About Private Schools

1. Private schools are really private.

By design, American private schools are really private. While in most cases they observe applicable state laws with respect to minimum requirements concerning what is taught, private schools are answerable to their boards and their clients, i.e., the families who send students to them.

2. Private schools are more affordable than you think.

Granted, some private schools are very expensive. Especially boarding schools. However, since they generally seek to attract a diverse student population, most private schools offer generous financial aid packages.

3. Several private schools are free.

This video gives an overview of one of the free schools, Girard College in Philadelphia.

Years ago several benefactors established schools that will cost eligible students virtually nothing to attend. In more recent times the Cristo Rey Network of schools has made a private school education almost free for families of limited means.

4. Some private schools are residential.

Residential private schools are known as boarding schools. Your child will attend classes as well as eat and sleep at the school. Professional, experienced adult supervision ensures the safety of your child 24/7.

5. Most private schools are day schools.

In a day school your child attends classes during normal daytime hours. Extracurricular activities and sports are typically included within that day time schedule.

6. Some private schools offer a blend of day and boarding options.

Boarding schools located in a town

Are you thinking about sending your child to a private school?

• There are many reasons why you should consider sending your child to a private school.
• Most of us parents have had the same concerns as you do.
• We all want our children to receive the very best education possible so that they are positioned for success in later life.

Here's how to make that happen.

1. You want your child to receive specialized instruction from well-qualified instructors.

• Your local public school can develop an IEP or Individualized Education Program for your child.
• This is mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
• While your child's needs will indeed be identified and an instructional program devised for her, she will probably not receive as much individual attention as if she were in a private school with smaller classes.
• Depending on your area's public school district, resources are often spread very thin.
• When you send your child to a private school for special needs, she will be taught by credentialed, highly skilled teachers and paraprofessionals throughout the school day.

This video explains an IEP.

When your child has a learning difference, enrolling her in a private school with specialized teachers can be beneficial. I know this was the case with my eldest son who had never learned how to read before he came to live with us.

• Hundreds of private

This is the first of three articles addressing the advantages of sending your child to private school. Private schools offer several advantages specific to students, of which you, as a parent, need to be aware. Here are three of them.

1. Your child will build a network of friends that she will have for life.

Some may wonder why I would put this benefit for students at the top of my list. That's because I sincerely believe networking is the key to success in almost everything. Because most private schools are relatively small communities, your child will have a perfect chance of getting to know almost everybody in the school community, especially her classmates. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, private schools generally have smaller enrollments than public schools, creating opportunities for closer relationships among students and teachers. While your child may come from an entirely different background, perhaps even another country, from her classmates, she will get to know everybody in the classroom, on the playing field, and on the stage. With social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and other messaging apps providing instantaneous communication, it is relatively easy to keep that high school network of friends going after she graduates.

This close-knit network of friends from school will help open doors for years after she graduates. The bonds of friendship developed in private school are an essential advantage for a private school student as she begins her career.

Private

I am often asked what benefits there are for parents when they send their children to private school. The quintessential "What's in it for me?" is a legitimate question. After all you are thinking about sending your baby off to a school where you are being told she will work hard, learn how to get along with others and be involved in all kinds of activities. And it is going to cost you a small fortune to boot.

Your concerns are well-founded. So against that backdrop let's examine what I personally consider to be the three main benefits for us parents of sending our children to private school. Lest you think that I am speculating or theorizing, all four of our children went to private school. All grades too. Nursery school. Elementary school. Middle School and high school. So I speak from my own experience as a private school parent.

1. Knowing that your child will receive a comprehensive education: academics, sports and extracurricular activities.

Private schools educate the whole child. Educating the whole child requires an integrated program of academic studies, athletics and extracurricular activities. Essentially a private school is going to pick up where you left off when you sent her to school.

You have invested some serious time raising your child. Remember how you did it? Always a variety of activities. Always encouraging your child to do things she didn't know she could

When you compare public and private K-12 schools, there are several things in public schools which you will not find in private schools. Those points of comparison are points which parents consider when thinking about sending their children to private school. Large class sizes, lack of consequences for unacceptable behavior, lack of parental involvement as well as cuts to activities and programs are not things that you will commonly find in private schools as a rule.

Large class sizes

Teaching a large class of students, say, 30-40 students of any age, creates all sorts of classroom management issues for even the most experienced teachers. Maintaining control over a large number of students is possible but decidedly difficult. As a result, one of the reasons parents send their children to private school is for the individual attention which small class sizes afford. It is relatively easy for a child to hide in a large class. That's not so easy to do when you have 12-15 students sitting around a table with their teacher. After all, you want your child to interact with her teachers. You don't want her to end up hiding in the back of a large classroom. You sent her to private school so she could learn.

When you have 12-15 students in a class, you really can teach. Discussions, analyses, and explanations are much easier to facilitate with a smaller group. Everybody's opinion matters. From the teacher's perspective, it is much easier to assess progress when