The Dalton School

The first-grade post office

First graders at Dalton run a school post office. They sell stamps, sort letters, and carry them to people around the school, and they design stamps of their own after learning how the United States Postal Service moves mail.

The school ties the work to reading, writing, and math.

Dalton serves children from Kindergarten through grade 12 in New York City. Kindergarten through grade 3 meet at 53 East 91st Street, and grades 4 through 12 at 108 East 89th Street.

House, Assignment, and Lab

Behind jobs like the post office is a structure called the Dalton Plan, which has three parts. House is a daily group with an adviser, who is also the main contact for families.

An Assignment sets the work for a unit while leaving students choices about their approach. Lab is scheduled time to meet a teacher one-to-one or in a small group.

The practical point: planning is taught alongside content, and Lab gives a regular way to ask for help or take an idea further.

How responsibility grows with age

In the First Program, the Assignment introduces children to organizing their time and practicing basic skills, with choices about how to approach a subject.

Teachers often call the Lab in these years, sometimes to shore up a skill and sometimes to push an interest further, and children can ask for one to propose an idea or project.

In fourth and fifth grade, House is also the classroom, and most teaching happens there. From sixth grade, students move among subject teachers, and House, with two meetings a day, stays constant.

Assignments in these years teach practical planning: a realistic timeline, a big task broken into pieces, and sources found outside the classroom.

In high school, each House mixes all four grades, with 16 to 25 students and two advisers, and an adviser and advisee typically stay together for four years. Assignments run about four to six weeks.

Teachers can require a Lab, but most of the time the student picks the day and the reason.

Applying in fall 2026 for September 2027 entry

For September 2027 entry, Kindergarten and grade 9 are open, and Prep for Prep students may apply for grades 7 and 8. Standard sixth-grade applications are closed; Dalton says it expects a pause of one or two years but gives no reopening date.

Families can join a closed-grade inquiry list to be told first if a place opens.

Kindergartners must be five by September 1 of the entry year. Children born in June, July, or August may apply at five or six; if that is your child, ask admissions to confirm the timing in writing.

Dalton is a day school with no boarding. Grade 9 families with a sibling, alumni, or faculty or staff connection should check the Early Notification rules on the steps page.

Tuition and financial aid

The $70,800 figure is for 2026–27; ask admissions what to expect for the year your child would enter.

Tuition includes lunch, books and supplies, a school device, class and grade-level trips, and instrument rental for music classes from third grade on.

After-school programs, summer camp, tournament travel, and Global Initiatives trips are extra, though aid recipients get help at the same percentage as their award. Parents Association dues of $100 per family are not covered by tuition or aid.

Aid is need-based: the school assesses demonstrated need from the Clarity application, and awards are grants, not merit scholarships. Ask for aid with the initial application; later requests are considered only after a significant, unexpected change such as job loss.

New applicants submit by December 1, 2026.

Learning support and wellness

The First Program has a full-time school psychologist, and Middle School and High School each have two full-time clinicians. Learning specialists work in every division and help interpret evaluations and arrange accommodations.

High school students also have a required 'therapy Lab,' a meeting with a counselor they choose, meant as an introduction to counseling rather than ongoing therapy.

If your child has an evaluation or accommodation plan, take the specifics to admissions and ask what support looks like in that grade.

After school and getting there

Dalton's optional after-school program runs daily for Kindergarten through grade 6. Most classes end at 4:30, with supervised support until 5:30.

Grades 4 through 8 have options for staying at school until 5:30. High school activities are clubs, teams, and mentoring programs rather than care.

Dalton lists four transportation options, none run by the school: a student OMNY card, the city school bus for qualifying students in K–6, a door-to-door private bus for Kindergarten through grade 8 at added cost, and a morning-only private bus from the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens.

The city's distance rules vary by grade. A Kindergarten through grade 2 child living half a mile or more away can qualify for a bus or OMNY card; for grades 3 through 6, a bus starts at one mile, and between half a mile and a mile it is an OMNY card only.

Bus riders at a non-public school must also live in the same borough. Check the city chart for your grade and address, then ask the school's transportation coordinator.

Labs, Assignments and summer birthdays at Dalton

Dalton's Lab and Assignment system shapes each grade, so ask who decides when a child has a Lab and what happens when an Assignment plan slips.