I have an IEP meeting on Dec 1st and we ll get a pre school assigned (we live in SF). I can report to you later on how the school is. I know Grattan is good http://www.sfusd.edu/en/schools/school-informat...

This is an old post but for anyone looking for an update on the Bay Area I have a few things that I've personally experienced. My daughter was diagnosed when she was about 2 1/2-3 and we received the initial bout of early intervention through a company called Golden Gate Regional (absolutely amazing). She went to Pre-K in the Special Day Class at Grattan (we were very lucky as our early intervention teacher transitioned to teaching at Grattan and we got in because we found out and got put on the wait list immediately) and had a great experience with that school. SF is based on a lottery system, they try to place you based on variables such as how geographically close you are to certain schools, if you have other children that attend certain schools, your race, and your socioeconomic background to "even out" placement. What actually ends up happening is that SF has only a handful of great schools and it is incredibly competitive to get into said schools. The schools in SF are underfunded and the quality of education is very lacking outside of a handful of schools. After my daughter finished Pre-K she was assigned to go into an ASD class at a different school although we pushed for her to stay at Grattan. The school she was assigned to was very close to our apartment but had horrendous reviews/ test scores (and we lived in a nice part of SF btw). I declined the placement and her reassignment was to a school at the other end of town, in the worst neighborhood associated with violence, and was even WORSE than the school she was originally assigned to ( 1st school was a 3/10 on great schools, the new school a 2/10). We decided at that point to get out of the SFUSD and moved to the East Bay, in particular Walnut Creek. The schools here are top notch and my daughter is thriving. If anyone is thinking on moving to SF with a child with special needs I implore you to look outside of SF and into other areas such into Marin County or in Walnut Creek in the East Bay. My daughter is mild to moderate and I cannot give the her school and her teacher (Murwood, Rachel Villaba) more praise. If you are a parent moving into a new district remember that your IEP will follow your child to the new district and they legally have to follow it before they do their own assessment and you can disagree with the new assessment, not sign it, and make them follow your original IEP if you disagree with the new districts IEP initially. Know your rights, also when researching schools look into the district and pull up the school accountability reports to see if they have on site speech therapist, psychologist, students with disabilities classes, immersion, and specifically ASD classrooms and call the district. California offers some of the biggest protections and rights to kids with ASD but every district is different and some districts are certainly stronger than others.