NYC Grade 6 Admissions Timeline

The calendar, and what to do first

Your child is in fifth grade, and the internet would like you to know that sixth-grade admissions is a campaign. It is closer to a school year with some dates in it. Some deadlines are close, but none of this calls for a project management office.

This page is the calendar: what happens when, from October to April. Which schools actually take new sixth graders, how testing and support work, and how to judge fit are in the Grade 6 admissions guide.

The table below runs from this month into April, which means from 2026 into 2027. Each date belongs to the school or agency named, and no two schools on your list are certain to share a calendar, so treat it as the shape of the season and confirm the dates for your own list.

Only a few of these are close. Fieldston holds information sessions in person on October 6 and online on October 14, plus an appointment-only Discovery Day on October 18; each requires registration.

Beyond that, your first useful errand is to read the admissions page of each school you are considering, once, top to bottom, for dates not shown here.

Visits are worth the trouble. ISAAGNY describes attending events as a way to show interest, though the better reason is to see whether a school suits your child.

Not every deadline means the same thing

Horace Mann shows how one school can hold several deadlines. The formal application is due November 18, but a family that has applied and booked the interview by October 15 is guaranteed one; a later interview depends on availability, and the file does not count as finished until it happens. November 18 is the date on the form, not the whole plan.

Avenues shows another kind. Its First Choice round is binding: an admitted family commits to attend and to pull its other applications. The Regular round runs later and is the ordinary route, so the question to settle by early November is whether Avenues is genuinely first.

That is not the same thing as ISAAGNY's early notification for eligible connected families, which follows separate rules.

Autumn: asking, writing and applying

Teachers come first. ISAAGNY asks families to wait until after November 1 before requesting recommendations, so teachers have more of the year to go on; the form goes straight to the schools, with nothing for you to forward. That date is guidance for when to ask, not a deadline for the teacher, and some schools set later dates of their own. The testing and records guide covers who writes what.

Whatever each school asks for, the child's own writing should be the child's own, and the parents' statement should be the parents'. A fifth grader has a whole school year to draw on, so there is no need to manufacture anything impressive. The writing and interviews guide has more.

Public school is a separate path. A New York City resident in fifth grade, or sixth where elementary school ends then, can apply once the public application opens October 14. Private and parochial families can apply through a Family Welcome Center instead of a school counselor. If your list involves a District 21 talent test, registration closes November 2; not every family needs one. The public school guide has the rest.

Entry points deserve a short look too. Schools differ in how many places open to new sixth graders and how many in later grades, which changes how much a general reputation tells you. The entry points page lays the distinction out without a long school list.

Finishing the file by January

The winter is mostly waiting for other people: a test date booked, a teacher who has been asked, a transcript requested. Whether a school wants test scores varies, and the testing and records guide sorts that out.

Horace Mann suggests checking in early January that your application shows as complete, which beats finding a missing form in February.

Financial aid is its own track. Put its deadline on the calendar separately; the two examples in the table are Horace Mann and Fieldston.

For what aid covers and the terms that come with it, read the financial aid guide before you fill anything in. An aid form submitted on time and an admission file finished on time are two separate achievements.

Decisions, replies and the contract

ISAAGNY's shared calendar for grades 1 through 8 allows decisions no earlier than February 10 and asks for replies by noon on February 26, 2027, for files complete by January 8. Fieldston publishes its own Grade 6 dates, which run slightly ahead, and neither calendar cancels the other.

Ask each school to confirm the dates that apply to your child, and keep its answer with your calendar.

Public and private calendars also fail to line up politely. The public application closes in December and offers arrive April 7, after private replies are due, so you may commit to a private school without the public answer. Ordinary, and better planned for than discovered.

Before replying, read the whole enrollment contract, not only the line with the deposit. What you owe if plans change, and by what date, matters as much as the deposit does, and each school sets its own terms, so there is no general rule to lean on. If anything is unclear, ask admissions and keep the answer in writing.

If you are starting late

If you are reading this in January, or a school's date has already passed, the first move is a short note or call to that school's admissions office, before paying any application fee. Ask whether they are still reviewing applications for your child's grade and what they would need first. There is no guarantee that an opening exists, and a calm question will tell you more than a hopeful payment.

Avenues describes a route for late applicants: send the preliminary form promptly and explain the timing to admissions.

The best preparation I can offer everyone else is to let your child finish fifth grade, which is, after all, where the records come from.