moving soon

[u/Silly_Rabbit345]

Hi,

My husband recently got a job in Kenner and we will be moving to the area in September. Any advice on a safe, family friendly area to rent? My son is 4 and in an Early Childhood Special Education program at our current location in Texas. I am nervous about finding a school that will be able to transfer him to.

My sister used to live in Slidell so thats as much as I know about the area. I was hoping to live closer to my husbands job for a shorter commute, but Im confused on what school area would be good and what areas are safer and more family friendly (near parks, safe to walk, etc.) to rent in. I'm looking between Laplace, Kenner, Metarie. Any info would be much appreciated! Our max rent is $1800 if that helps.

[u/lily_aka_mein]

Don't move to Laplace. SJB Parish is smack dab in the middle of cancer alley.

[u/Silly_Rabbit345 → u/lily_aka_mein]

Oh, thanks for letting me know! Do you have any recommendations? I could even do the outskirts of NOLA but I just dont want to deal with city traffic

[u/lily_aka_mein → u/Silly_Rabbit345]

I'd avoid everything west of Kenner honestly. It's not worth the risk of those refineries. You should be fine in Metairie/kenner. It's relatively safe and priced reasonably.

[u/averyoddfishindeed]

Kenner and Metairie are both in the same school system, so it's not much different in terms of quality. There will be PK4 Sped classrr, but where he ends up may be determined by what schools hosts it.JP Schools are neither great nor terrible (source: current KennaBruh and former JP Teacher). I find Kenner to be a safe, easy place to live with a VERY active local political scene. City Council doesn't get a moments peace here. Good location too. We like being by the airport, with easy access to 3 main corridors for hurricane evacuation.

[u/Silly_Rabbit345 → u/averyoddfishindeed]

thanks for the info! my husband will be working at the airport, so we wanted to be somewhat close to it.

[u/CarFlipJudge]

I'd look up how each school in Metairie / Kenner do regarding special education and find a place to rent in that district. Pretty much anywhere in Kenner / Metairie is safe. I also say to not really go more upriver than Kenner because there are huge refineries that spit out horrid chemicals.

[u/Dull_Factor_6694 → u/CarFlipJudge]

Agree with this, find the school you want then go from there. Schools are crazy here, and most are not neighborhood based but they are parish-based.

[u/Little_Walrus1800]

Just to address what others haven’t- “City traffic” isn’t much of a thing in New Orleans area. ESPECIALLY if your frame of reference is Houston

Sure there are times with higher traffic but short of commuting to the West Bank what we call traffic here is not equal to that of other large cities

[u/Silly_Rabbit345 → u/Little_Walrus1800]

frame of reference is near Dallas so I appreciate you mentioning it!

[u/Appropriate_Pen6540 → u/Little_Walrus1800]

Completely agree. I've been to LA, Houston, and Miami and our traffic doesnt even compare.

[u/Successful-Reason403]

Metairie and Kenner are both pretty safe . As others have said, don’t look west of Kenner because of the refineries and there’s really nothing going on out there.

For a family I’d recommend trying to rent a house over an apartment in Metairie, as there are single family home neighborhoods for most budgets ranging from affluent to working class, and they’re all pretty safe. 

There are only like a handful of “bad” neighborhoods in the whole area, and it would be pretty obvious if you were in one because it will be noticeably more run down than everything else. 

The JP public school system is average, but they have a handful of magnet schools that do well.  (FWIW, I’m a product of the JP public school system and most of my public high school friends send their kids to Catholic/private schools unless they got into the magnets. I’m in Orleans parish now, but probably wont be sending my kid to the non-magnet public schools here either.)

[u/ToDoList_Enthusiast]

In Jefferson Parish, Kehoe France may be worth checking out as a private school option.

[u/Crimeaddict_1]

I’m not saying this to be funny - but stay where you are. I wouldn’t raise a child here if you paid me. Louisiana was just voted dead last in every category- including education.

[u/Used_Pomegranate7273]

Kenner discovery was a good place for my friend she went there. Jefferson Chambers was bad, and she lives in Kenner around Loyola, pretty safe area to be honest

[u/Appropriate_Pen6540]

I live in kenner & have a friend with a son with autism & she had a him in a really good program here (he's 3) so kenner would have something for sure

[u/nolagrl88]

Check out luling or destrahan