Horace Mann School

There are four divisions of Horace Mann, all co-educational: a Nursery Division (three-year-olds through kindergarten) located on 90th Street in Manhattan, a Lower Division (kindergarten through fifth grades) on the Horace Mann campus on Tibbett Avenue in Riverdale, a Middle Division (sixth through eighth grades) on the 246th Street campus in Riverdale, and an Upper Division (ninth through twelfth grades) also on the 246th Street campus. There is also the John Dorr Nature Laboratory, located on 275 acres (111 ha) of land in Washington Depot, Connecticut, used for extended field trips for classes of students starting in second grade and an orientation program for new students entering the Middle or Upper Divisions. The Dorr facility was recently renovated and is currently LEED-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Current tuition for students in the Lower Division through the Upper Division is $57,200 a year.[4] Financial aid at the school is solely based on need. For the 2021–22 academic year, 15% of the students received more than $12 million in aid.[4]

HM offers twenty-six Honors courses and seven foreign languages.[1]

Students in the Upper Division are required to study English, United States history, biology, chemistry, or physics or both, geometry, algebra, and trigonometry, and also meet various requirements in the arts, computer science, health and counseling, and physical education. Students must go beyond these basic requirements in at least some, if not all, subjects. They are also required to take at least through the levels-three courses of either Chinese, French, Japanese, Latin, or Spanish.[7]

Starting in eleventh grade, students have more flexibility with their requirements and can choose from courses in biotechnology, calculus, economics, ethics, psychology, religion, political philosophy, United States legal history, and statistics, among other elective classes.[8]

All students are required to take a swim test and American Red Cross CPR certification in order to graduate.

Community service is required throughout the curriculum. 80 hours of service is required during high school, including at least 40 hours in ninth and tenth grades and 40 hours in eleventh and twelfth.[1] In eighth grade, one out-of-school project or three in-school projects are necessary for graduation to the ninth grade; in sixth and seventh grades a homeroom project is done cooperatively. In the Lower and Nursery Divisions, there is an annual "Caring-in-Action" day dedicated to community service that students and their families can attend.

Horace Mann

Admission is selective with decisions based on recent grades, an interview, and the candidate's score on either the ISEE or SSAT test. The largest point of entry is in sixth grade, with between 50 and 55 places available each year. In the ninth grade, 40 to 45 new students are traditionally enrolled.[9]

The 2017 Niche survey ranked HM the best private K-12 school in the United States. The 2020 Niche survey ranked HM as the 3rd best K–12 private school in the country and the 12th best private high school in the country.[10]

On June 6, 2012, The New York Times Magazine published an article by a former student, alleging multiple instances of sexual abuse of students by teachers at the school. The incidents occurred during the 1970s to the 1990s. The article also addressed how school administrators over time dealt with the incidents, both within the school community and, in the case of one teacher, in a post-employment reference. The affected students were identified by partial name or letter and many administrators and board members had limited or no comment. New York State statute of limitations in most or all of the incidents addressed ran out when the former students turned 23. Several of the central figures were dead, at least two by suicide—one of the accused, and one of the students.[11] Another of the accused teachers, Johannes Somary, a music teacher, died in 2011.[12] On June 23, 2012, The New York Times reported that Tek Young Lin, Horace Mann's former chaplain who also served as an English teacher and track coach, admitted that he had had sexual relations with his students.[13]

As a result of the sexual abuse and resulting controversy, the Hilltop Cares Foundation was formed in the summer of 2012 by members of the Horace Mann community, including alumni Marjorie Kaufman and Joe Rose, to help victims from the school and to promote healing.[14] The charitable organization helps alumni with their therapy costs and studies related issues in the broader community.[15] It is a nonprofit and is independent of the school’s administration and board of trustees.[16] The Chair for Hilltop Cares, Kaufman, explained that Hilltop Cares plans to "provide support for alumni who suffered abuse at the school years ago, to support their therapy, as well as to bring about some healing to the whole Horace Mann community."[14]

In March 2013, the school was reportedly in negotiation with more than thirty students for compensation related to the abuse claims.[17] Eighteen different faculty members had been accused, and events spanning the four decades prior to 2000 identified.[12] In March 2013, The New Yorker published an article discussing sexual abuse allegations against a former Horace Mann English teacher, Robert Berman.[12] In April, The New York Times reported the school had reached a settlement with about 27 of the 37 students identified as having been abused. The school formally apologized on May 24 to the community for the events that had occurred and published the actions the school has taken and protocols which were put in place to protect current and future students.[18]