If you’re looking to move into a new rental home, there are probably a number of things about the new area you’d like to know. Maybe you’re wondering what green spaces are nearby, or what the community rules are like. If you have kids, however, one of the main things you’ll want to know is which school district you’re in. That way, you can do research on the school they’ll attend and prepare them ahead of time.

Seems like a pretty straightforward question, right? Not as much as you’d think! Your rental home could easily be on a block which borders two school districts, meaning that your nearby neighbors would attend somewhere else. Therefore, you’ll want to do a little bit of research in order to figure out exactly which schools your child could attend. 

Tools You Can Use

Thanks to the internet, there are a few different tools you can use to type in your address, or the address of your potential rental home, and they’ll show you your district and its boundaries. The one on Greatschools.org is based on Google Maps. It allows you to reverse-search based on district and select which level of schooling you’d like to see. You can also add charter and private schools, if you’d like. The results also show a handy rating of each school out of 10.

Niche.com also has a great map tool. This one also allows you to put in your address and see which school district it’s in and the prices of homes for sale in the district and surrounding area. Niche also gives ratings for these schools on a letter-based grading system. You can sort by traditional, charter, magnet, and alternative schools. You can also “favorite” certain school districts if you sign up for an account.

Learning More About Your School District

Obviously, once you figure out exactly which school district your rental home is in, you’ll want to find out a little more about it. There are several different sites and charts you can use in order to do this.

Niche.com has several different “Best of” lists, for different kinds of schools, all of the states, and even faculty. You can search for a school or a district in these to see how it ranks so that you can factor that into your decision as you decide where to move. You’ll be able to see a “Report Card” which offers all kinds of information about the school and the population it serves.

US News and World Report also offers a bunch of different lists by state, subject, and type of school. You can search your school district and see demographics, subject rankings, and average test scores for different schools and districts.

For a unique and eye-opening take, you might consult the New York Times’ chart, which allows you to see where a school district ranks compared to the national average. By searching your school district, you can see whether it teaches at the national average, or how many grade levels above and below. It will also give you a rough idea of where the school district ranks compared to others in the country in a socioeconomic sense. This might help you decide where you want a rental home.

If you have children, their education is likely one of the most important things in your life. We hope that these tools will help you to find and research school districts so that you can find a rental home which aligns with your whole family’s needs. Happy hunting and good luck!

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