Potential move to Chicago - views on Lincoln Park neighbourhood

[Poppyjen]

We have a potential relocation to Chicago with DH job in the next 12 months. We would like to live in the city and from preliminary research Lincoln Park looks to be a good neighbourhood option. Does anyone have any experience of this area, especially in relation to schools. We have 3 DCs who will be 13, 11 and 4.

Any general advice also very gratefully received 😊 Thank you!

Can’t help with Chicago as I’m in a completely different state.

Regarding schooling - how long is the move expected to be for? What visa are the company sponsoring? Or are you USCs? If it’s only for 3 years or so (many L-1 transfers fall into this timescale unless the company has agreed to sponsor GCs), then my concern would de the 13-year-old (who will be 14 probably by the time if the move). If it’s temporary then you would feel best looking at private international schools so that he can go to university smoothly in the UK when you move back. If it’s a permanent move then you will need to pay overseas students fees if he goes back to university in the UK so you will be looking at college places here.

Here in the US the public school district you are eligible for is determined by where you live. You have to use the schools in the district that your home is in unless you are opting for private schools or homeschooling. So, people usually find a school they are happy with first and then look for a house in that district. No use in finding your dream house only to discover that it’s in a poorly performing school district. Obviously houses in a well-performing district are more expensive and are sold faster with s lot of buyers competing for them than those in districts that don’t perform as well. Performance reports are publicly available.

Yes, LP is a great area.
There is an international British Primary school there.
The older dc often transfer to the British International school at south loop ( there is a school bus from Lincoln Park to the south loop school)

Public schools (state schools) in Chicago proper are slightly problematic. The primary schools aren't great and the good secondary schools are tested for in a rather arcane and highly stressful way.

Ignore my post above, I'm talking rubbish!

Many people who want to use public schools end up in the north shore area where public schools are much, much better.

We live in Chicago so feel free to message me if you would like.

Yes Lincoln Park is a very nice area. Rents are high, houses and condos are very expensive to buy.

Public schools in Lincoln Park are good. CPS (Chicago Public Schools) is the school district for both elementary and high school. Within the city-wide system, each school has its own catchment area. For high schools, there are some highly selective high schools/magnet schools which children have to test into at age 13-14.

There are also private schools within easy reach. They tend to be pricey. If you're leaning toward private schools, the Latin School, which goes all the way from PK to 12th grade is close. There is no catchment for private schools. They are completely separate from public schools.

Over half of Chicago's private schools are RC or other Christian. Some RC elementary schools have a tiered admissions system ranking parishioner families and families with children already attending. Parishes have geographical boundaries but these are not very closely policed. RC high schools also tend to favour RC applicants - the vast majority of applicants tend to be RC anyway..

Your 11 year old would be in middle school (going into 6th grade or 7th grade, depending on what their date of birth is). Your 13 year old might be going into high school, depending on date of birth. Your 4 yo would be heading into Kindergarten, again depending on date of birth. The older kids would still be studying a wide range of subjects so would be able to consider a wide variety of options for high school.

Thanks all - the MN app failed me and I didn’t realise that anyone had responded…

I will take a proper look later and reply in full 😊

No idea of schools as long time since I was there but LP very nice. If you want a very family friendly place, Barrington is lovely.

There are other Chicago neighbourhoods where you might feel at home with a family:

Beverly
Edison Park
Forest Glen
Sauganash
Edgebrook

All are very safe and child friendly, more suburban than urban in feel.
All have good public schools.

I lived in Lincoln park for 3 years and moved back last year. It’s a great neighbourhood, very family friendly, but expensive. The public schools in the neighbourhood are generally regarded as good but kids missed a lot of school during the pandemic and teacher strikes were not unusual even before so everyone we know there has chosen to go private. We viewed the British school and hated it, didn’t want Catholic so if we’d stayed the Latin school or Francis W Parker would have been top of our list.

Latin is very prestigious but is known for a bullying problem even before the recent tragic incident. Given the costs the academics particularly in languages don't seem great.

If we hadn't gone to the British school which worked well for us then I think Parker would have been a good choice and we know several dc who do well there.

Lab is the choice of science based dc but not local to Lincoln Park and very competitive to get into.

But it can be difficult to get into private schools and the pandemic has made that worse.

Catholic schools are well regarded if that happens to work for you.

I should add on the British school, we were looking for a younger child than you have OP and it was the pre school provision that we thought was really poor. There seemed to be a lot of screen watching, the outside play area for the little ones was small, they didn’t get taken out much and the teacher was going on about crossing the highway to go look at fish for sale at Pet Smart as a great outing. We did the full tour and the provision for older kids was actually really good. So I’ve probably been too harsh there.

Public schools in Lincoln Park are very good, and if your children are bright they stand a good chance of testing into one of the excellent magnet high schools in the Chicago Public School system. Walter Payton and Whitney Young are in the top tier of high schools in the entire US. Michelle Obama went to Whitney Young. Lincoln Park High is an excellent school too.

Unless you are willing to fork over top dollar for Montessori you are going to find the pickings very slim in preschool education, especially in the city, where outdoor space for activities is limited, and the preschools that exist are really daycare. RC schools do play based preschool for a reasonable price along with daycare from 7a to 6p but space is limited (as in Montessori preschools) and wait lists are usual.

Some families hire an au pair for a far better preschool experience. If you go this way, you should have no trouble finding a good one because Lincoln Park would be something of a plum location for an au pair.

Not sure if you’re moved or not but Lincoln Park is a nice neighborhood, easy access to Lincoln Park which is a large nice park, the free Lincoln Park Zoo, depending on which block you live walking distance to the lakefront/beach. We moved from London to Chicago 7 years ago and we live in the South Loop. Initially had our daughter was at the British school in the South Loop but we moved her to the local CPS school which is a good school with great community involvement. I love the family involvement in the school.

Another reason for the switch was high school is a bigger issue and you have to test into the good schools so if we don’t get into one, (aiming for Jones High School near us in the south loop which is top 5 in state), then we can consider going back to private at that point.

While Chicago has a reputation for violent crime, it has mostly been relagated to a few neighborhoods in the south and west where gangs are prevalent, but I must say that there had been an uptick in crime in even nicer areas over the past 1-2 years and the general consensus is it is due to politicians going soft on crime with the police arresting people and the attorney general refusing to prosecute so criminals are released only to repeat. Hopefully the politicians are voted out soon, eg was it San Francisco or one of the Californian cities who recently recalled their district attorney due to similar soft on crime policies leading to a rise in crime. You have young kids, mostly boys commuting random crimes knowing they will be released. You know it’s getting bad when even the woke mayor has now accused the state attorney general of now prosecuting criminals.

Having said that Chicago is a beautiful city, and we love it. We couldn’t afford to live where we currently live if we remained in the UK and we have better career opportunities here. We’re walking distance to amazing museums like the field museum, the planetarium and the aquarium. Easy access to the lakefront where my daughter loves to cycle, walking or cycling distance to a small beach. It’s not the Maldives but it’s still nice to have a beach nearby, I can walk to the office if I chose but usually ride in 15 mins.

Anyway good luck with remove and let me know if you have any questions. Also winter can be tough but also lots of winter activities to keep you busy.

Sorry for typos, I meant the woke mayor has accused the state attorney of NOT prosecuting criminals.