OK, ?? for all Florida residents

[JenniferS.]

Hello! I live in Rhode Island and would really love to move to FL. I have 4 adopted kids that are bi-racial. I'm not sure if moving to the south would be a great move for the kids. How is the schooling? What area would be a good area to move to with kids? Please fill me in on anything and everything Florida. Good, bad and ugly..lol and THANKS! I would especially like to hear from people that have moved from the northeast to FL and their experience with settling in.

[Kenny1113]

I don't know how the school systems here compare with Rhode island, but I think our school systems are terrible. When I talk to my niece who lives in OH, about school (she is in the same grade as DS10) she is much farther ahead in the curriculum. :(

My mom tells the story (this was a long time ago, though I still think it applies :( ) that when we moved down here what I did in 3rd grade here is what I did in 2nd grade in OH!

[floridamom]

First off, if you google "Florida DOE school ranking," you should find a ranked list of schools in the state (based simply on test scores) that was just released last week. You'll then be able to see which school districts pop up more frequently at the top of the list. Of course we take that with a grain of salt since test scores generally correlate to wealth and/or eduxation level of the parents. So really you'll be seeing which areas are more affluent/educated and as a result have "better" schools.

We moved here from northern Virginia, where I had taught in a very well-regarded public school system, which has given me an interesting perspective on the schools here. Honestly, when I first arrived in FL in 1999 there were some good things happening in education. Now with the housing bust education funding has continued to be cut and many districts are struggling. But the deals on homes are unbeatable. ;-) (There is also no state income tax here which is good for the paycheck, but not great for the state budget.)

I taught in Pinellas County (Gulf coast/Tampa Bay area) and for the most part I would not recommend it. The northern part of the county (Clearwater area) is wealthier and therefore has some better schools. There of course are other good schools scattered throughout (with many hard-working teachers), but the district has had leadership issues, and if you don't have another reason to move there, the schools are definitely not the draw. We didn't have kids of our own at the time. If you're interested in living on the gulf coast (which is so beautiful) I would recommend Sarasota County. It is more diverse, with many people from other countries, including Europe, and more culturally rich in terms of the arts.

We also lived in Brevard County (Space Coast), which is home to several engineering and technology companies, and many of the elementary schools are at the top of the ranked list, including the #1. At the time our children were not yet school-aged so I can't speak from personal experience, but many of our friends who are still there and are happy with the schools.

In terms of the diversity issue, we have found that many parts of the state are still "segregated" between black and white- not forcibly, but because of socio-economic factors. I am not Caucasian myself, so my children are in fact bi-racial. They attended a good public school for a few years that was predominantly white with some black and latino students, but this year we had the opportunity for them to enroll in an excellent private school, which has a much broader range of backgrounds and nationalities. I think you'll just have to get to know an area and the schools to see what they are like.

One last note: we have neighbors who moved here from Rhode Island and they actually found that our particular school (not the private, but the previous public school) was more advanced and their son had to catch up in 2nd grade. I wouldn't generalize that too far, but I do think that while overall Florida schools may lag behind other parts of the country, if you find a good one you will not feel like your kids are repeating a grade. If music and the arts are important to you, look for a magnet program, because those are the areas that have been sacrificed when the budget falls short.

Hope this helps a bit. We love living in Florida for the pace, the weather and the fact that there is so much here to enjoy. Every time we are at the beach or at WDW I point out to my kids how lucky they are to live in a place where many people only get to visit on vacation.

Good luck with your decision!

[dnickels]

Hello! I live in Rhode Island and would really love to move to FL. I have 4 adopted kids that are bi-racial. I'm not sure if moving to the south would be a great move for the kids. How is the schooling? What area would be a good area to move to with kids? Please fill me in on anything and everything Florida. Good, bad and ugly..lol and THANKS! I would especially like to hear from people that have moved from the northeast to FL and their experience with settling in.

Are you talking anywhere in Florida or in the Disney/Orlando area specifically?

Some generalities....

-Most of the bigger cities (including Orlando) have a pretty diverse makeup so I don't imagine that your kids being bi-racial would be an issue in those places at all.

-Florida public schools are generally considered a notch or two below those in the Northeast. Some people think it's a huge difference, others don't think it's that great. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. The best schools in the Orlando area tend to be on the northeast side of Orlando (Lake Mary, Oviedo).

-Florida wages tend to be lower than those in the northeast so if you're making 40k / yr as a [FILL IN THE BLANK] up there you probably won't be able to translate that wage directly to the same type of job in Florida. Most jobs are in the service/tourism industry. The other side of that coin however is a generally lower cost of housing, lower utility rates, no state income tax, etc. The equation works for some people, and not so much for others.

-It gets humid. If those few days/weeks of 90 degree, 90% humidity days you get up north are absolute misery, then Florida might not be the ideal location (you'd be amazed at how many people move down here and then complain about the summer heat & humidity).

I know you've also asked about working for Disney, just keep in mind that a huge chunk of the Disney CMs come from two groups,
1) either very young people (college program kids, young people just out of college) that make near minimum wage and live with 2 or 3 roommates OR
2) retired / semi-retired folks making near minimum wage.
That's not to say Disney doesn't have professionals who make a middle-class or greater wage, in fact I think one of the members here (DVC2004 maybe??) worked for them a number of years ago. Unfortunately for most people who want to come work for the Mouse, those jobs are few and far between.
A person's degree in Teaching/Chemistry/Engineering/Business qualifies them to be a........
front line cast member making slightly more than minimum wage.
A person's 20 years as a Project Manager/Administrative Assistant/Supervisor qualifies them to be a.........
front line cast member making slightly more than minimum wage.
Even among the park area managers, many of them put in their 3-5+ years with Disney doing the lower-pay scale work to get where they are. Not to throw cold water on the idea of moving down and working for Disney to make a living, but there's a reason most of the CMs we meet are either young or old, and not many are middle-aged with families to support. :twocents:

[brownie]

Sending this to the Water Cooler since it's not Disney-related.

[MNNHFLTX]

We also lived in Brevard County (Space Coast), which is home to several engineering and technology companies, and many of the elementary schools are at the top of the ranked list, including the #1. At the time our children were not yet school-aged so I can't speak from personal experience, but many of our friends who are still there and are happy with the schools.

We lived in Brevard County for 12 years (the Suntree/Viera area) and were extremely happy with the schools there. The curriculum was challenging and most of the parents were involved (which is probably the best indicator of a good school). To tell the truth, the quality of the schools in Florida is a bit of a touchy subject with me. I've heard too many people classify the entire state's educational system as bad, yet it truly depends on the individual school district. The same is true in every state--up north, down south, out west and every place in between. There will be good schools and bad schools. You will never convince me otherwise.

Alot of folks move down to Florida because of past vacation experiences, but living there is a totally different venture. If you can picture yourself working, going to school, grocery-shopping, errand-running, etc. there, just as you would any place else, you will do fine. And of course, there are the beaches and a certain place called Disney World to visit on weekends. :mickey:

[JenniferS.]

Thanks everyone for your very useful information. It's tough when you are thinking of moving to an unfamiliar area, especially with kids. My draw to move there is the weather, more affordable housing. My husband has some connections for work there, not sure what area though. Living in the northeast we are all used to a fast paced, hurry up and get there enviroment. Not sure if that would fit in down south. Well, for now I guess we will just stick to visiting. Thanks to all for the info.

[AgentC]

Jennifer,

Weighing in a little late. I moved from MA to the Tampa area in 2002. At that point it was just my husband and myself (my parents were already there). Now we have a 3 and 6 year old.

My husband was immediately happy here. He is very into fishing, warm weather and gardening, so it was perfect for him. For me it was a bit harder. I was used to that go go pace in MA. I found FL slow, lacking cultural activities I was used too and with people who seemed to have very different attitudes than me.

Then the first winter came and while my NE friends had feet of snow that year, I was sitting by my pool and thought maybe I need to have a better attitude. Really, anyplace you are has it's good points and bad points.

Weatherwise it depends where you are. I am north of Tampa & find area to be quite nice most of the time. Yes it does get hot and humid but to me it is not much worse than the hot humid weather in MA. It just lasts longer. But , for me, I wouldn't want to be any further south.

Diversity, well than just depends. There are parts of FL that are very diverse and parts that are not. There are parts that are very conservative and parts that aren't. For anyone moving to FL, it is really important to research the actual area because the experiences can be very different.

Jobs, well, not good. Florida was very dependent on the housing industry and the bust hit us hard. There are jobs but they are not always easy to find and wages are lower than the NE. Some other costs do help offset that like no income tax, but not 100%.

Housing, since the market crashed housing prices are extremely good. I've seen 3 bedrooms in my area go for as low as $50K. On the negative side, home insurance is very high and depending on where you live you may have no choice but the state run plan.

Schools. Again like anywhere it really depends. My son is in kindergarten and goes to a great magnet school, but not all the schools in my district are as good. My son's teacher has told me FL has gone to a new curriculum that is countrywide starting with this years kindergarten. The idea is if you move from FL to MA, both schools are covering the same basics in the same grades. It will be interesting to see how that does.

Culture- It's here, you just have to look for it sometimes. And of course you have the benefits of lots of theme parks, festivals, sporting teams and other activities to fill the year.

Looking back 10 years later, I am glad we made the move and for us the positives outweigh the negative. Some people never adjust. I still miss the fall. I still miss Stop and Shop. :) And I still miss some other things, but I wouldn't move back.

[stitchingirl]

We moved here from Michigan, though before that it was South Carolina, and before that California...

We don't work at Disney; we do visit occasionally but don't have passes. We used to live in Brevard county, for three years, and we did have passes. We chose Brevard county because of the schools, though DH did have a more lucrative job offer in the Fort Myers / Naples area, if that tells you how very different the schools are. DH lost his job 2 years after we moved here, in a very specialized branch of psychology, and we couldn't find anything around for him to do, so we moved to TEXAS for 9 very long months. As soon as we set foot in TX we knew we had made a huge mistake and set about trying to get back to Florida. We live about an hour north of West Palm Beach, 45 minutes south of where we used to and it's all retirees / snowbirds and richy-rich people. But we're happy!

We are soon-to-be closing on a flipped home for right at $100K. 2 blocks from an awesome school and DH's employer. We've decided after many years of being in the Navy and nomadically moving around that Florida is, and always will be home. Mickey is only part of the equation.

It's just a completely different lifestyle. Livin' the Florida lifestyle, one local chain uses as their slogan. Or used to. :cloud9:

[Main Street Jim]

We live about an hour north of West Palm Beach, 45 minutes south of where we used to and it's all retirees / snowbirds and richy-rich people. But we're happy! Sounds like the Vero Beach/Ft. Pierce area (Treasure Coast). Vero's still considered my hometown :)