You research automobile consumer safety reports and haggle with car dealers before you buy a new ride; you compare fabric and stitch quality and value before buying a new pair of slacks; you examine floor plans and countertop finishes and appliance grade before choosing a new home.

So why wouldn’t you do a little research to find the best bang for your tax buck before deciding who to trust with your child’s education?

The decisions, adjustments, and red tape of relocating to a new city or area may be a bit of a chore already; but if you are the parent of young or high-school age children, the task might seem more like a mammoth undertaking.

But, breathe: Washington parents have more choices today than ever before. Not only is the state known for its excellent public school system (particularly in the west), but you now have more information available at your fingertips than your own parents or grandparents could have imagined. Internet sites and newspapers host parent reviews and comparative expert ratings of individual schools and districts; parent blogs, school news bulletins, and parent open houses and tours allow you to look at schools from an insider’s perspective.

The Eastside is renowned in particular for its excellent education system; in its 2008 special, “Best 100 places to live in the US”, CNN News rated Bellevue as #1. Not only did the city hit the top of the chart for its exceptional corporate growth and entrepreneurial opportunity, but for its high quality healthcare and public education services.

This is why individual schools in this area are upping the ante on their performance- they are competing for your patronage as much as those car dealers.

Think of yourself as the classic savvy customer: Educators are marketing a product, and it’s your job to find out for yourself who’s selling what they’re advertising.

The U.S Department of Education echoes just that sentiment: Visit schools, request meetings with teachers and with the principal, and ask hard questions. Ask for standardized test scores, GPA averages, percentage of students involved in extracurricular activities, students who graduate, and students who go directly to a four-year college. Ask other parents with enrolled children what they like and dislike about the school.

For the Puget Sound and surrounding areas, it’s no secret that the Lake Washington, Mercer Island, and Issaquah school districts each score among the highest in the state on these criteria.

Clyde Hill Elementary school in the Lake Washington district, for example, boasts an average 19-to-1 student teacher ratio, among the highest combined WASL scores in the region (184.8), and an average 11 years of educative experience per teacher. In terms of parent feedback, Greatschools.net gives Clyde Hill a 10 out of 10 rating, and Schooldigger.com ranks it 12^th out of 1008 elementary schools.

For Lake Washington High School, high PSAT and GPA averages, a high student retention rate and large percentage of graduates who enroll in 4-year colleges (especially the University of Washington) and 4 stars of excellence on overall quality, teacher quality, and extracurricular activities might just be the credentials needed to put the high school on the top of your list.

Throughout the process, keep in mind any special preferences or activities you or your child might have. If your child plays soccer, a musical instrument, or in theater, does the school offer strong programs in this area? If you already have a few prospective colleges in mind, does the school have any special relationships or scholarships available with this college? Does it offer special needs education, if necessary, or advanced placement (AP) studies?

Lake Washington High School, for example, receives excellent ratings for its AP options. Entrance into reputable colleges like the University of Washington is becoming more competitive; admissions officers no longer look only at scores, but at how thoroughly high school courses and activities have prepared the student for college. A good AP background can give your child the necessary edge.

Because where you live determines where your child will go to school, be sure when looking at prospective new homes to clarify which district is assigned to each address. While Washington laws allow you to petition for a change of district, this can be a timely and not always viable solution.

Imagine after deciding what you want in a school, you choose our previous example of the Lake Washington School District. If you go their website, www.lwsd.org, you will see that the boundaries of the district range northwest from Kingsgate to southeast at Yarrow Point, encompassing northern downtown Bellevue.

When looking to relocate, school assignment is not the only factor that may affect your child’s academia. Will your new home be close to a good public transit system, so as to give you and your child accessible options when commuting to high school or college? How about the public library system? Are there other features of the area, such as nearby wireless internet access points?

Consider our example of northern downtown Bellevue in the Lake Washington school district. Clean but bustling, the area is home to the central Bellevue Transit Center, with bus stops on most streets no more than a few blocks apart, and lines running to Seattle every quarter hour. Coffee shops like Starbucks and Top Pots offer wireless internet in accessible city spots.

The Bellevue City Library, the largest in King County, is a 3-storied palace. With plenty of internet accessible computers, vast multi-media resources, and a plethora of study space, the library on 12^th Street is seated in a child-friendly neighborhood and is close to a few family-oriented new home developments.

Choosing the best environment for raising your child is not a one-stop process. But if you live in or are looking to move to the Puget Sound area, you already have a highly-rated array of public school options at your disposal, and the tools needed to determine which best suits your child. Now with a little window-shopping and some bargain-hunting, all you’ll need is to do is stick your child’s education in the shopping bag and move to the checkout.

Popularity: 98% [?]