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, Director of Lower School, or Elian Seidel, 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
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