Apparently it’s news to New York Times readers that the city’s exclusive private schools ‘counsel out’ the unsuccessful — which has created a market for a very different kind of private school:
Filling a role that reform or military schools used to perform, alternative schools like Smith, which has about 35 students in grades 7 through 12, tend to take a more nurturing approach. Some of these schools provide an educational rehab of sorts: the Stephen Gaynor School on the Upper West Side and the Windward School in White Plains specialize in getting students back into mainstream schools after a few years — sometimes the same schools they left.
But with their high staff member-to-student ratios, they are not cheap: Windward’s annual tuition is $43,000, about $10,000 more than at most Manhattan private schools. Smith’s upper-school tuition is $29,000 to $41,500, depending on the grade and the extent of extra help.