Tuition & Your Family’s Contribution

2024-2025 Tuition

Grades 1 - 5
$15,300

Middle School Grades 6 - 8
$15,900

Early Childhood

5 Full Days: $14,600   

3 Full Days: $10,600   

After School Care

• Unlimited: $3,300

• Punch Cards: 10 visits for $315.00

• Drop in: $35 per day

Additional Fees 

• Supply Fee EC-5th Grade: $340*

• Supply Fee 6-8th Grades: $515

  (includes $15 Parent Council Fee)

Musical Instruments*

Beginning in the Third Grade, parents are responsible for buying or renting an instrument
so their child can participate in the Strings Ensemble as well as arranging
for additional private lessons outside of class time.
Music Scholarships are available and limited.

Please click to access the Terms and Conditions
of the Tuition Agreement Document

Financial Assistance

The Ithaca Waldorf School wishes to make Waldorf education available to all who seek it. We are committed to providing Financial Assistance (FA) for students whose families are unable to fully meet tuition costs; however, we believe the financial responsibility of a student’s education rests primarily with his/her family. The below information should help you determine whether you want to pursue FA as an option – and if so, the steps needed to submit an application.

Important Financial Assistance Information

• IWS Financial Aid is awarded to Grades students and only Early Childhood (EC) students who attend five (5) full days/week.

• The FA award does not cover other school fees (AfterSchool, Supply or Bookkeeping fees).

• FA applications must be made anew each year.

• For planning purposes, as a general rule, IWS seeks to allocate similar FA awards from one year to the next, except when there may have been significant changes to a family’s financial situation.

• Incomplete applications will not be considered.

• Applications received by February 16th will be given first priority, and a second round of awards will be made to applications received after February 18th, as funds allow.

• As a general rule, the average FA award ranges from a 25-40% reduction in tuition (not including fees). The maximum FA award is 25% of tuition for EC students who are younger than 5 years of age before December 1st, 2024.

HOW TO APPLY

The Financial Assistance application is available here. In order to assess a family’s ability to pay tuition, we use TADS to get an accurate and impartial analysis of each family's financial need. The partner code (school code) is 200492.

An FA application is considered complete, and will be included in the first round of awards, if the following are submitted by February 16, 2024:

1. A completed enrollment contract via TADS.

2. A copy of the most recent completed tax return and other supporting documents as requested, uploaded to our Financial Assistance portal.

3. A tuition deposit of $100 + the $340 (EC-5th) or $100 + $515 (6-7th) Supply Fee paid on TADS or with a check in the IWS office.

4. If there is anything further you would like the committee to consider, please submit a letter (IWS c/o FA Committee, 20 Nelson Road, Ithaca, NY 14850) or via email (financialassistance@ithacawaldorf.org) explaining your situation.  Without submission of items 1 - 3 (above), the application is considered incomplete, and an award will not be made.

Awards are based on financial need. If other sources of financial support are available (such as from a non-custodial parent or grandparents), it is critical that this information be disclosed in the Additional Comments section of the online application.

Once an award is made, the family must acknowledge acceptance within two (2) weeks. After that deadline, the funds will be returned to the FA pool for other applicants.

If an award has been made, and the family is still unable to afford the revised tuition, please send a written appeal to the Chair of the Financial Aid Committee within one week of receiving notification of the award.

A family aid package can be offered for families with full-time enrolled children, inclusive of both Grades & EC (if the Grades student is no longer enrolled, then EC aid will automatically be reduced as per standard FA policy). 

Financial Assistance Timeline for 2024:

• January 8: Returning and new families may begin to apply for Financial Aid.

• By February 16: Returning and new families' enrollment commitment and FA deposits (of $400) are due in the IWS office in order to receive the $175 Early Bird Discount.

• February 16: The FA application deadline. All families who have completed applications by this deadline will receive an FA decision within a few weeks.

• This first round of awards will deplete the largest part of the FA budget, and families with greater need are encouraged to apply by the February 16 deadline.

• After February 16: All FA applications received after this date will be accepted on a rolling basis. Awards will be made based on available funding but available seats in the classroom cannot be guaranteed.

• To secure your child(ren)’s place for Fall 2024, within two weeks of receiving the FA award notification, the IWS office will need to receive:

1. An email indicating FA award acceptance or intent to appeal

2. A complete Tuition Agreement on TADS for each child

If your award is not sufficient to meet the tuition costs for the 2024-25 academic year, the $100 tuition deposit will be retained. Any additional fees (ie., Supply Fee) you may have paid in advance will be refunded if a written request is submitted before August 1st, 2024.

Please contact the following members of the Financial Aid Committee with any additional questions you may have about the Financial Aid program:

• Amelia Lefevre - alefevre@ithacawaldorf.org

We recognize that some families who seek Waldorf education need help. We follow a model used by many Waldorf schools, in which a percentage of total tuition income is given as aid to qualifying families. In order to qualify for financial aid, the child must already be accepted at the school.

We are happy to discuss the process with you. For more information, please call our office at (607) 256-2020.