Tuition
Our new tuition model celebrates student growth in a time of educational disruption
Our Catalyst Method brings students on a continuous journey from where they are to where they want to be, with tuitions that decrease over time as student abilities increase in response to our research-backed approach
Like everyone, we are watching the current upheaval and disruption to the educational space with great concern, especially given the threat to our complex learners and students with high intellectual gifts who need a different kind of curriculum and setting to further develop their strengths without their challenges standing in the way. Never has it been more relevant to apply research-backed approaches that can reduce the limitations, and the costs, associated with these challenges, by “rewiring” the child’s learning and social-emotional functioning to remove those barriers themselves. Never has it been more important to have settings where the program our children receive is determined by the data in their profile, not by changes to school budgets. And never has it been more important to find settings where students can develop the tools they need to convert their unique ways of seeing things into change that can benefit us all.
Beginning with Spring, 2025, we are responding to this unprecedented moment with a new tuition model that honors the transformational growth we have seen students make within our program, and the powerful Vision to Voice Curriculum that fuels the gifted educational program at the heart of it all. Under this new model, all students will enroll at Cajal Academy at our standard Tuition fee of $47,500. Those students who are not yet able to fully access and enjoy their gifts, whether due to a learning, social-emotional, neurophysio or chronic medical reason, will also have an add-on fee, calculated on an annual basis, for the Student Growth Catalyst that is required to support their progress towards the next stage of their journey. Student Growth Catalysts fall into one of four stages reflecting the neurodevelopmental and psycho-social work involved. This cost is reevaluated at the end of academic each year and reduced as student abilities increase with the shifts to less intensive stages, until it is removed altogether, and the student’s focus shifts to further developing the out-sized executive function, peer collaboration and thought leadership skills in our Vision to Voice Curriculum. This culminates in their senior year with the Senior Capstone Project, support through the college admissions process and a shift towards assuming full ownership of the self-care skills that are essential to thrive independently in college and beyond. These Catalysts are calculated on an “all-in” basis, and include the evaluations, assessments, therapy sessions, inter-disciplinary collaboration and analysis required to implement the approach.
You can read more about what’s included in each of these components below, or contact us for more information.
Base Level Tuition: All Learners
Our Tuition level applicable to all students includes our unique Vision to Voice Curriculum developing students’ thought leadership skills as well as all the benefits of our program for students seeking gifted education opportunities. These include no-ceiling learning aligned to Connecticut state curriculum standards and small class sizes, within a small, nurturing environment that has expert sensory and social-emotional support. Cajal Academy’s culture is by design a nurturing, low pressure and non-competitive environment in which diversity of all kinds, including neurodiversity, is welcome and students support one another’s victories even over challenges that they may not share themselves.
All curriculum materials other than fieldwork fees and any additional costs related to a student’s Senior Capstone Project are included in our tuition. We are a low-device environment (in keeping with the science), so students are not required to purchase their own computer or other devices.
Cost: $47,500
Student Growth Catalysts
For students who are not yet able to fully access their gifts, we create highly-customized Student Growth Catalysts. These are multi-disciplinary, data-driven care plans that apply our first-of-its-kind, research-backed approach to reduce the challenges interfering with your child’s academic or social-emotional experiences, transforming their profile today and the possibilities for a future defined not by their current limitations but by their strengths.
Student Growth Catalysts are individually priced on an “all-in” basis and include on-site, multi-disciplinary therapies integrated into the school day; iterative differential diagnoses and treatment plan adjustments via expert assessments conducted by our expert on-site clinicians; and parent education helping you to understand your child’s profile, as it changes. Each child’s Catalyst is individually-priced during the admissions process, based on their current stage in the Catalyst process, and adjusted as the child’s profile becomes better understood or their needs change over time. For many families, this will include a tuition decrease as their child’s Catalyst is decreased in tandem with their development through the program.
Cost: $10,000+
Attend an Information Session to learn more about our program!