Parents who are moving to Florida or are moving to a new school district should spend some time researching the school district and schools their children will attend. Initially, parents should determine which characteristics of a school and school district are most important for meeting the needs of their children. For instance, parents may be interested in the academic performance of students at the school, test scores, programs for special needs of students, courses offered, information on teachers and staff, the availability of special resources, the size of the school population, the number of students per class, dropout rates, graduation rates, and other information. Parents may also want to know how the school is regarded by parents whose students attend the school and how the school is regarded in the community.

There are a number of resources for information on Florida schools, including but not limited to the following:

• the Florida School Indicators Report (online edition) at http://data.fldoe.org/fsir/,
• the School Advisory Council Report prepared for each school,
• the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Report prepared for each school,
• the school superintendent’s office,
• the Florida Department of Education web site,
• citizens familiar with the local schools,
• parents and teachers,
• school principals, and
• members of the School Advisory Council.