Boston School Finder
Shellina is a Boston parent who has faced many challenges over the years in finding the perfect school for her daughter, Janae. Her road to finding the right school for her daughter eventually led her to Boston School Finder, where she works as a parent ambassador getting the word out about this tool to other families in Boston.
Janae had a speech impediment when she was younger and needed special accommodations. Shellina enrolled her in a Boston Public school where she was going to receive speech therapy. After a few years, the school was no longer able to give her that support and Janae started having academic difficulties. Her grades were fine on her report card; however, Shellina noticed that her actual performance was not reflective of those grades.
She was very worried about her daughter and kept approaching the school with her concerns to no avail. She felt like a charter school would be the best option to accommodate her daughter’s needs but tried the lottery every year and couldn’t get a seat.
Shellina decided to pursue a master’s degree in education to get the tools she needed to personally help her daughter. What she didn’t know is that there were actually other BPS schools that could have fit her daughters needs.
“The option left for me was to get a masters in education to support my daughter... because every year that she wasn’t getting into a charter school was another year she was losing out on an opportunity to be successful...If all of this information ( Boston School Finder) was there when I was dealing with my daughter in second and third grade, it would have looked a lot different for me.”
Janae was eventually accepted into KIPP charter school in fifth grade, which was a great match for her academic needs. However, Shellina knew that she would eventually need to find a new school for her daughter to transition into high school. Boston School Finder launched in 2017 and was an integral part of her research and decision making process of where to send her daughter.
“I picked Match because of all the tools that Boston School Finder had on there. There were questions provided so I could ask at the school and I learned that I could tour the school directly with the principal.... It was a hard decision to make because she grew so much at KIPP but I didn’t want to take the chance, since she was behind academically, waiting to find a school until after 8th grade...
This is also something Boston School Finder talks to families about: don’t wait until the end of the year to find a school because by then it will be extremely challenging and competitive because a lot of families will be looking for a 9th grade.”
Shellina also used the tools at BSF to find a school for her other two kids and had a great experience with it. She became a real advocate for the tool and decided to join Boston School Finder as a parent ambassador.
“I was one of the first few parent ambassadors. The first year we started, what I found interesting was that parents didn’t know the choices were available to them, parents didn’t know the deadlines, parent’s didn’t know the requirements.
They knew there were charter schools but didn’t know how or when to apply. They knew about BPS but didn’t know all the schools that were available to them, when is the best time to register. They didn’t know about private or parochial schools available to them.
What I loved about BSF is that it put all the schools in Boston in one place and said to parents: these are all the school choices available to you and you get to choose, you get to decide which school best fits your child.”
Shellina’s story and struggles to find the best fit school for her kids is one that many parents experience. Boston School Finder has helped consolidate all the information in one place so that parents can make an informed decision to fit their child’s needs.
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