How do I choose a cheder or day school? What to look for before kindergarten
The questions that matter for the first school, and the ones that only sound important.
The first school decision is the one with the least information and the most feeling. That's all right. Here is what actually separates schools for a five-year-old, and what to ask.
Watch a classroom
Ask to sit in the back of a kindergarten or first grade for twenty minutes on a regular day. Watch how the morah handles the child who won't sit, the child who finished first, and the child who is crying. That is the school.
Ask the questions that matter
- How do you support a child who is behind in kriah? Ahead?
- How do you communicate with parents, and how often does it actually happen?
- Who is in the room besides the teacher, and how many children?
- What does recess look like?
- How do you handle a child who is being left out?
The questions that only sound important
Which curriculum, which reading program, how early they start Chumash. These vary less than schools suggest and matter less than the person teaching them.
Logistics are real
Distance, start and end times, after-care, where siblings will go, and how carpool works. A school that is wonderful and forty minutes away is a different school in February.
Money
Ask for the full-year cost including fees and the assistance process. Many schools quietly help young families; they can only help the ones who ask.
Decide for three years
You are choosing for kindergarten through second grade, not for life. Choose the warmest room you saw, with logistics you can live with, and revisit when the child is older.
Written by the ChinuchPlace team
Educators and administrators who work in yeshivos and mesivtas, writing what we tell friends who ask. Nothing here is sponsored, and no school is named.
Questions parents ask
- When should we apply for kindergarten?
- Many schools open applications a full year ahead, in the fall before the child turns five. Ask early; some communities fill quickly.
- Does it matter which school for such young children?
- The early years set a child's feeling about school. The warmth of the classroom matters more than anything on the website.
- Can we switch schools later?
- Yes, and families do. Choose for the next few years with the information you have.
Ready to look?
Every program on the shelf, with the facts families ask about first.