Dover just built a new highschool, jr high is fairly new.

If diversity is your beef, NH is like 97%white. Manchester, nashua, concord probably have the greatest diversity.

The problem in NH is that every town has the right to create their own school district, and most do. There are more school districts in NH than FL, despite vastly different sizes of population. So, each town supports their own school district, instead of having the costs spread out among a wider group of people. It makes it so that poorer areas have less funding because property tax revenue is lower there. Wealthier areas have better schools because property values are higher.

Look to places like Hopkinton to have better funding for education. If I had children, that’s where I would go. The real solution is to become like every other state, reduce the number of school districts, and spread the costs among a larger group of people.

Bedford is the best school district

In the Concord region Bow and Hopkinton are your best bets.

It's not clear how far from Concord you can consider moving, but this list is probably pretty accurate: https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-school-districts/s/new-hampshire/

I think you will find that SAU70 is very well funded and has a significant Asian population as well.

Former teacher all over the Concord, Allenstown, Pittsfield, Barnstead area. No one school is better than the other. That is why I am a former teacher, the system is terrible. Get involved and read with your kids at home. Sorry to be a downer, just realistic. Every teacher is beaten down and trashed by the students and schools. Try to teach your kids life skills, because all they get in elementary school is the teaching system the schools buy and force the teachers to follow.

My wife and I are at a similar point in our lives and recently moved to Concord with some of the same concerns. The elementary schools are rated fairly high for the most part, the middle school is so-so and it’s really only the high school with a poor rating.

Everyone is different and only you can decide what’s best for your family but we felt that since we have at least 15 years before our future children will be in high school we have plenty of time to see how they are as students and can look into private schools or moving if we feel it’s needed at that point. I don’t think it will be an issue but we have plenty of time to decide if it is.

For what it’s worth, my impression is that Concord has a lot of educated people who care a lot about public education, but it also has diverse population compared to other nearby communities. The added challenges that brings (such as students and parents who don’t speak English as a first language) affect the ratings.

All that being said, if I absolutely had to leave Concord and move to a neighboring town it would be Hopkinton. It’s a beautiful area, has some of the best schools in the state, and still has some stuff to do in town too. Concord is a better fit for me but Hopkinton is my favorite of the immediate Concord suburbs.

Check out the Oyster River school distric, I had an amazing educational experience there. Everything but the sports teams are top notch.

Exeter

One thing to know is that relative to other states NH schools have very little state oversight and funding. Due to this NH has a very wide variation is education quality from town to town. There are rare exceptions, but generally the more expensive a town's real estate the better the school district. No surprise, good schools increase demand for homes in the town. So, great districts include Bedford, Londonderry, Exeter, Hanover, Hollis-Amherst, etc.

Large districts like Manchester and Nashua afford the students a lot of opportunities, but the parents and students have to be more active and manage their education to ensure they get the most out of those districts. Yes, this can be said of any district, but it is particularly true of Manchester and Nashua. The best districts will take more care that your children get the best for them, but smaller ones might just not have as much to offer.

GreatSchools.org does a good job measuring the more quantifiable aspects of a district, which until you are there is all one can really go by. The rest is opinion and hearsay. Of course, there is always great pride in districts, so even about crappy districts you will hear great things from those with a vested interest or history with the district.

Know that the powerful forces working 24/7 and spending enormous amounts of money dismantling public education in the US are in force and making great headway in NH. This is not a surprise considering the percentages of libertarians or libertarian minded in New Hampshirites. Many people unwittingly are involved in this dismantling, usually by working for or against a particular issue or another, not realizing the issue is one of thousands of efforts that put together are slowly, but methodically dismantling US public education. Yes, yes, some people think this sounds nutty, but I have researched it thoroughly. Dismantling is slowly but surely happening, generally discretely (because it is not popular publicly), but it is happening.

We moved to Bedford for the schools (I went to Glastonbury schools in CT; Bedford reminds me a lot of Glastonbury). They are excellent with my special needs youngest kid. Solid schools, though the housing prices and taxes are high (which there is of course correlation there).

I worked in Stratham—elementary school is great, middle school is fine, high school is Exeter and that’s got its ups and downs like all high schools. Stratham downside: not walkable in ANY WAY unless you happen to live on the one street the school is on, in which case your kids can walk to school. But otherwise, it’s got people speeding down 108 and 33 all the time, and a bunch of random, separated fancy neighborhoods.

a family friendly school district.

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Exeter. I'm biased, because I graduated from there.

There is a Montessori option, a charter school as well as public options.

There are a few feeder towns, so you can find a more affordable living option other than right in town.

Exeter

Surprised Pinkerton Academy didn’t make the cut

Below are the top 25 public high schools in New Hampshire, according to Niche:

1. Academy for Science & Design (Nashua)
2. Hanover High School
3. Hollis-Brookline High School
4. Bedford High School
5. Portsmouth High School
6. Souhegan Cooperative High School (Amherst)
7. Windham High School
8. Coe-Brown Northwood Academy
9. Londonderry Senior High School
10. Bow High School
11. Sunapee Senior High School
12. Nashua High School South
13. Profile Senior High School (Bethlehem)
14. Lebanon High School
15. Moultonborough Academy High School
16. Exeter High School
17. Hopkinton High School
18. Goffstown High School
19. Winnacunnet High School (Hampton)
20. Salem High School
21. Kearsarge Regional High School (Sutton)
22. Dover Senior High School
23. Manchester Central High School
24. Nashua High School North
25. Concord High School

Also worth pointing out that Philips Exeter topped the list for best private high school in the nation.

1. MA

2. NJ

3. NH

Makes sense. I got into Rutgers off my 3.97 GPA, when their average incoming was 4.0. I would have gone there for Fall 2024 and been quite happy there instead of winding up suing assholes at UNH, if only NJ's fair housing act wasn't discriminatory against age. This does spread joy.

Had also gotten into URI but a lot of the folks there wound up being quite ignorant, so the 27) is no surprise. Same shows at UVM and UMaine, very ignorant cultures full of unconstitutional social rules.

Hollis Brookline is great the two towns are pretty much based around there schools not 100% sure on there special needs program either https://www.sau41.org/1/department/86

I hated living in Merrimack, but the school system was exemplary for my IEP special needs daughter from preschool to 5th grade when we moved.

Family has experience with Kingston/Newton (SAU17) and Milford dealing with autistic children. Both are very good.

You won't find much information on that online, for a variety of reasons. Look for Districts that have unified sports teams.

Windham parent here. The IEP teams are so good. I love them for all they do for my kid. The schools are the number one reason we've stayed here.

The Welches Elementary and Middle School campus is one of the most remote and rural campuses and serves an essential and unique community: Welches School

Barrington and Lee are great options. In Lee, you are part of the Oyster River school district, which includes Durham. I live in Lee, and love that it is a small rural town yet so close to the sea coast, Manchester, Durham, and so much more. There are some developments with house right on top of each other, but otherwise there is a lot of land to be had. Barrington is the same way, and you would have the option to go to Oyster River for high school (with tuition). I’m happy to answer any questions you have regarding the Lee, Durham, Barrington, Madbury area or regarding the school district.

NH has some good schools, some ok schools, some bad schools. There is information missing here - what else would you need outside of schools and groceries? Do you want to be near Boston? Reasonable commute to CT? What is your, as the adults, work life like? Do you need high speed internet? While the places you listed should have good internet, its not a given. I live in Concord and our internet isn't the greatest.

Town wise, these are some good choices. They are rather expensive. Bow, in particular, I'm a fan of. I live in Concord currently, and it's pretty good. I like that the concord/bow area is central to almost everything - the ocean, lakes, mountains, Vermont, Boston, etc

Feel free to dm me if you want to know more about the concord area. I have a daughter in the elementary school. I also know a bit about Pinkerton, which is in the derry area

Do you have other school age kids or just one high schooler? I wouldn’t suggest buying in some of those towns with their insane property taxes for just four years with present sky high valuations. I’m specifically thinking of Bedford and Windham with this comment, especially since you’re looking for land. You’d be approaching that million dollar mark with a 2% annual property tax rate. I mean at that tax rate, assuming you want to stay there when your kid goes to university, you might be better off sending them to private school from a cheaper town... you might think private school is kinda gross ideologically, and I wouldn’t fully disagree, but the public schools in well off New England towns aren’t functionally different from an average, not-Exeter private school. Hell, some towns even pay to send their students to a private school (Derry)!

If you do move to one of those ultra wealthy towns and buy a big old plot of land, please don’t whine about the taxes, you’d be choosing to do it to yourself and it’s incredibly annoying.

My other advice would be to chat with some realtors ASAP so you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Weare is quite rural if that's what you are after, I don't think John Stark is particularly good. Bedford is quite nice and centrally located and the schools seem to be top notch.

Second Oyster River is a great school.

Going to add a +1 that depending on your budget, and how well your child does academically, private school can be an option too.

They range from public school quality to world class, but a day student (non-boarding) tuition can be affordable.

Otherwise The Oyster River school district is one of the best in NH. Pinkerton is also good. Usually the further south you go, the better it is.

I almost moved out to the coast with my family. My spouse had a great job offer, but we ultimately did not make the move, in large part due to the preschool/elementary schools. From what I could gather, Neah-Kah-Nie was the best bet for elementary, with Newport second. The preschool situation on the coast was dire, especially if needed five days a week.

Best of luck!

We live in Manzanita and we have the good fortune of deciding between the public elementary school in Nehalem and the Fire Mountain School, a private school focusing on the montessori methods, nature, and involving the parents. I think we are likely to at least start with FMS, but we have heard wonderful things from people we trust about their kids' experience with the public school.

I am concerned about middle and high school, however. We've heard about a lot of issues with the high school, such as bullying/intolerance hate, mediocre/bad teachers, and poor materials and facilities. I was encouraged to read that the high school robotics team was doing well, so that's at least one counterpoint.

My friends there have a son in high school. He loves the school. He also attended earlier grades. BTW my friend (his mom) felt that the elementary school wasn't doing right by him and pulled him out to homeschool, but a big reason for that was their decision to travel.

Oregon, in general, isn’t great, but the coast is truly terrible.

Not only does my kid go to Nehalem Elementary, but I work for the Neah-Kah-Nie school district and can tell you that I think it is really great. My family and I moved from Gladstone at the beginning of the year and I have no regrets. It's a smaller district, so most of these kids know each other and grow up together.

I don't know what Neah-Kah-Nie is doing differently than other districts but they seem to have their shit figured out. We have kids transferring here from all over. Kids are kind, not many behavioral problems.

Of course with a small district there are less opportunities for extracurriculars (for instance we don't have a soccer team) but places like the YMCA fill those gaps.

Don't just take the advice of redditors who don't live here. Visit for yourself and make an informed decision.