The Application Process

The first step to enroll your child at CTL is to complete an application form and submit it with a $25.00 fee. This places your child in our applicant pool.

download the application form pdf (24k)

Each year we accept up to nine children in the Center’s kindergarten class. The deadline for kindergarten applicants for September’s class is February 1 of the previous school year. In March of the spring preceding a student’s kindergarten year, we will call to schedule a day for parents and their child to visit the school. They will spend the morning with Helene Coffin and her class; then Helene will conduct an informal screening with the child, while parents meet with the Head of School, Scott MacDonald.

We anticipate that from time to time there will be openings in grades 1-8. We will not schedule spring interviews with older children unless we foresee an opening in grades 1-8. Should an opening occur during the school year, we will schedule interviews with applicants from that grade level at that time. We also notify all families with applications on file of our annual October open house: we hope you will be able to join us for a Sunday afternoon tour of the school and a conversation about the teaching and learning that goes on here.

We cannot otherwise encourage tours of CTL. The school is small, and because it is a demonstration school, we are often working intensely with teacher-interns, in addition to our students. We hope you will understand our interest in limiting disruptions to CTL’s rhythms and routines.

Our admission policy weighs the following criteria: the date of the original application, our assessment of the appropriateness of our program for the student, a sense of how the child will fit in with the rest of the class group, parental support for CTL’s curriculum and willingness to be involved and provide assistance, an anticipation that the child would be here through eighth grade, and space availability. We accept siblings whenever possible.

We also try to achieve some balance in the ratio of boys to girls and to provide tuition assistance to the greatest extent possible. The school does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, or national or ethnic origin. Nor do we seek gifted students, those who will be “easy” to teach, or children who have particular styles of learning or family backgrounds. We do, however, recognize our limits. CTL is a small, non-profit school without the financial resources to provide a special education teacher and separate program for children who may require such services.

In addition, we can only award as much tuition assistance as we receive each year in the form of donations. Tuition is kept as low as possible ($7,240 in K-8) and accounts for only about 65% of the school’s income.

Unless you request to be removed from the applicant pool, we will keep your child’s application on file and consider him or her for admission to CTL at the appropriate time.

You will receive an announcement in the fall about the CTL open house, but please feel free to call the school at any time before then if you have questions.