Sidwell Friends: Seven Entry Grades, Two Campuses, and a Quaker Program You Can Watch in Practice

Meeting for Worship

Every week, all students and teachers gather for Meeting for Worship: shared silence, in which anyone may speak if moved. Students develop queries rather than learn a doctrine, and the school says students from many faiths, and from none, take part.

In the Lower School, the quiet lasts about 20 minutes: a question framed by the class, silence, and a closing handshake. The handbook treats the meeting as an essential community obligation, not an optional extra.

In Upper School, every ninth grader takes a pass/fail Ethical Leadership course that uses Quaker methods to examine social justice and responsible decision-making.

Bethesda through Grade 4, then DC

Sidwell is coed from prekindergarten through grade 12, split across two campuses. Prekindergarten through Grade 4 meet on the five-acre Bethesda campus at 5100 Edgemoor Lane.

Grades 5 through 12 and administrative offices occupy the 15-acre Wisconsin Avenue campus in DC. That means Grade 5 brings a change of both campus and division.

The DC campus is mid-project. Grades 9–12 began classes in the new Upper School in September 2026, and the former Upper School is fenced for a two-year conversion into a future Lower School, which Sidwell expects to open in 2028.

Health Services sits in a temporary trailer until it returns to the campus center, also expected in 2028.

How the work grows

Grades 5 and 6 run on homerooms, with the homeroom teacher as the main family contact; Grades 7 and 8 move to an advisor who stays with a group for both years, plus an athletic block four afternoons a week.

Upper School requires at least 20 credits plus athletics or PE, a work program, community engagement, and a senior project: four years of English, three each of history, mathematics, and science (physics, chemistry, biology, in that order), two sequential years of one language, and two years of arts.

Ninth and tenth graders take five core subjects, and no one may carry more than six courses.

Practice at home starts at 10–20 minutes in Grade 1 and climbs by about ten-minute increments to 40–50 minutes in Grade 4. A fifth grader regularly exceeding an hour to an hour and a half should prompt a family-school conversation.

By the end of Middle School, homework may reach 2.5 hours nightly.

Upper School preparation is expected to take up to 30–45 focused minutes per class meeting, with more independent time in accelerated or advanced courses. The schedule includes periods when students can work or meet teachers.

Who can start in Fall 2027

The regular Fall 2027 entry points are prekindergarten, kindergarten, and Grades 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9. Target new cohorts are modest: approximately 20 in prekindergarten, 28 in kindergarten, 12 in Grade 3, 10 in Grade 4, 16 each in Grades 6 and 7, and 30–35 in Grade 9.

Grades 1, 2, 5, 8, 10, and 11 admit students only through attrition, and Grade 12 admission is rare. For those grades, the Family Information Form, past and current reports, an applicant video, required in-school testing, and optional test scores are due January 30, 2027.

Sidwell contacts families about visits and interviews only when a seat opens, meaning high retention can leave no openings.

December deadlines, and a split aid date

Applicants start in Ravenna with the Family Information Form, which Sidwell says takes 20–30 minutes. The fee is $75 and nonrefundable, with hardship waivers available.

For expansion grades, that form is due December 1, 2026. Teacher recommendations, visit or assessment bookings, prior reports, and the parent meeting are generally due December 15.

Current reports, the applicant video, and required in-school testing follow on December 31 when required. One hard boundary: recommendation requests must wait until after November 1, and earlier submissions will not be accepted.

Tours, information sessions, and the December 6 Middle and Upper School open house require advance registration in Ravenna, and the school asks families to book one option rather than several.

The financial aid deadline is easy to get wrong because the school's pages conflict. The admissions-process page lists February 1 for new families; the tuition page says January 15.

Treat January 15 as the safer target.

What your child is asked to do

Age cutoffs are exact. Prekindergarten applicants must have been born between August 31, 2022, and September 1, 2023; kindergarten applicants must fall between August 31, 2021, and September 1, 2022.

Both groups attend a play-based morning with a short one-to-one teacher interaction. Parents meet an interviewer separately, in person or online, without the child.

Kindergarten requires a current progress report and teacher recommendation; prekindergarten accepts a teacher or non-parent caregiver recommendation, waived if the child is not enrolled in school or day care. No outside testing is required for either grade.

Grades 3 and 4 come for a classroom-style morning of math, reading, writing, group work, and recess. They submit a current-teacher recommendation, prior and current reports, and standardized testing already administered by their current school.

Sidwell accepts a WISC-V only when that school administers no testing at all.

Grades 6 and 7 take Sidwell’s math, reading, and writing assessment. They submit current math and English recommendations, prior and current records, an applicant video, and required school-administered standardized results.

The parent meeting lasts up to 30 minutes, virtually or in person, described as a two-way family conversation rather than an evaluation of the child. SSAT or ISEE testing is optional; Sidwell says skipping it will not disadvantage an applicant or violate a hidden expectation.

Families may arrange documented accommodations in advance.

The Grade 9 assessment runs 90 minutes across math, reading, and writing. The applicant video should use the student’s own words.

The parent meeting excludes the student and is recorded so staff can log an accurate summary in the file. The process page calls that meeting virtual, while the Grade 9 guide allows in-person or virtual formats.

Tuition, and the bill around it

Published 2026–27 tuition is $55,250 for prekindergarten through Grade 2, $58,050 for Grades 3 and 4, $61,830 for Middle School, and $62,330 for Upper School. Lunch is included across the board.

The tuition invoice is rarely the full bill. Beside the $62,330 Upper School tuition sit $500–$700 for books, a $420 technology fee, a $75 yearbook, and variable travel expenses for athletics, arts, academics, or service.

The intercampus shuttle adds $1,550 one way or $3,000 round trip—and it is not a bus from home. Lower School Early Risers costs $1,800 a year or $25 drop-in, with aftercare ranging from $700 to $6,700.

Middle School publishes a $500 textbook and laptop fee, aftercare at $1,800 a semester or $3,300 a year ($30 drop-in), $55 for warm-weather PE uniforms, $80 for outerwear, and variable Minimester costs.

The meaningful relief is that financial aid discounts these extra costs at the same percentage as tuition aid. Depending on the division, that assistance covers care, the shuttle, books, laptop fees, PE uniforms, athletic gear, trips, and school-recommended testing or tutoring.

In 2025–26, 23% of students received $10,145,734 in aid, an average grant of $39,478.

Families may pay in full by June 15, use a 70/30 plan due June 15 and November 15, or use an interest-free ten-month plan from May through February.

Support, and where it stops

Counseling is brief and solution-focused; students needing extensive mental-health treatment are referred to outside providers. School counselors work during the school day and cannot provide after-hours emergency or crisis support—a boundary families should weigh before enrolling.

The handbook commits to reasonable accommodations while reserving the school’s right not to substantially alter its program. A current formal evaluation can support extended time, preferential seating, assistive technology, notes, stop-clock breaks, and limited deadline flexibility.

Each campus staffs a registered nurse during the school day, and the DC campus adds an athletic trainer. The handbook requires an annual physical and immunization record, alongside an approved action plan and prescribed medication for conditions requiring intervention at school.

Students may not self-carry over-the-counter medicine, and self-carrying prescribed medication requires the nurse’s assessment.

Phone rules differ by division.

Under the 2025–26 handbook, Lower School devices were turned in to the front office, Middle School phones had to be off and away during the day unless a teacher assigned them, and Upper School devices other than laptops had to be off and out of sight indoors, usable outdoors in free time, and never in the Meeting Room.

The shuttle is not a bus from home

There is no home-to-school bus. The DC campus is 0.7 miles south of the Tenleytown/AU Red Line station and served by the 30, 31, 33, 96, H3, and H4 Metrobus lines, with a Metro SmartBenefits subsidy for students; the Bethesda campus is about 0.4 miles west of the Bethesda Red Line.

The paid shuttle connects the two campuses only, not your home. For 2026–27, the published Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday schedule runs Bethesda to DC at 7:20 a.m., DC to Bethesda at 8:00 a.m., Bethesda to DC at 3:15 p.m., and DC to Bethesda at 3:50 p.m. Tuesday runs adjust for early dismissal.

They do not cover every rehearsal, game, tutoring session, or late pickup.

School hours are 8:30 a.m.–3:15 p.m. in Lower School, 8:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m. in Middle School, and 8:00 a.m.–3:20 p.m. in Upper School. Tuesday dismissal is 2:00 p.m. in Lower and Middle and 2:40 p.m. in Upper.

Upper School also dismisses at 2:40 p.m. on Friday. Lower Early Risers begins at 7:30 a.m., Lower and Middle aftercare can run to 6:00 p.m., and the Upper library stays open to 6:00 p.m. except 4:00 p.m. on Friday.

Sidwell's homework, routes, aid deadlines and construction

Sidwell runs two campuses during construction, so ask about the trip from your address, the aid deadline that governs, and how an ordinary week feels.