I guess one goes hand in hand but we are moving to florida from NY. We currently live in Westchester, NY we have the highest taxes in the country but we also have great schools. We are looking to relocate to Florida since we are there every couple of months anyway and are looking into schools and areas comparable to ours here in NY. Can anyone suggest great locations for school preferably on the water the canal perhaps but not necessary. Any background information would be appreciated.
Lynn

http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/

Lynn - can you saw if you are looking at South Florida? Orlando? Tampa/St Pete?? etc

Definitely agree that you need to narrow down the search or specify an area.

Schools comparable to Westchester? Start looking at private schools.

A guy I went to HS with is making major dollars as the CFO of a medical company in Tampa. He want to U Penn as an undergrad. His kids go to Berkeley Prep. If going the private school route in Tampa, I'm assuming that's at the top of the list given what I know is his income and his motivation as a student.

Compared to Westchester FL schools are a mixed bag at best. I don't know how the FL system works - I think the schools are organized by county - not local neighborhood - so getting very high quality is difficult. We had neighbors that moved there and they opted for private.

Jacksonville/Orange Park are great areas- and not as hot as further south. There are very good private schools there.

My nephew lives in Weston, FL which is a lovely area outside of Fort Lauderdale. However, the public schoola are WAAAAAAAY overcrowded and under funded. Two of this children attend private school. His youngest is in the gifted program and the public schools do a good job with this type of programming.

Northern Palm Beach county (Jupiter/Tequesta) has highly rated schools & offers an outstanding quality of life...beaches, boating, golf; great family-friendly communities as well as super-upscale communities. I'd say Palm Beach Gardens, north to Tequesta would be my focus.

As I said, schools are rated extremely well but as an alternative, we have a couple outstanding private schools very nearby. Many, many families that can afford private schools send their children to Jupiter public schools instead.

Public schools in South Tampa are excellent: Gorrie Elementary, Wilson Middle, and Plant HS. There are also good private schools, Berkeley Prep, which Ryan mentioned, being one of them. And it's a great community, with lots of young families, in a walkable part of the city, not the sprawling suburbs.
To say all Florida public schools are lousy is ridiculous; it's a big state!