The BNS Tuition Equity Model was created to help families reflect on their unique socioeconomic standing so that they may contribute to our micro-school in a way that is meaningful to them while ensuring that BNS is financially sustainable.

As a micro-school, BNS will always have limited enrollment spaces to fill. Each Nests cohort welcomes a maximum of eleven children and their caregivers to one playworker. Gardens cohorts welcome a maximum of twelve children to two playworkers. This translates to approximately one or two spaces per income bracket in the Equity Model.

This model is not perfect, no single model can fully grasp the lived realities of each unique family, the extent or lack of privileges due to age, abilities, skin color, gender, income, assets, access to generational wealth, their size and composition, and so on. This model seeks to be a starting place. If your family is experiencing extraordinary circumstances or you believe that the model does not accurately represent your family’s ability to contribute to tuition, we ask that you reach out to us via email upon registration to open up a conversation about finding the right tuition rate.

How we developed our Equity Model:
We started by determining the cost to operate our programs whereby we are able to cover our expenses, purchase ethically made materials and supplies, and pay our staff livable wages. Next, we conducted research into what is considered “affordable” child care and early learning programming. 

“According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), child care is considered affordable if it costs families no more than 7 percent of their income. Across nearly every category—whether it be marital status, race, age, education level, or income—families paying for child care spend, on average, a greater share of their income than the HHS benchmark of affordability. In fact, on average, working families paying for child care spend about 40 percent more than what is considered affordable.” American Progress.org

While the ideal rate has been determined to be no more than 7% of household income, the most recent Childcare Aware Study places the average cost of childcare at 11-13% of the median household income in Connecticut (childcareaware.org). New Haven itself is a unique city and this study shows that families across our city pay an average of 22.58% of their median household income on infant/toddler care and early learning opportunities.

We took into consideration this range of 7% of household income (being what is considered most affordable) up to 22.58% (that is considered average across the city of New Haven). We created a scale whereby the most affordable rate of 7% of household income is reserved for our lowest income families (those earning below $70,000/year), 11-13% of household income for middle income families (those earning between $70,000 and $200,000 and the highest rate of 22.58% is reserved for high income families (earning more than $200,000).

Next, we researched the costs of comparable nature and forest pre-schools and other boutique early childhood programs across regions with similar cost of living to New Haven, CT. Finally, we reflected on the range of tuition costs for similar and comparable daycare and preschool options across New Haven to create a range that is both market adjusted and equitable with price points that are accessible based on the range of incomes we see at Brave Nature School.

This Model intends to:
1. Give guidance and clarity for how each participating family’s income relates to our financial sustainability as a micro-school.
2. Provide transparency in our tuition costs.
3. Alleviate the undue hardships that scholarship systems place on people with fewer economic resources.