Are Special Education Programs in Chesapeake VA Good, Bad, Excellent? (Norfolk: apartment, home)

[pinkysue]

I want to move to the Chesapeake VA area in the efforts to be in a suburb of VA Beach. I looked at Norfolk and a few other places, but Chesapeake seems really like what I'm looking for proximity and community wise. However, before I rent, I am going to visit the entire area for a few weeks, get a feel for it before I choose my final apartment, so I am still open to other counties/areas as well in light of the new developments described here.

The doctors are saying that my son has special needs. They still have more testing to do, so I am not sure if he will only need care prior to age 5 or 6 or whether this is a lifelong thing. They still need to check his hearing and his brain. What they have told me is that he will definitely need to be in a special needs program for pre-school. I had planned to home school for pre-school, but they said I can do things in addition to his regular school, but because of his needs, he must attend a special program which I understand. For 1st through 12th grades I wanted to send him to Christian schools, so hopefully, if he still needs special education then, I can find special needs programs at Christian schools as well.

They have told me that the program in Montgomery County MD is excellent, however, I really have people that I know that cause me stress and frustration, and they live near Montgomery County, MD, and they do not understand how unpleasant it is for me to be around them, so if they know I am there, they won't leave me alone.

I want to put some distance between myself and them and the VA Beach area is the perfect amount of distance. However, I want my son to have the best care, so I will deal with Montgomery County if it is our only option.

The doctor's that he's seeing don't know any families from Chesapeake, so they cannot say whether the care is good yet because they do not know what county it's in.

And from my research, it looks as though it is not part of a county, but it's own city, so I thought I'd come here and see if anyone knows what the special education programs are like in Chesapeake and if there are any good ones in any other areas close by VA Beach?

The only reason that I do not ask about VA Beach itself, is because I am concerned about storms and flooding. I want to live close enough to the beach to visit regularly, and far enough away that storms and flooding aren't major problems. That is why I look for places about 30 minutes away. I also want something more suburban peaceful community like rather than city like. That is another reason for choosing Chesapeake over Norfolk, but please give me whatever information you can, whether it's about Chesapeake or other nearby areas.

[marnay]

I don't have any personal insight for you but here is a link for the Chesapeake Public Schools Special Education page. There are contact numbers listed that will probably help you with the info you are looking for.

http://www.cpschools.com/departments...n/services.php