Charter or magnet? Private or public? Parochial or Montessori? Neighborhood school or home-schooled?

When it comes to picking a place to study, it's not just for college kids anymore.

Decisions start in pre-school and can go right up through high school.

So the fate of where you live and what school is down the block isn't sealed with the mandatory attendance of your children.

That makes it interesting -- and sometimes maddening.

One bit of advice: Do your homework.

-- Visit for a tour.

-- Speak with students and teachers and administrators.

-- Check out the website.

-- Review class selection and testing performance.  

We didn't start out as school shoppers. But in kindergarten, at our neighborhood school, the setup drove my little girl nuts. With several classes operating in one large room, she was distracted by the tumult. Not so long ago, unless a family moved, lied about a home address or switched to an expensive private school, that kind of situation would be unfixable. This is the school -- and you're stuck with it.

But with the new educational landscape laid out before us, a chaotic school was one more reason to look at the options. And with the opening of a nearby charter school came quiet classrooms and classes through eighth grade. So we put our names on the waiting list and waited.

When we got the passage, we took the plunge and tried it out. But not before we spoke with the principal and the assistant principal of this new school.

It's now seven years later, and the school shopping is back. In the middle of our daughter's seventh-grade year, we've started looking at options for high schools: a variety of magnets and a top-performing neighborhood school.

But unlike her kindergarten year, she will be involved fully in this decision.

The buzzword in South Florida these days is "choice." If your child is talented or shows an interest in the performing or visual arts, languages, technology, careers, science, there are magnet schools that focus on each of those areas and more.

Parents and students are noticing.

One of the top high schools in the country drew hundreds of interested applicants for an informational session earlier this month. At Design and Architecture Senior High, better known as DASH, the principal welcomed the crowd and then sounded the warning: This is not a place for students who aren't passionate about the visual arts.

No kidding.

Students must take eight classes -- more than the customary six -- and be in school an extra hour each day. Not only that, but because students come from all over the county, the commute can be long and arduous.

But here on the campus in the middle of the Miami Design District, there is cheer amid the commitment and hard work. DASH students say they love their school and their teachers. Artwork fills the classrooms and hallway, imagination and creativity pushed right up there with the three R's.

Interviews and applications await.

Good practice for college.

Jeff Kleinman is an editor at The Miami Herald, the husband of a teacher and the father of two girls, a teen and a tween. Visit his other Dad on Duty blog posts here.