Overall Massachusetts is a great place for Asian Americans, in my opinion. Shrewsbury Public school has a 33.6% Asian enrollment rate. Hopkinton 26.4%. Grafton 13%. Unfortunately Holden doesn't publish its demographic numbers. I would definitely look at the enrollment figures over the town demographics because there are a lot of old people in these towns who have no children in the schools.

Since house prices won't really matter, I'd pick Shrewsbury. It's a great place and very close to Abbvie.

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Shrewsbury is Indian and south Asian, not SE Asian.

Worcester proper has a decent Vietnamese community. There are specific businesses that advertise in Vietnamese.

Holden is white, but very nice.

Holden is Wachusett regional school, which is a district made up of Holden, Sterling, Paxton, Rutland, and I think another town. Holden is the nicest and most diverse of them - but all are very good towns.

Massachusetts is very different than orange county! From Holden you can be in 3 different states in half an hour. Distance is different. Almost anywhere in central mass is an easy commute to abbvie

When I saw on Census Data, most of the Asians over in Shrewsbury/Westborough are Indian/South Asian. I am curious since my cousin, his wife, and his son are Vietnamese, where should they live? It is very hard to find a town with good public schools with many Vietnamese in Massachusetts as Cambridge, Brookline, Belmont, Newton, Lexington, Natick, Weston, Wellesley all have relatively few Vietnamese, but these towns have a high Chinese population by the way. I came across this map and this map might be helpful.

https://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/b8d7569f-8de8-4518-b219-b1c0326b56f5#:~:text=The%2053%2C700%20Vietnamese%20in%20Massachusetts,Randolph%2C%20Lowell%2C%20and%20Worcester.&text=Boston%20Vietnamese%20predominantly%20live%20in%20Dorchester.

Wow! Should he choose the town or just skip it? I am not sure how good Worcester schools are? Especially given the fact my cousin's son has autism?

You can check out the Department of Education to find out the demographics.

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Wow!! I am curious how good Wachusett Regional High School would be for handling with gifted and talented students? My cousin's son is extremely gifted and talented but he does have mild autism (mostly from lack of social skills, not lack of academics).

Have money? Want to live away from people who don't have money? Holden it is.

They even talked the WRTA into removing the Worcester-Holden bus line, so you won't have to look at those nasty, filthy poors who don't even own cars.

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Personally I would choose a private school. Then a less expensive town to live.

I think that would be a cool idea! I went to a private school by the way and especially for the more prestigious private schools like Philips, BBNS, Noble and Greenough, etc, there is more of an 'advantage' to Ivy League compared to regular private schools or regular public schools.

I'm not exactly rich and I live in Holden. I live next to these mcmansions though and I'm sure they think my house is an eyesore. I'm also a minority. I'll tell you unless your rich or white, the people in this town don't bother to talk to you.

Holden is nice. I grew up on the Worcester-Holden line. Asians will feel at home in Worcester or the immediate surrounding towns.

With a child on the spectrum, Holden is a good bet. He'll get better services through the Wachusett school district than through Worcester. Worcester schools are fine but if I had an impacted child I'd prefer to be in Wachusett. Wachusett might have more opportunities for gifted students, but, the kid is 4. Talented in 'music, computers, STEM, and maps/geography' at 4 years old sounds a lot more like a parent over-embellishing their first born than reality. Either way, Holden is a good bet.

I am not asian american but Holden is fairly affluent and welcoming. Most of MA is, really. As others said, Worcester has a decently sized Vietnamese population and Worcester borders Holden; might be able to find some community connections that way. Again, with a child on the spectrum I would opt for Holden, but depending on where you live in Holden everything in Worcester is a short drive.

I am curious if it could be considered part of the Boston area or is it too far?

Move to worcester, more diverse and worcester public has great response to kids needing extra services.

I am curious how racist is it over there?

As a white dude I am not really qualified to answer that.

Holden is nowhere near Boston. The closest city to it is Worcester. It would be considered as part of the Worcester area.

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Private is not a great idea if his child is Autistic.

You’ll find plenty of provincially minded folks in the wachusett school district. Diversity isn’t really a thing, but it’s slightly better than when I went to school there. We had one Asian kid in my entire graduating class of 450 kids.

Why isn’t your cousin doing this research? It’s his life and his kid. No offense, but I wouldn’t dispatch my cousin to who had no knowledge of the area to make these kinds of inquiries on my behalf.

Private schools are not obligated to take kids with special needs and most won’t even discuss enrolling a child with autism. They lack the resources to properly address their needs.

That’s correct unless you find one that specializes in autism. There are several in Massachusetts. But if he is only 4 years old. You really don’t know what he will need in the future. If he’s only on the spectrum without difficult behaviors you need a school that can challenge him. I’m not sure Holden schools do this well. But not the worst either.

When is this move happening?

Perhaps he should speak to an autistic program in the area to discuss the options.

When did you go to Wachusett High School?

The only problem is that my cousin's son is on the autistic spectrum (he doesn't have serious behavioural problems at all and he is quite introverted, similar to me, only with limited social issues. From what I have heard from my cousin, his son has been learning 1st grade maths, some basic science, social studies, and he does very well on these extracurricular books. I believe since my cousin's son wants to challenge himself, I believe my cousin should look for a school that challenges his son.

You can't find Holden's schools' demographics, because they're regionalized in Wachusett. https://profiles.doe.mass.edu/general/general.aspx?topNavID=1&leftNavId=100&orgcode=07750000&orgtypecode=5

Let me preface this by saying that I'm on the Worcester School Committee, so I am not going to pretend to be unbiased.
It may be useful for your cousin to know (as you're discovering) that Massachusetts school districts are much, much smaller than California districts and much, much more segregated by district than California districts. Our suburbs tend to be much whiter; much of our diversity (not all of it, but much of it) is in our cities.
Because of the relative size, there are programs for students (autism or otherwise) in some of the cities that smaller districts don't have the capacity to run. That is not universal, but note that many smaller districts will send students with special needs (depending on the level of need) to schools that are not district-run schools.
Worcester Public Schools does run a comprehensive program for our students who have autism. I have not experienced that as a parent; I do know of parents who speak of it highly.
If your cousin is intending to choose where to live based on the ability of the public school system to serve his son, I would strongly urge him to get in touch with families of students with similar needs within that district.

Even though suburbs are much 'whiter', suburbs like Lexington, Belmont, Brookline, Newton, Cambridge (where I live, might or might not be considered a suburb), Somerville, etc. are diverse compared to other suburbs/exurbs of Boston/Worcester. In fact, Lexington and Quincy have the highest pct. Asian population in MA, larger than most of Boston's neighbourhoods. Should my cousin consider a job in Boston and send his child to a suburb like Lexington, Weston, Wellesley, etc?

I would say no, not part of metro Boston.