Tuition & Admissions

Admissions

The Burkard School accepts rolling admissions and is currently enrolling students in 2nd – 8th grades for current as well as the 2023-2024 school years.

We are working on a campus expansion and will be accepting applications for grades K and 1 starting in January, 2024 for the 2024-2025 school years.

Admissions Process 

The admissions process is designed to give us as much of a window as possible into whether The Burkard School is the right setting to meet your child’s needs.

The process is as follows: 

Inquiry 

Please fill out our inquiry form to start the process of learning more about The Burkard School. 

Tour 

We will contact you to schedule a tour of the classrooms in action. The tour lasts about 1 hour and is a time to learn more about TBS and have us learn about your child. 

Application 

Our application is thorough and asks detailed questions about your child’s academic and behavioral capabilities to ensure that all pertinent information can be considered when deciding fit. It must be submitted at least 7 days (and preferably more) before your child’s shadow.

3-Day Shadow 

If we feel that your child may be a fit based on information we learn on the tour and from the application, we will invite your child to shadow. We require three consecutive days. During the shadow period, your child comes to school with us as through they are an enrolled student.

Why three days? We can expect that a shadowing student will have anxiety about a new environment, and this anxiety is likely to affect their behavior in our setting. They might have a “honeymoon period,” or the anxiety might be so overwhelming that they have trouble adjusting to the classroom rules and routines.

On the first day, we focus on establishing classroom norms and introducing academic expectations and routines. The second day, the prospective student knows what to expect and can focus on building relationships with their classmates and the teaching team while more actively engaging in classroom academics. By the third day, we usually see anxiety lessened and we get a truer look at the student’s capabilities.

Before the shadow, we invite the student to come meet the teaching team and visit the classroom. This is done in the afternoon after school is out, so that the student can have the teacher’s full attention.

Parent Guidelines for the Shadow:

• For your student’s shadow, please send them to school with a snack and a lunch. We are a nut-free school. If there is a chance of rain, it may be wise to also send them with a change of clothes in case they gets wet on the play structure.
• Please park on the street as the parking lot is for faculty only.
• For pickup, please park on the street and come to the playground gate where staff will bring your child to meet you.
• We look forward to meeting your child and helping them have a successful shadow period.

Parent Interview 

The final part of the admissions process is a parent interview. For families looking for immediate enrollment, we schedule the interview the afternoon of the second or third shadow day. For families applying for Fall enrollment, we have more flexibility in scheduling the interview. The teaching team and members of administration are present at the parent interview. It is an opportunity for the parents to learn in depth about their child’s shadow days at The Burkard School and for the teaching team to ask questions of the parents directly. The purpose of the meeting is for all involved to exchange information to gain as much insight as possible into the student’s strengths and challenges, triggers and motivators.

Decision 

After the meeting, the families will receive one of three decisions: an offer of enrollment, a notification that we are unable to enroll at this time, or a request to extend the shadow period if we feel more information is necessary before a final decision can be made.

We look forward to meeting your child! 

Tuition

Tuition for the 2024-2025 school year is $50,000.

Financial Aid

The Burkard School offers a limited number of tuition subsidies based on demonstrated financial need. Like many independent schools, The Burkard School employs School and Student Services for Financial Aid (SSS) to determine each family’s level of need. The SSS formula takes into account a family’s income, assets, and debt. To apply for financial aid, families should complete and submit a Parents’ Financial Statement online at solutionsbysss.com/parents and upload the requested documents by the appropriate deadlines. The Burkard School code is 9084. Admissions decisions are independent of decisions about financial aid grants. Please note that the financial aid application must be re-submitted every year.

While the school strives to be as equitable as possible to all applicants, we cannot assure that every applicant’s needs will be fully met. Please contact the Financial Aid Office at financialaid@theburkardschool.org with questions regarding this process.

Non-Discrimination Policy

The Burkard School cherishes and promotes the idea of a diverse, inclusive, and accepting community. We do not discriminate against any person on the basis of age, gender, disability, ethnic heritage, national origin, religious choice, sexual orientation, gender identity, nor any other trait protected by local, state, or federal law in our admissions policies, employment practices, educational policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school administered programs. As a school, we encourage our community members to come to a place of respect and understanding with all people.