Finding Schools

What is a Safe School?

The idea behind a safe school is that you know your child will get into at least one of the schools on your shortlist. Let's start by reviewing the steps in the process.

1. Cast your net as widely as you want.

This is the fun part of the process.

Look at anything and everything.

No holds barred. If a school in Dallas appeals to you, put it on the list. If one in Lakeville, Connecticut, floats your boat, add it to your list.

End up with 15-20 schools on your first list.

Be sure to visit each one virtually. Most schools will have videos, so you can get an idea of what the schools are like by watching the videos. This is not a substitute for visiting a school. It's merely the first pass.

While this video discusses applying to safe colleges, the same reasoning applies to private high schools.

2. Create a shortlist of schools.

Now you have to determine which school or schools will be your safe school.

What exactly is a safe school?

It's a school to which you have an excellent chance of being admitted. It's a school that perhaps is not as competitive as others on your list.

That is the challenge of the second step in this process.

Determine as accurately as possible which schools are genuine reaches or where you have a

This article has been updated to reflect 2026 data and recent developments.

If you are a Jewish parent thinking about private school for your son or daughter, you will probably want to consider sending your child to a Jewish school. Of course, much depends on how observant a Jew you are or consider yourself to be. That will influence your decision in many ways, some subtle, some more obvious.

Many questions will surface at this point. Here are some questions that you should answer before proceeding with a more detailed search for the right school. As you think of other questions that need answering, add them to the list.

• Why should your child attend a Jewish school?
• When should your child attend a Jewish school?
• How should your child be taught?
• What should your child be taught?
• Where should your child go to school?
• Why should your child attend a Jewish school?

Why should your child attend a Jewish school?

This question addresses perhaps the most important aspect of this discussion. Why, indeed, do you want your child to have a Jewish education? Only you, as parents, can decide why a Jewish education has value for you. Is your family tradition driving this decision? Are your religious beliefs so important to you and your family that a Jewish education for your children is simply the only option? You need to understand that any parent who sends his child to a religious school is making a strong statement about his faith and

Three early childhood education approaches enjoy great popularity in the United States and indeed throughout the world. They all had their origins in the teaching of European society's poorest, most disadvantaged children. To understand the changes which Dr. Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, and Reggio Emilia founder, Loris Malaguzzi, wrought on the European educational system back at the beginning of the 20th century, we need to know how children were educated at that time. The prevailing methodology used drills and memorization. Children's minds were considered to be small versions of adult minds which needed to be expanded with knowledge. Rather than letting children explore and discover on their own, as we all know they are quite capable of doing, teachers filled their minds full of facts. Retention was achieved by drills and memorization. Teaching a child how to think was an ancillary objective if indeed it was an objective at all. Furthermore, most children finished their classroom instruction at age 10 or 11.

Montessori, Steiner, and Malaguzzi believed in the intrinsic abilities and capabilities of children. Their approaches, philosophies, and methods had a single, common purpose: to produce a better society in which human beings would respect each other and live in harmony and peace.

In America, these three educational approaches took root not in the poorest segments of society but in a middle and upper class eager to have something better than what was offered in the public school systems. Here is a comparison of the main features

So, let's assume that somehow, we could rank private schools. After all, asking how a particular school is ranked is something most parents want to know. We are accustomed to comparing just about everything these days. We comparison shop constantly. We rank our favorite teams. We know which pop artist is on top of the charts. And so on. Comparing and ranking anything and everything is just the way we do things. Doing so lets us know that we are getting the best value possible.

That comparison shopping approach works fine for most things in our daily lives. Unfortunately, it does not work when it comes to ranking private schools. Why? Because each private school is unique. How it is run, where it is located, the courses it offers, the sports programs, the extracurricular activities, its philosophy, and the results it gets are all unique.

That doesn't mean we can't compare the various features of private schools. That is doable, but it is a lot of work. As we have pointed out in Do Ranks Matter?, it is extremely difficult and time-consuming for ordinary people to find the data and information we need to arrive at a ranking system for private schools. But if we did rank private schools, here is how we would do it.

One reason rankings can be misleading is that families value different things. One family may prioritize a strong STEM curriculum, while another is searching for a school with exceptional arts programming

First of all, let's understand what a therapeutic school is. A therapeutic school is a special school designed to help troubled children, typically teenagers, with various emotional and other problems. Therapeutic schools come in a variety of forms. They can be non-residential and residential. Which kind of therapeutic school is appropriate for your child depends on a variety of considerations. For a detailed description of the various types of therapeutic schools, see Therapeutic Program Descriptions on the Independent Education Consultants Association's website.

When to consider a therapeutic school

As a rule, parents probably should consider a therapeutic school for a child challenged by emotional, behavioral, substance abuse, or academic issues, or any other challenge that the local public school cannot handle effectively. In other words, she cannot receive the consistent treatment and individual attention she needs in a local school and the home setting. Whether to send the child away to a school with a highly structured environment where she will receive the treatment she needs 24/7 is something you should discuss in-depth with a professional psychologist. Once you understand and have accepted the diagnosis and the optimal treatment recommended for your child, hire an educational consultant to help you identify schools that will suit your requirements. Hiring a professional to assist you with this task is just as important as hiring an attorney to review a real estate contract or help you write your will. You know what you want. The professional will make it