Riverdale Country School

Lower School

First grade: boxes and robots

Riverdale says its first graders built a model community from recycled boxes, then programmed robots to travel through it with the integrator team. Building and programming happen in the same project.

Each Lower School classroom has two teachers, backed by literacy and math specialists, integrators and outdoor educators. Reading, writing and math use a workshop model, which is designed to let children develop at their own pace and learn from working with others.

Those two things, the second teacher and the workshop routine, are what a child meets on an ordinary day. A reading or math block is where you would see them at work.

Campuses

Two campuses, with a move at sixth grade

Children who start in PreK or kindergarten spend the Lower School years at the River Campus, beside the Hudson and next to Wave Hill. At sixth grade everyone moves to the Hill Campus, which overlooks Van Cortlandt Park and serves students through twelfth grade.

Sixth grade is therefore a campus move for children already at Riverdale and one of the main entry grades for new families.

Middle School

Sixth grade and the five-borough model

Sixth graders in History learn New York City through four themes: resources, labor, migration and urban planning. They examine case studies from three periods and end the year building a large model of the five boroughs together.

Sixth graders change classes and move around campus in cohorts for English, history, math and science. They also take Foundations for Learning, a co-taught course on public speaking, study skills and computer science.

Seventh and eighth graders have individual schedules and choose among Chinese, French, Spanish or Latin. The school describes these years as building independent learners.

Upper School

Ninth through twelfth grade

Ninth and tenth grade are foundation years across disciplines. Science currently runs as a two-year Integrated Biology/Chemistry sequence in those grades, not as separate biology and chemistry courses.

Eleventh grade brings Constructing America, taught by English and history teachers together. Twelfth grade ends with Integrated Liberal Studies, which draws on philosophy, psychology, art and literature.

Learning support

Learning support

In the Middle and Upper School, students are supported by a network of teachers and deans, with advisors added in the Upper School. In Grades 7 and 8, a student who needs study-strategy and executive-function support from the Learning Research team can take a Study Skills course in place of a world language.

Riverdale also posts an accommodation policy, revised in September 2018. It outlines a written request, documentation from qualified professionals and committee review of each case.

Treat it as background from that date, not as the current process.

Applying

Applying for 2027–28

Applications for 2027–28 are open. The public admissions page does not give an application deadline; create a Ravenna account and use its checklist for the dates that apply to your child.

Virtual open houses are optional. An interview is required for each applicant, and applying families tour the campus as part of it.

For kindergarten in fall 2027, a birth date between September 1, 2021 and September 1, 2022 typically works well. That is not a strict cutoff, and placement can be discussed during the interview.

Anticipated openings are about 42 in kindergarten, 20–25 in sixth grade and 40–45 in ninth. These are planning figures, not odds.

Grades 1–5, 8 and 10–12 depend on attrition, and financial aid in those grades is limited.

Cost and aid

Financial aid: how it works and when to file

Aid is need-based and renewed through an annual application. Riverdale expects families to put all available resources toward tuition, then aims to meet 100% of demonstrated need.

Admission and aid decisions are made separately, but information about your aid application accompanies the acceptance letter.

New families apply through Clarity by December 15, 2026. Current families, including those applying for a sibling, file by December 1, 2026.

You will need 2025 tax documents and current income and expense information.

Aid is also available for some co-curricular programs, including after-school. Ask whether it applies to the specific extras you expect to use.

Aftercare and phones

Aftercare and phones

Lower School aftercare runs through RiverEdge Enrichment, which meets most days from 3:15 to 4:30. A late bus is available only to families contracted with the bus company.

Aftercare cost is not public, and late-bus details are worth confirming for the current year.

In November 2024 the school announced that phones must be off and in bags from 8:25 to 3:30 in every division, including the Upper School for the first time. Confirm the current rules.

Background reports

Reports from 2015 and 2025

In February 2015, a Manhattan jury convicted a former Riverdale teacher of sex crimes involving a student in 2011, and the district attorney's annual report records an October 2015 sentence.

In March 2025, News 12 reported a ransomware attack that exposed personal information of students, faculty and parents, including contact and medical details, and said the school had notified families. For current safeguarding and data-security practices, ask the school directly.

Riverdale on carried-over support, need and the late bus

Ask whether current accommodations carry over, whether financial need plays any role in admission, and what RiverEdge and the late bus cost.