite area near Albany is pretty much all of Saratoga county. It's breathtakingly (made up word?) beautiful. The schools are very good, but you've got to be a little careful with bullying in certain districts. I hesitate to generalize but, the better the sports teams - the bigger the bullies.

In Syracuse, I was lucky enough to know several special education teachers that gave me the inside scoop on which districts were the best for kids with ASD's. If Syracuse is indeed on the short list, I'd be happy to share what I know. Overall, the schools are very good. Just stay out of the city districts - this goes for most, if not all of upstate.

Report cards can only tell you so much about a district. Sometimes the "best" schools are not the best for certain kids. Sometimes districts put so much weight on test scores that they drive lower performing kids out, or tailor their educating towards testing alone. Sometimes districts have a great reputation for dealing with challenged (for lack of a better word) kids and gifted kids, but neglect average students - or vice versa. I found some online school evaluators to be helpful because they include parent/student reviews, but even then, it can be a biased. One of the best resources for relocation and school advise is city-data.com. The forums provide so much in the way of insider information.

I'm not sure what your employment situation is, but it is rather rough upstate these days. You may find that your job(s) dictate your search. Good luck!