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The Safety Factor

As you well know, there are several reasons why you are considering private school for your child. Her safety is on your list, albeit somewhere below other considerations such as the academics, athletics, and extracurricular activities when you first start thinking about schools. Safety is not usually an issue in private schools. Indeed, school violence is not often found in private schools. In fact, the only examples of which I am aware in recent years consist of a few scattered incidents of hazing and cyber-bullying. I won't scare you with examples of school violence in public schools. You see and read about these incidents every day, both at home and abroad. Instead, let's explore some of the reasons and factors that make private schools safe places for your child. You can check that box on your list of questions about private schools.

Discipline Codes

One of the most important reasons why private schools tend to be safe places for your children is because they all have discipline codes. These discipline codes are enforceable and, indeed, are enforced simply because you and your child entered into a legal contract with the school when you agreed to send your child to the school. As a result, when a student violates the code, there will be consequences, including expulsion. In a public school, students have constitutional rights. In a public school, due process must be followed before serious disciplinary consequences occur. That due process can take weeks

For many reasons it can be more difficult to get your child into a preschool or kindergarten than into a prep school. Especially if you live in a major city like New York or Chicago. Read The Truth About Preschool Admissions by Jacoba Urist in The Huffington Post to get an idea of what you are up against. Getting your child into preschool is not quite the same as walking into Bergdorf's and purchasing an expensive item of apparel. Your money and your accomplishments take a back seat to your child and her abilities and accomplishments. Preschools look at your child first. Then they will give you the once over.

If you live in an area where places in the local preschools are not as difficult to come by, count your lucky stars. In any case here's an overview of the process.

Getting Started

Much depends on the area in which you live. Major metropolitan areas seem to have the fewest preschool places. How do you make sure your child will get into a school? You start the process as soon as you can and you go through the admissions process at at least three schools, five if you can manage it. In those highly competitive markets getting into a preschool, any preschool is almost as dicey as drawing lots. So cover your bases by applying to more than one school, preferably three. Applying to five schools couldn't hurt. Listen to Joanna Port's preschool admission tips.

Finding a job - any job - is difficult for everybody in today's job market, private school teachers and administrators included. One way to get your resume noticed, perhaps even read in detail, is by creating value. Here's how.

Why You Need to Project Value

²ÝÁñÉçÇø schools have historically valued staff who are well-credentialed, enthusiastic and flexible. The reason why stems from the reality that private schools have only as many staff as they need. No more. What that means is that when there are gaps in the team, for whatever reason, the school needs somebody to fill that gap competently and cheerfully. On the fly.

Indications of Value

Credentials

Start with your credentials. Make certain that your academic qualifications align with the school's stated requirements as well as offer an additional specialty or two. For example, if you have a Masters degree in French language and literature and are applying for the school's French teacher position, it won't hurt to be proficient in Spanish or Portuguese, or Italian as well. Chinese would be even better. The point is that offering just a little more will give you an edge when the school begins to review the applications in depth.

If it has been several years since you completed your formal graduate studies, be sure to include some recent courses, workshops, and seminars that you have attended. It is important to show your prospective employer that you have not stopped learning. Make sure that there is no

Financial Aid 101

What is financial aid?

• Financial aid is money given by individual private schools to help families pay for a private school education.
• ²ÝÁñÉçÇø schools give families millions of dollars annually to help them afford a private school education.

What is the purpose of financial aid?

• Financial aid is one tool private schools can use to make their school more diverse.
• Yes, many years ago, private schools had a less-than-positive reputation for being elitist.
• However, thankfully, times have changed.

Being able to pay for a private school education is no longer the only admission criterion that matters. If your child has the qualifications that the school is looking for, but you cannot afford to send her, then financial aid is certainly an option that you need to explore.

Read what one of the most prestigious private schools in the United States of America has to say about diversity:

"Andover's broad socio-economic diversity is a hallmark of the Academy as displayed in the inclusive distribution of financial aid grants to low-, middle- and upper-middle-income families."

, like a great many private schools, has a Need-Blind Admissions policy in place. What that means is that the school does not look at your financial circumstances as part of its admissions criteria.

• Ask whether the school to which you are applying has a Need Blind Admissions policy in place.
• Find out more about how it works.

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