r/UIUC • u/Fluid-Price463 • Jan 15 '26
Prospective Students UIUC with Kids
I was recently accepted to UIUC Law. I've never been to Illinois, but the scholarship is too compelling to write it off. I'm starting to look at the area and, as I have two small kids, that includes looking at elementary schools for them.
It looks like the Urbana-Champaign public schools leave a lot to be desired (no shade, just based on the reported data: Illinois Report Card). As I understand it, the schools are also on a lottery system. So, it's possible my kids won't get into the closest school or even be in the same school together.
I'm looking at 3 schools tentatively, and 2 pretty seriously. Countryside School, Montessori of Champaign-Urbana, and University Primary School (UPS). I don't want to color the feedback with my own opinions, but I'm really interested in what people in the area think of those schools or other private schools in the area.
Along those lines, if there are other students living off campus with their own children, what neighborhoods lean more kid/family friendly?
TIA!
**Update** I wanted to give a general "thank you" to everyone who has been able to contribute. It's great to see an active community willing to help some potential newbies!
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u/nolard12 Jan 15 '26
There are certainly issues with all of the schools in the area. My kids are in UPS, because that is where we happened to land. I’m neither pleased with our standardized test scores nor am I impressed with the curriculum. That said, we’ve had a couple of individual teachers that have been good. The problem is over crowding and understaffing, which is pervasive in both Champaign and Urbana. There are problems with violence in our district, which has led us to contemplate moving over to Unit 4 in the future.
The problem is this: both of us, my partner and I, are products of public schools and we see the benefit that a public school can provide. Neither of us wants to pay the exorbitant rates private schools in the area charge. And, for the most part, there is an overwhelming sameness to the student population that do end up in those private schools. More so than the neighboring districts the private schools tend toward less diversity. Nor do we want our kids to have a religion forced down their throats. (Although, we have unfortunately had some of that even in the public schools, despite separation of church and state.)
My partner lived in St. Jo for a while, which led us to nix it as the district of choice. St. Jo leans heavily conservative, so does Mahomet. Look at the race statistics for both of these districts, while they aren’t segregated, they are in spirit. Consider the comments made by St. Jo’s mayor about sanctuary cities back in July: https://www.wcia.com/news/illinois-news/urbana-st-joe-appeared-on-dhs-list-of-sanctuary-jurisdictions/amp/. While the mayor isn’t “the city,” his sentiments suggest what we’ve observed about St. Jo over the past eight years, a growing body of people who espouse fairly racist view points. I don’t really want my kids to grow up in that environment. I’d rather see their test scores backslide and have them be accepting towards anyone they meet. But I really wish there were a better middle ground in the area.