There are a lot of charter schools out there, but how can you tell if making the switch to a charter school from your current school is right for your child? Before I had children I didn’t think about schools, school district boundaries, property values, real estate taxes, or test scores. When I had children of school age, I suddenly became interested in what other parents said about the local schools. Buying a house became more complicated when I had to find the right house in the right location to be able to send my children to the right school. After all that, there was still a chance that the school I thought was the right school would have turned out to be bad for my child. Additionally, School district boundaries can change, making all the work and research of finding the right home and therefore the right school, completely worthless.

Finding a good charter school is still a lot like finding a good neighborhood school. The good news is that unlike neighborhood schools, the boundaries can’t change and force you to change schools and you don’t have to live in the right neighborhood to go to the right school. The bad news is that charter schools differ a lot. Each one has a specific mission, uses different curriculum and has differing levels of experience for school leaders.

The best place to start is the school’s web site. Does the school list a specific mission? Some schools are language immersion schools meaning that they teach school subjects like math, science and history in another language. Some schools focus on American Heritage. Some schools have an international focus or are performance art schools.

When you find the school that fits your child’s interests and needs, then visit the school and talk to the teachers, staff and school leader. Just visiting the school can tell you a lot about the management of the school. Is it orderly and clean? Does the staff know the answers to your questions? Do the teachers and the staff agree on the school mission? Are there sufficient supplies to meet the needs of the students? Talk to parents of current and former students. Do students stay from year to year or is there a lot of turnover each year? Ask parent’s why they send their children to the school?

If your visit was successful, go to the State of Utah Department of Education web site and look up the school’s scores on standardized tests. Standardized tests don’t tell everything about a school. Many charter schools have a mission to work with populations that don’t test well on standardized tests. Even if test scores are lower than your other options, you can tell if a school is making progress from year to year and if the school serves all of its populations equally. Are there large gaps between high-income and low-income students?

The benefit of charter schools is the wide variety of learning styles and temperaments they can support. On the other hand some undergo significant changes and upheaval as they get started. Complicating your decision making is a new law gives your neighborhood school the option of not accepting your student back to the school if you change your mind. I have never heard of a local neighborhood school refusing a student, but the law gives them that right.

Visit carefully, and choose wisely.

Jeanne Whitmore is the founder and CEO of an American Fork charter school, Aristotle Academy, and an education columnist for the American Fork Citizen. You can learn more about Aristotle Academy at aristotleacademyk8.org or on Facebook.