LREI

Research starts nearby

Kindergarten at LREI includes research I find hard to argue with. Children interview members of the school community and then write about the people they met, as part of a study of the whole school.

The subject sits down the hall, which seems a sensible place for a young researcher to begin.

By second grade the questions have moved outward, and children analyze data on how people use the city's public transportation.

Junior year stretches the radius across the country. In the fall, juniors name issues they consider urgent, the class settles on six, and students join teams by interest.

Each team looks for communities already working on its issue, picks a place to study, and arranges meetings with local partners. In April, the whole class travels for a week.

How the circle widens

Between the kindergarten interviews and the junior trip sits a progression the school describes in concrete steps. Block play at four becomes early footing for math, coding, and design thinking.

By fourth grade, children design challenges and build robots to meet them. By seventh grade, they prototype and revise solutions to problems such as climate change in the Co-Laboratory.

Fieldwork runs alongside that sequence. It starts in the Fours (the four-year-olds), when children visit each other's homes to study family and home.

Second graders make more than twenty excursions to understand the city's needs and resources. In high school the city becomes a lab for nearly every course: student filmmakers make nonfiction shorts about neighborhoods, and student scientists work with NYU professors and graduate researchers.

Middle school gives the habit an audience: eighth graders present original fieldwork on political, social, and economic issues they care about and lead teach-ins for their peers.

The school day, put together

A Lower School day covers reading, writing, math, science, and engineering, with Spanish beginning in the Fours. Early childhood classes eat lunch in their own rooms, practicing setting up, sharing, and cleaning up; from second grade through eighth, lunch is family-style in the cafeteria.

Technology is deliberately minimal in the early grades and grows in third and fourth.

In the Middle School, homeroom opens and closes the day. Each student has an advisor who meets with them regularly, partners with their family, and serves as the main contact.

Afternoon homeroom handles agenda checks and reminders, and it is one chance to visit the Learning Lab, which stays open until 4:30 p.m. for extra help.

Once a week, each grade meets for Choices, a seminar with a consistent faculty facilitator who works with advisors. It covers friendships, technology, and safety, and returns to topics like substances every year at a more grown-up level.

Extracurriculars such as robotics, debate, and theater start in sixth grade, which leaves fifth graders time to settle in.

Lower and Middle School are at 272 Sixth Avenue, at Bleecker Street; High School is at 40 Charlton Street.

High school: core first, electives later

In ninth and tenth grade the program is a defined core, and choice comes later.

The humanities move from world history and literature to American history and literature, and the sciences from chemistry to physics, alongside two years of Integrated Math, a world language (French, Spanish, or Mandarin), and arts classes that become electives in tenth grade.

Ninth and tenth graders also have Life Lab, a dedicated space for health and wellness, media literacy, identity, relationships, and decision-making.

Electives open in eleventh grade, and many classes mix juniors with seniors. Recent examples include Immunology and Public Health, Constitutional Law, and Short Film Production.

Students plan a balanced program with their advisors.

The senior project

Senior year closes with a project of the student's own design. Seniors shape a driving question and research it through fieldwork and community engagement.

During the third trimester, they complete the project, including a six-week independent, experiential component that can be an internship, an apprenticeship, or work with a mentor in the field. It counts toward graduation and ends in a showcase.

The school's fourteen-year overview says projects range from advertising-agency internships to making and releasing an EP, staging an art exhibition, or building a robot.

Applying for fall 2027

The main entry points are the Fours, kindergarten, fifth, sixth, and ninth grades, with other years considered. Regular applications for all three divisions are due December 1, 2026, and carry a $75 non-refundable fee, which can be reduced on request.

Fours and kindergarten applicants must be four and five, respectively, by September 1 of the year they start.

The table below is only a summary; the school's admissions page holds the full grade-by-grade checklist and the tour and open-house reservations, so check it before you build your calendar.

Early notification is binding

LREI runs an optional early notification track for applicants from the Fours through ninth grade who have a current or former LREI sibling, are children of alumni, or are children of current faculty or staff. The letter calls opting in binding: accepted families are expected to enroll and withdraw their other applications.

Opting in is due by noon on November 6, 2026, and decisions arrive December 9, 2026; enrollment is due by December 16, 2026, a week later. Aid materials, for families seeking aid, are due November 14, 2026.

Neither admission nor additional financial aid is guaranteed, and the school advises applying elsewhere too, since LREI may not suit every child in a family. The letter does not say what happens if the aid offer falls short, so ask in writing before opting in.

2026–27 tuition

LREI lists its 2026–27 tuition by grade level, shown below, and builds most routine costs into it.

What is and isn't included

Tuition covers snacks and family-style lunch, required books, field trips, overnight trips in grades three through eleven (not the eighth-grade international trip), parents association dues, athletic equipment and uniforms, and a Chromebook in grades six through eight or a MacBook in grades nine through twelve.

Core afterschool is included for the Fours and kindergarten, not for grades one through eight.

Outside tuition sit the eighth-grade international world-language trip, bus service from Brooklyn and Queens, and afterschool enrichment classes. Each is optional and costs extra, with need-based aid for families who want to take part but cannot.

Financial aid

Need-based aid runs from the Fours through twelfth grade, and the school decides it separately from admission. Awards arrive with acceptance notifications.

They cover one year and must be requested again each year, though LREI says it commits to supporting demonstrated need for as long as a child is enrolled. Every parent completes a financial statement, and a noncustodial parent files a separate one.

Standard aid materials are due December 15, 2026, with 2026 W-2 forms by February 1, 2027; the school's financial aid page lists the full document checklist.

Check the aid box on the application and ask by email if you need a fee waiver.

One rule deserves a plain statement. A family that enrolls without aid can apply only after three years of attendance have elapsed, and that mark opens the application rather than promising an award.

After school and extra care

Core afterschool runs until 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, on full school days, and is split into Reds for the Fours through first grade and Blues for second through eighth. It is included in tuition for the Fours and kindergarten.

A drop-in option lets families book a single day of Core when needed, while enrichment classes and weekly thirty-minute one-on-one instrumental lessons are separate offerings.

Before comparing schools on cost, work out the days and hours of care you need, then ask for the price of that exact pattern. The published schedule covers full school days; it does not tell you how half days or closures are handled, so ask.

Support beyond the classroom and trip costs at LREI

Ask what learning and emotional support exists for a child your child's age and what optional trips would cost your family.