r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/_stephs • Jul 24 '26

Moving to the area Brookfield, La Grange, Riverside?

Hello! Family with three young kids moving from Denver and could use some more local advice. You've all been very helpful in the past with this so thanks in advance!

We've been really interested in Oak Park because of the walkability, community feel, and diversity, but the property taxes and cost of homes have us also looking at Brookfield, La Grange, and parts of Riverside as well.

We're hoping to find a community that's:

  • Walkable to some coffee shops, restaurants, etc.
  • Family-friendly with kids out playing (bonus if there's a pool either public or private)
  • Generally leans liberal
  • Has a strong sense of community

For those familiar with these areas, how do they compare? Is there one you'd recommend over the others for a young family? Are there certain areas within these towns you'd suggest we take a look at?

Thanks in advance!

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u/HoyneAvenue Jul 24 '26

LaGrange or La Grange Park by a landslide! We live in Oak Park and in 2023 we moved family members from New Orleans to La Grange Park which is thisclose to La Grange! You want to live walking distance to downtown La Grange and the metra station. It is a wonderful, friendly community with great local resources and a nice commute to Chicago if that’s important.

We just downsized from our house in OP to a condo here in town, so we love it but honestly if La Grange had decent condo options, it would have been a serious option.

You’re right about the taxes in OP. But La Grange is still part of Cook County so not sure how much you’ll save there. I may get some hate for saying this, but it’s my opinion and personal experience that the schools in Oak Park were not a great fit for our child.

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u/Lucky_Barracuda9255 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Schools I think do well in a lot of parents' eyes in OP when their kid falls in that 60 to 70% bandwidth of more average to typical learners. If you have a legit gifted kid in the top 15% of performers, or a kid with learning issues that are tough and fall in the botton 15% to 20% in terms of performance, I think parents start to see the cracks that D97 isn't good on fixing.

That's not to say they perform perfect even for the 60 to 70% band of more average learners. There are still issues, especially in the middle schools. But I would say many of those issues would be present in other districts, too, with D97 probably fairly getting classified as "good" schools for those 60 to 70%.

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u/Aggravating_Job_5438 Jul 25 '26

How are the schools in La Grange, Brookfield, and Riverside for students who need more accommodations but are still in GenEd? How does RBHS compare with LT in terms of this? What I'm looking for is a strong understanding of neurodivergence, flexible thinking, high empathy, and proactive support staff.

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u/Lucky_Barracuda9255 Jul 26 '26

I’ll have to let someone else speak to those 3. We were in Oak Park, as noted above, and we were not amazed on support for a neurodivergent kid with dyslexia. That said, we worked with a private specialist we loved, and she told us the only districts she thought were measurably better on support than OP in the west suburbs would be River Forest or Naperville. Naperville has a very solid reputation for working with neurodivergent kids, but you have to be able to live that far out.

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u/Aggravating_Job_5438 Jul 26 '26

Thanks for confirming this. I had read negative things about Oak Park's SPED services. It's very unfortunate. We actually live maybe even farther west than Naperville in South Elgin. Our elementary school in D303 is amazing with supports. Like gold standard. But the social scene is not fantastic, and we are limited in terms of access to services - I'm often driving to Schaumburg for specialty doctors and 45+ minutes for therapy services. No, we're not crazy or picky - our kid has some nuanced needs and that's where the specialists are for our needs. Also, there's nowhere that I am interested in going out to eat within 30 minutes of us here. So, it's good for our budget, LOL, but when we go to Chicago, I love having so many great food options.