Updates for 2026-27

Busing Now Available to IWS!

NYS law mandates access to busing for all private and public school children (as young as 4 years old--check with your district) who live within 15mi of their school.

Historically, public school buses, especially from Ithaca City School District, have not been able to arrive at IWS by the start of the school day. For the 2026-27 school year, we’ve adjusted our school day to fit the bus schedule!

Our Elementary and Middle School programs now run 9am-3:10pm. Students riding the bus can arrive earlier than 9am and will be supervised by our Morning Care teacher.

*****Parents are solely responsible for requesting busing from their home district.*****

Please request busing from your home school district:

Dryden: 607.844.4221

Groton: 607.898.3355

Ithaca: 607.274.2128

Lansing: 607.533.4608

Newfield: 607.564.9955 x4145

Trumansburg: 607.387.5610

We are piloting a Morning Care program!

We are piloting a new Morning Care program for enrolled families! Families have asked for this option on and off for years, and this year we anticipate additional need due to our change to a later school day start time (9am for Grades 1-8, to fit the school bus schedule).

Miss Aileen will welcome and supervise your child(ren) for the time between early arrival (as early as 7:30am) and general arrival (8:30 for EC, 8:45 for Grades). Children arriving before 8am will receive a light breakfast snack, like overnight oats, fruit, chia pudding, toast with toppings, etc.

***For this year's pilot program, we will NOT offer a drop-in option: Miss Aileen needs to know ahead of time when the earliest children plan to arrive, and for how many she should prepare a snack.

Morning Care Fees for 2026-27:

The only Morning Care fees for the 26-27 school year will be for periods even earlier than our 25/26 school day schedule. Care will be free of charge for Grades 1-8 students who arrive between 8:10 and 8:45 this year, as families have already committed to tuition that included supervision for that period.

Families will be charged via TADS, with the same policies as our After School Program.

Students arriving by bus are exempt from Morning Care fees if their bus arrives before their classroom's general arrival time.

Early Childhood:

7:30-8:10am $10/child/day

8:10-8:30am $5/child/day 

(8:30-9am FREE general arrival)

Grades 1-8:

7:30-8:10am $5/child/day 

8:10-8:45am FREE 

(8:45-9am FREE general arrival)

The chart below shows how we will gradually roll-out fees for our Morning Care program over the next 3 years:

How to sign up for Morning Care:

Morning Care begins the week of Monday, September 14th (same day our After School Program begins).

Sign-up for Morning Care will occur via monthly google forms in our Friday Flyer, like our lunch program.

We accept CCAP funds!

This is actually not new, but may feel like news to many!

The Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) provides funding for working families with children under 6 years old who meet income eligibility guidelines.

CCAP generally provides about $9000 towards childcare costs, including our Early Childcare Program tuition.

We are also currenly working on extending our CCAP enrollment to include Aftercare for ages 3-6 (3:10-5:30pm).

Please contact your county’s department of social services to apply.

Tompkins County CCAP