Frequently Asked Questions

The Saint Ann’s campus consists of a number of buildings spread over several blocks in Brooklyn Heights. Click here to access a campus map with information about each of our buildings.

There is no school bus service at Saint Ann’s. Students get to school in whatever way makes the most sense for each family.

Some students are eligible for student MetroCards or transit passes. These are distributed through the divisional offices. Eligibility for such passes (and the type of pass) is determined by the New York City Department of Education, not by Saint Ann’s.

In every division, we ask that families get students to school on time so they can have the best possible start to the day. That said, we understand the MTA, traffic, and errant alarms sometimes stymie our best efforts. If a child is running late, please call or email their division office. Middle school students who are late should report to the appropriate division office upon arrival and before going to class. 

Preschool and kindergarten students bring their own lunches to school each day. Beginning in first grade, lunch is provided by the School and is included in the School’s fees. In Middle School (beginning in fourth grade) and high school, students have the option to purchase food in the dining room. There is a set daily fee for middle school students; high school students pay by the item. High school students are also allowed to leave school any time they have a free period. Eighth grade students in good standing may also go “out” for lunch.

We are a nut sensitive school, and are committed to working with parents to make the dining experience safe for those with food allergies. You can read more about our Food Services program here. 

Click here to access the Family Portal and Online Directory. If you have forgotten your password click “forgot username or password” on the login screen to have a password reset email sent to you. If you have any further difficulties logging in, email parentsupport@saintannsny.org; remember that you can always make changes to your address and contact information directly via the Family Portal. If you need to change your email address contact registrar@saintannsny.org. Your Family Portal login will need to be reset. 

Click here to view school calendars. Every January, a one-page school calendar for the following school year—showing holidays, vacations, and parent-teacher conferences—is posted. Click the “Yearly Calendar” link for access. The month-to-month calendar of events is uploaded each August and parents receive email notification at that time; it is subsequently updated in real time.

In the Preschool, Kindergarten, and Lower School the school day officially ends between 2:45-3:00 p.m.; the division office will communicate specific dismissal routines. Lower School students who are not picked up by 3:15 p.m. will be brought to the After School program and parents will be billed at the daily rate. After School ends at 5:30 p.m. Middle and high school students have different start and end times to their school day depending on their individual schedules.

Our on-campus After School program is available to currently enrolled students in Kindergarten through sixth grade. Students can attend on a semester, monthly, weekly or daily basis. After School runs until 5:30 p.m. each day that school is in session. The Director of After School contacts families directly about registration and enrollment. Click here to read general information about the program or contact Emily Bolevice, Director of the After School Program, at ebolevice@saintannsny.org. 

Click here to read about our Summer Arts program, which serves Saint Ann’s students from Preschool through Middle School. The summer program can be a great transition for new students who will be entering Saint Ann’s the following fall, particularly in the younger grades. It is a chance to meet classmates before the year begins. For questions about the summer program contact Paul Benney, Director of the Summer Program, at summer@saintannsny.org.

–If NYC public schools are open for in-person learning, Saint Ann’s will also be open.

–If NYC public schools are closed for in-person learning, Saint Ann’s will also be closed. Saint Ann’s will NOT switch to distance learning on snow days. Any exceptions to this policy will be clearly communicated to families, faculty, and staff in advance via email, text message, and on our website.

–If school is already in session and NYC public schools close early, Saint Ann’s will NOT necessarily close early as well. We will communicate with families, faculty, and staff via email, text message, and on our website.

–NYC public school closing information is available via nyc.gov or by calling 311.

Students are welcome to bring a special treat to school on their birthday to share with their class. Such treats should be nut-free.

There is no dress code at Saint Ann’s. However, especially in the Preschool, Kindergarten, and Lower School, school is an active place filled with running, jumping, dancing, painting, and sometimes rolling in the grass! We encourage kids to wear active, comfortable clothing that can get dirty, and sneakers or other footwear that will allow them to move safely. Anything that shouldn’t get dirty is best left at home.

Students in ninth grade and below are not permitted to have phones or smartwatches while at school. If they are brought to school, they will be collected at the start of the day, and can be retrieved at the end of the day. 

Students in tenth through twelfth grades are permitted to keep their phones on their person, but are only allowed to use them in certain areas of campus. 

In the Kindergarten and Lower School, children should leave all electronics, toys, and collectibles at home. Teachers will not allow these items in the classroom and will remind your child to leave them at home.

Please be aware that scooters will be stored outside of school buildings during the day. Bikes should be locked in bike racks and can’t be stored inside. Wheeled shoes and wheeled objects are not allowed inside school buildings.

If it’s too valuable to lose, it may be best left at home. Middle school students—and, on request, high school students—are provided with lockers which, when locked, are the safest place to store personal belongings. Locks are available free of charge in division offices. 

Labeling clothing and other belongings with a student’s name vastly improves our ability to return missing items to their rightful owners. Parents are asked to label items for young children and encourage older children to retrieve lost possessions.

In the Lower School there are lost and found bins outside the lunchroom and on floors 2-5. In the Bosworth Building, bins are on the 8th, 9th, and 12th floors as well as in the cellar. Division offices are also good places to look for missing items or ask for help in finding them.

We periodically announce lost and found cleanout times to give students a final opportunity to collect their belongings before we dispose of or donate items that have not been claimed. Students are responsible for their own belongings; the School has no liability for missing items.

Click here to read more from our Nurse’s Office. Our school nursing staff can be reached at nurses@saintannsny.org. 

Click here to download and print out the application for working papers for minors age 14 or older. Since the School has records of your child’s age and their health records, students will not need to provide additional documentation to apply for a work permit. Fill out parts 1 and 2 of the application, including a parent signature. Once the application has been completed, the student needs to bring the signed application to Kevin Anderson, Student Affairs Coordinator, in the High School Office (kanderson@saintannsny.org) in person in order to be issued a work permit. Kevin’s office is located on the 3rd floor of the Bosworth Building.

Questions about summer programs not affiliated with Saint Ann’s can be addressed to the High School Office at highschool@saintannsny.org. That office can give students information about specific programs or arrange for transcripts, reports, or other materials to be sent directly from the School as part of a student’s summer program application. We are familiar with the application requirements for many popular summer programs; students and families should note that many summer programs require anecdotal reports from Saint Ann’s applicants in addition to the student’s transcript. Students should plan ahead and be mindful of summer program application deadlines relative to school vacations.  

Please email your child’s division office if your child needs to miss part of, or the entire, school day.

We also encourage parents to call or email division offices to relay information about things happening outside of a child’s school life that may impact their experience at school; including changes in address, family structure, custody, child care arrangements, or a health situation or other family crisis. Division offices are here to help, and can relay information to other administrative offices and teachers to best support your child. Please be in touch if there is something you think we need to know about.

You can expect regular email communications from the School about community news and events. Division offices will often email about division-specific events and will contact you when they have anything to communicate about your individual child. 

It is important to note that, consistent with our goal of nurturing student independence, family members of middle and high school students should not necessarily expect to hear every time there are auditions for the play or try-outs for the basketball team. Older students have regular assemblies with division heads who frequently communicate important information to students directly. Parents and guardians are always welcome to contact division offices with questions.

You can always update your address and contact information directly through the Parent Portal. To update your primary email address, contact registrar@saintannsny.org. 

Middle and high school students have highly-individualized schedules depending on they classes they take. Fourth graders have daily homeroom; other middle and high school students are due at school for the beginning of their first class of the day.

In the Middle School, the day generally ends at 2:35 p.m. (an “early day”), or 3:25 p.m. (a “late day”). 

In the High School, the beginning and end of each school day is truly unique to the student and can change if a student adds or drops classes. The last “regular” period on the high school schedule ends at 4:15 p.m., but it is followed by the seminar period, during which some students will elect to take classes that run until 5:50 p.m.

One important aspect of high school schedules are free periods. During “frees,” high school students are truly free—they can leave campus during these times if they so choose and need to return only when they are due to be in their next class.

When the school year begins, if you are a middle or high school parent you will be able to view your child’s schedule through the Family Portal. If you need to schedule extracurricular activities before the school year begins you can contact the division office for dismissal times, but full schedules are not available until the first day of school.

We encourage students who wish to make schedule changes—even our youngest middle schoolers—to speak directly with their division head or grade dean, rather than expecting their parents to mediate this process. Those administrators must ultimately approve all schedule changes. The first few weeks of the year generally function as an add/drop period, especially in high school, where students have a chance to iron out the details of their schedules with the division office.

We rely on ongoing dialog with students and families in addition to checklists (twice annually) and narrative reports (twice annually) to communicate about what’s going on in the classroom. Written feedback begins at the kindergarten level. Checklist reports begin in fourth grade. All checklists and anecdotal reports are read by your child’s division head or grade adviser before they arrive at your home. If you have a question about an individual checklist or report, the division head or grade adviser is the person to call. You can read about “Why We Don’t Use Grades” here. Formal parent-teacher conferences are held once a year in November.

Middle and high school families will receive the first set of checklist reports shortly before the November parent-teacher conferences, where you will have an opportunity to discuss them with your child’s teachers. More detailed mid-year reports that describe both the classroom curriculum and your child’s learning are mailed home about halfway through the year.   

The School considers checklist reports to be internal documents that do not become part of a student’s formal academic record and are not sent on when a student applies to a summer program, transfers schools, or applies to college. There may be individual exceptions as adjudicated by the division head or grade adviser. With the exception of senior year, mid-year reports are not sent to colleges.

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s learning or would like to request a meeting with a teacher, feel free to contact the division office.

With the skeleton of our curriculum to support them, and the shared primary goal of educating students, teachers in every division of the School have significant autonomy to design their own classrooms. This means, for example, that one lower school classroom may be studying the ocean while another is in outer space. One high school U.S. history course will be in Selma while another has turned their attention to Vietnam. Our approach to education means that we deliberately do not require teachers to distribute year-long syllabi to students or parents or to post lesson plans or homework online. We take seriously the task of hiring and nurturing a faculty who will communicate their love and knowledge of their discipline in meaningful ways and respond to individual students’ needs and abilities. Like our students, we trust our teachers and encourage them to bring their own vision to their classroom.

At Saint Ann’s, instructional technology follows and directly supports the pedagogy of our teachers. The diverse range of disciplines, subjects, teaching styles, projects, and classroom activities offered by our faculty is reflected in our use of technology. The design and deployment of technology favors innovative, adaptable, unobtrusive, and robust solutions suited to the wide spectrum of individual faculty and student needs. We avoid platforms and technologies that distract or detract from the beauty and integrity of a true learning experience, and look beyond the horizon to identify the skills, tools, and lessons our students will need to be successful and safe in their interactions with technology both inside and outside the school environment.

We are not a “laptop school” in that we do not provide each student with a personal computer. Students in grades 4-12 are issued school-owned accounts which enable them to access school resources as needed. While we use some online platforms to facilitate learning, our curriculum is not centered around technology use. Instead, we prioritize direct engagement, creativity, and hands-on exploration, with technology serving as a supportive tool rather than the default mode of instruction. 

If a student does not have access to a computer or other technology at home that they need in order to complete school work, parents are strongly encouraged to get in touch with the relevant grade dean or division head who will help find a solution.

Complete information on our educational technology resources and use policies is available in our Student Handbook through the Family Portal.

In our younger divisions, equity work has focused on curricular review and  establishing a framework for creating anti-racist classrooms and teaching equity-related skills and concepts across Preschool, Kindergarten, and Lower School. In the middle and high schools, in addition to ongoing curricular review across departments, students in all grades have both structured and unstructured opportunities to talk and learn about topics related to equity and inclusion. These are facilitated by teachers as well as by division offices in collaboration with the Diversity and Institutional Equity office, and include Lower Middle School diversity workshops, Upper Middle School affinity spaces, High School Friday meeting, High School race-based affinity spaces, and student-initiated, student-run groups like High School Black Student Union or Upper Middle School and High School Women in STEM.

You’ll find more details about what equity work looks like on the ground under “In Practice” on the Diversity and Institutional Equity section of our website.

The School has a dedicated team of trained professionals who work together as Student Support Services and are led by the Director of Student Support Services, our School Psychologist, Liz Bernbach, PhD. Student Support Services is made up primarily of the School’s psychologists, learning specialists, and testing coordinators, but they also work closely with school nurses and health educators. The Student Support Services team are here as a resource for students, parents, and teachers and are in regular contact with division offices.

The Teaching and Learning Center (the “TLC”) is open Monday through Friday from 8:15 a.m.-4:30 p.m. All middle and high school students are welcome to drop in during their free periods, including lunch. They can also stop in before classes begin to print out homework or get needed class supplies. Learning specialists staff the TLC and are there to support students with anything they need that is related to school work. They are happy to help with studying for tests, writing papers, understanding reading assignments, organizing materials, and managing time, among other things.

We have a dedicated team of college counselors who work with individual students and families throughout the college process. This process intentionally begins halfway through the junior year at Saint Ann’s. However, we know that parents often have questions about college before then. You can find general information about the College Office here. While you’re there, be sure to check out our Recommended Reading section! Your child’s grade adviser can answer other questions you may have about the process prior to junior year.

Please visit the site's finance office pages for information on our financial aid policies and processes. Currently enrolled families can find full details of the financial aid process on the Family Portal. Questions about the financial aid process from currently enrolled families should be directed to financialaid@saintannsny.org. 

Families applying for admission to Saint Ann’s can find information on the financial aid application process by visiting the Admissions page and clicking on the "Tuition & Financial Aid" link. Please direct questions about financial aid policies to the Director of Admission, Diana Lomask (dlomask@saintannsny.org).

Every member of our community is due the respect that allows for meaningful and equal participation in what we hold most dear. Acts of discrimination and harassment—including bullying, taunting, or intimidation—are obstacles to both learning and teaching and will not be tolerated. Please see our full policies on community responsibility, bullying, harassment and disciplinary action in our Student and Family Handbook which can be found in the Family Portal.

There is no detention. We try not to motivate students through punitive measures, particularly in the context of learning. Being in a quiet room with a book should be a joy, not a punishment. By design, we hope to model how intellectual curiosity and a sense of individual agency can motivate academic pursuits. That said, community behavioral norms and expectations are detailed in our Student and Family Handbook which can be found in the Family Portal. Division heads and grade advisers determine situationally and age appropriate consequences on an individual case basis.

We do not have a PTA. Annual parent meetings, cocktail parties, dinners, and parent-teacher conferences are included on the school calendar. These, along with attendance at student performances, readings, and sports games are great ways for families to be involved in the school community. Parents of younger children are sometimes invited to join for class field trips; this is not a requirement and generally is no longer the case in the middle and high school. There are a number of other events organized by the Advancement Office throughout the year, at which parents and families are most welcome; those are communicated via email.