NYC private-school admissions is famously confusing. Here's the map: who coordinates it, what happens month by month, the one rule that's specific to Montessori, and what you'll actually need to submit.
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ISAAGNY — the Independent Schools Admissions Association of Greater New York — is a consortium that has coordinated NYC independent-school admissions since 1965. It publishes shared notification and reply dates and standard forms (like a common teacher-recommendation form) so families aren't whipsawed by dozens of different calendars. Not every school is a member, and not all follow the calendar exactly — but many Montessori schools in this guide do, so it's the backbone to plan around.
This is the typical fall-entry cycle. Exact dates shift each year — always confirm on isaagny.org and each school's own page.
Most applications open right after Labor Day. Fall is for tours, open houses, parent interviews and child playgroups. Note: many schools won't schedule a tour until you've applied.
Request teacher/nursery-director recommendations (usually after Nov 1). ISAAGNY's limited “Early Notification” round for priority applicants — siblings, faculty children, affiliated families — typically falls around mid-November.
Plenty of individual schools set their own completion deadline around December 1 — don't assume everything runs to January.
The key ISAAGNY-aligned deadline lands in early-to-mid January (around January 8 in recent cycles). Applications, statements and recommendations should be in.
Group child visits and playdates take place — a relaxed observation, not a test, for the youngest applicants.
Under the common calendar, kindergarten decisions go out around February 6 with replies due about a week later; grades 1–8 notify around February 13 with replies due in early March. Preschool programs often set their own nearby dates.
After the reply deadlines, waitlists start to shift as families accept and decline offers.
The single most important quirk: authentic Montessori primary classrooms take new children at about age three, and keep them for a three-year cycle through the kindergarten year — when the reading, writing and math “explosion” happens. Because those seats stay filled by continuing children, very few open at ages four and five. If your child is turning three, that's your window. Toddler and infant programs, by contrast, often admit on a rolling basis as space allows.
For preschool and kindergarten entry, plan on a playdate or classroom observation, not a standardized test. ISAAGNY moved schools away from requiring the ERB for kindergarten around 2013 because private tutoring had made it unfair, and the proposed replacement (the AABL) was discontinued in 2020. Standardized testing generally only comes into play from around grade two upward, and it varies by school.
Applying for financial aid? It's a separate application (through SSS or Clarity) with its own late-fall/early-winter deadlines — see the tuition & aid guide.