Success Starts Here

Gateway is always working to prepare students to transition to mainstream school settings when they can do so successfully. The goal of the Placement process is to find the right match for every student and to support families throughout the year-long application process. In any year, the majority of students in transition are graduating from 8th grade. Through regular student assessment and discussions with parents about their child’s overall learning profile and development, administrators and faculty also identify younger students ready to transition.

8th Grade Graduates: The Placement process begins in the spring prior to a student’s final year at Gateway. The Associate Director of Admissions and Placement guides parents throughout the many steps in the Placement process. Familiar with the independent school community and the admissions directors at the ongoing schools, she advises parents on school selection, research and touring, applications, interviews, and testing. She helps parents seeking public school placement enter the school selection process and recommends specific schools. To prepare for school visits and interviews, students participate in an after-school elective in the fall. The Associate Director also oversees the preparation and dissemination of documentation for testing accommodations, school transcripts, and teacher recommendations. During the year, she consults frequently with the admissions teams at the various schools to ensure successful placement.

Undergraduates: Gateway assesses students regularly and from a variety of standpoints to understand how best to address their areas of need and to decide when it is time for a student to leave Gateway. Typically, the Division Head initiates a conversation with the family, but any parent interested in learning more about their child’s readiness to transition to a mainstream setting is encouraged to contact Christy Brockhausen, Assistant Head of School & Director of Lower School, or Julie Nguyen, Director of Middle School.

These conversations occur in the spring prior to the child’s final year at Gateway or early in the fall of the final year. The Associate Director of Admissions and Placement then works with each family throughout the Placement process.

Life After Gateway: Gateway students are known for their work ethic, skill in self-advocacy, and the very positive contributions they make to the school communities they join. In an annual panel discussion known as Life After Gateway, selected graduates talk with Gateway parents about their educational experiences both at Gateway and subsequently. In some years, parents also gain insight into the students’ lives as they transition into young adulthood and enter college and the workplace.

Below is a partial list of schools to which Gateway’s graduates have been accepted in recent years.

INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

New York City
The Allen-Stevenson School
Aaron School (sp)
Bay Ridge Preparatory School
The Berkeley Carroll School
The Birch Wathen Lenox School
Brooklyn Friends School
The Browning School
The Calhoun School
The Churchill School & Center (sp)
Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School
The Dwight School
Fordham Preparatory School
Grace Church School
The Hewitt School
The Lang School (sp)
Loyola School
Mary McDowell Friends School (sp)
Marymount School of New York
The Packer Collegiate Institute
Poly Prep Country Day School
The Quad Preparatory School (sp)
Rudolf Steiner School
SAR
St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s School
The Summit School (sp)
Trevor Day School
UNIS (United Nations International School)
The Winchendon School
Winston Preparatory School (sp)
Xaverian
Xavier High School
Yeshiva University High School/MTA
York Prep

Westchester
The Harvey School
The Leffell School
The Masters School
Rye Country Day School
Westchester Hebrew High School

New York State
The Gow School (sp, b)
Millbrook (b)
Trinity-Pawling School (b)

(b) – boarding school
(sp) – special education school

Connecticut
Avon Old Farms (b)
The Ethel Walker School (b)
The Forman School (sp, b)
The Gunnery (b)
Kent School
The Marvelwood School (b)
Sacred Heart Academy
Salisbury School (b)
Suffield Academy (b)
Westover School (b)

Maryland
Oldfields School (b)

Massachusetts
Buxton School (b)
Eagle Hill School (sp, b)

New Hampshire
Brewster Academy (b)
Cardigan Mountain School (b)

New Jersey
The Pennington School (b)
Purnell School (sp, b)
Saddle River Day School

Pennsylvania 
Grier School

Vermont
Vermont Academy (b)

Virginia
Foxcroft School (b)

PUBLIC SCHOOLS (NYC)

Bard High School Early College Manhattan
The Beacon School
The Bronx High School of Science
High School of Art & Design
The Lab School
Talent Unlimited High School