Frequently Asked Questions
Does my child need to be potty trained to attend CMC?
To plan a first day for your child in one of our Children’s Houses, your child must be using the toilet with full independence or you must be working, as a family, to support your child in learning to use the toilet with full independence. We cannot support the use of any diapers, pull-ups, or absorbent and/or lined "training pants" among children enrolled at CMC. This includes during our nap and rest time. To provide consistency for each child in their toilet learning, we require a commitment from all regular caregivers of children enrolled at CMC (family, friends, nannies, babysitters) to keep the enrolled child in non-absorbent bottoms or no bottom at all (and out of diapers or any type of training pant) during at least all waking hours.
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Do You Offer Preschool and/or Kindergarten?
At CMC, we offer fully-implemented Montessori education and childcare. Our mixed-age learning communities are an alternative to: preschool (in schedules, age range, and programming we compare very favorably to typical PK3 and PK4 options), kindergarten (children that spend their first year eligible for public kindergarten in our program are well prepared to enter first grade or join a Montessori elementary community - they are typically independent problem solvers, fluent readers and writers, and engaged in elementary-level math work); and child care (for children at least 30 months and ready to work on toilet learning without diapers). We are licensed by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and are not recognized by the Ohio Department of Education in any way. However, the Ohio Department of Education does recognize our Guides' Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) training and diplomas as an alternative kindergarten teaching credential. This means that, in almost all cases, children enrolled in our program during their kindergarten year may transition directly into the first grade program of their family's choice.
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May I enroll my child two, three, or four days a week?
We only offer full-week schedules at CMC. When all children enrolled in a Children's House attend on a consistent and predictable schedule, this supports strong, child-centered communities. These child-centered communities are one of the key features and benefits of fully-implemented Montessori. If some children attended just 10 to 15 hours a week while others attended 40 to 50 hours a week, the group's makeup would be too inconsistent for a strong community to form, especially around those children that attend the fewest hours. Full-week schedules for all children are also supportive of diversity among our Children's House communities. If we enrolled children in our Children's Houses based on schedule, the communities that formed would look and feel very different from one another. This is a result of key demographic differences between families with preferences and needs for different schedules. Requiring all families to enroll in our full-week program is one of the best ways we have found to foster strong, intentionally diverse, child-centered communities at CMC.
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Are you able to accommodate drop-off or pick-up times outside those windows built into your daily schedule?
Not on a regular basis. Like our full-week schedule, our daily drop-off and pick-up windows are designed to provide the consistency needed to build and maintain strong, child-centered learning communities. Frequent drop-off or pick-up outside our community's regular routines are disruptive to feelings of security, trust, and, ultimately, learning and growth among our whole community. We can, of course, accommodate occasional drop-off and/or pick-up of children outside their normally scheduled drop-off and pick-up windows due to family emergency, medical appointment scheduling, etc.
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We are choosing not to vaccinate our child, do you accept exemptions?
In short, no. CMC only accepts the immunization records of children currently following a CDC recommended vaccination schedule or those with certification in writing from a medical professional (as defined on their Child Medical Statement for Child Care) that such a schedule is medically contraindicated. In order to enroll a child at CMC, Section B of the child's Medical Statement must be completed in full and an up-to-date copy of the child's vaccination records must be attached; we do not accept Child Medical Statements completed with Section C.
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How much will CMC cost (my family)?
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Use our Fee Estimator to explore our range of possible fees!
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We offer Sliding Scale Fees at CMC. This means that if your family chooses to share their financial situation with us, we will base our fees off of that information. To do this, we use a metric we developed in-house, Adjusted Family Income (AFI), which incorporates your family size, annual income, and net assets. Our AFI metric is based off of the four-decade-long use of a similar metric used in offering sliding scale tuition at Manhattan Country School as well as the current eligibility requirements for Publicly Funded Child Care (PFCC; formerly called Title XX) in the State of Ohio.
We are also providers of PFCC and will support families that may qualify for that program in applying for and maintaining this state benefit. In addition to Sliding Scale Fees and PFCC, we also offer flexible scheduling options across our School Year, Extended Care, Summer, and Break Sessions. This means families will only be charged for the care that they schedule.
For these reasons, we cannot share any meaningful single amount that represents the fees your family would be asked to pay. We are happy to estimate or quote fees for enrollment for your family at any point during the enrollment process once your family has completed both an Initial Interest Form and a Sliding Scale Placement and Waiver Form in full!
Please keep in mind that any family may waive participation in our Sliding Scale program by agreeing to pay our Maximum Fees for the schedule in which their child is enrolled.
Please see our Sliding Scale Fee page as well as our Family Handbook for more details!