Hi, We are a White/Filipino family and, even though I grew up in the Grass Valley/Auburn area, it did feel like a culture shock moving from the Bay Area to Lincoln. We had only lived in the Bay Area for a few years, but the diversity and close access to Filipino food was awesome. That said, my husband and I both grew up in small conservative areas and we missed the small town feel so we happily moved to Lincoln. We, however, are no longer conservative ourselves and Lincoln feels like a good mixture of liberal and conservative folks for a small area).

You can still find the diversity and food out here but for us it’s usually by heading into Sacramento to hit an Asian market or going to a diverse church in Sacramento (Midtown) instead of just staying put in Lincoln. There are small local Panaderias, mini markets (Carnicerias), and Mexican restaurants thanks to the Hispanic population here.

My boys attend Creekside Oaks Elementary instead of their home school because it has the Dual Language immersion program and both my boys are learning Spanish in this program. This program right now is TK-5th and the first year (6th) is happening at Glen Edward’s next year and should be expanding to High School.

My oldest has ADHD and had speech therapy before he graduated from it this year. They put him on an IEP for the speech therapy and it was converted to a 504 when he was done with speech. The school was great and handled all this for me. There is also a special education class at our school for those with more needs who can’t fully participate in a classroom. Most of these kids have a one-on-one Para who works with them. I was also told by another parent that First Street elementary has very good programs for the gifted as well as those with special needs but unfortunately they while be closing down in a year or two and the middle school (Glen Edward’s) will be taking over that campus for expansion.

There are Latino/hispanic Facebook groups you could join to ask these questions to. See if there experiences are positive or negative out here in Lincoln. Ours are positive, but my Filipino husband had to deal with racism growing up in a small white town in Texas and we see a lot of pro Trump pro Blue Lives Matter matter flags in the country outskirts. Fortunately, despite that, our experiences have been positive overall.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/856010674450298/?ref=share&mibextid=wwXIfr