糖心原创

This article has been updated to reflect 2026 data and recent developments.

Editor's note: In the following conversation, the parent is fictitious but her questions and my answers are real.

Parent: I am thinking about sending my teenage daughter to a private school for grades 9-12. How do I find the best school for her?

Rob K: Let me answer your question with another question. I know that I sound like an attorney by doing this, but I need to understand why you are thinking about sending your daughter to private school. Once you have told me your reasons, I will explain how to accomplish your goal.

Parent: My daughter's current school is OK. It's a public school which sends a large percentage of its graduates on to further education. So, that's OK. She's been with some of her classmates since kindergarten. Now I feel that she should be with other students who really want to learn. I also want her to be in smaller classes. She's one of 25 students right now. The other thing that concerns me is that the high school curriculum seems a bit thin and is mostly focused on SATs and AP examination preparation.

Rob K: Now, you are giving me something to work with. Small class sizes are one of the main reasons most parents decide to send their children to private school. Most schools have 12-15 students per class. Your child will not just be a number in a small class.

I have been writing about corporal punishment in K-12 schools since 1999. Frankly, I am appalled that corporal punishment is still permitted in some American schools in 2026.

In 2019, 19 states still permitted corporal punishment in their public schools. While policies continue to evolve and the number of incidents has declined, the United States still does not have a federal law prohibiting corporal punishment in public or private schools, much less in the home. State and local laws govern education in almost every respect. Local and state taxes fund public education. Therefore, it has been the local and state authorities that make the rules regarding how students are disciplined.

What Is Corporal Punishment?

The defines corporal punishment as:

鈥淎ny punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light. Most involve hitting ("smacking", "slapping", "spanking") children, with the hand or with an implement."

That definition remains one of the most widely accepted descriptions of corporal punishment used by child welfare and educational organizations around the world.

How Many Children Are Involved With Corporal Punishment?

In previous years, hundreds of thousands of children experienced corporal punishment in public schools.

The continues to monitor discipline practices through its civil rights data collection programs. While the number of incidents has declined over the past decade, advocates argue that any continued use of physical punishment remains a concern.

Why

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Should you send your child to a school which prepares its students to take either the SAT or ACT? That's a decision which you will face when you evaluate schools on your shortlist. At that point, you will have to choose schools which teach to the test or progressive schools which do not.

Schools which offer SAT or ACT preparation spend two or three years preparing their students to take those examinations in their senior year. In addition, most of these schools will offer Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Progressive schools prepare their students for college with experiential learning and the development of portfolios demonstrating academic accomplishments. Naturally, each educational approach has its proponents and its opponents.

Some people think that good test scores on standardized admissions tests are the only way to get into a competitive college such as Harvard or Princeton. The reality is that these days, college admissions departments look at much more than test scores when determining which applicants to admit.

Background: History of the SAT and ACT

The SAT, or Scholastic Aptitude Test as it used to be called, has been around since 1926. explains how the SAT evolved from an Army IQ test to a college admissions test. The original idea behind that college admissions test was to level the admissions playing field by evaluating scholarship students seeking admission to Harvard. Back in the early part of the 20th-century, the elite New England boarding schools

Raising money to benefit your private school is something as omnipresent as the four walls of your office. It's always there. It never goes away. Even schools with large endowments seem to be constantly raising money. They can usually afford to hire development directors and can count on a couple of generous alumni to prime the pump for their multi-million-dollar capital campaigns. But what about small schools that desperately need money over and above what they can raise through tuition and fees? This article is for those schools. Hopefully, it will encourage you to see fundraising the way larger schools do.

I have based these tips, suggestions, and strategies on decades of fundraising experience. While fundraising methods have evolved significantly since the 1980s, the core principles remain remarkably consistent in 2026: identify your needs clearly, communicate effectively, and build lasting relationships with your supporters.

Today, schools face additional financial pressures, including rising operating costs, increased demand for financial aid, technology upgrades, campus security improvements, and expanded student mental health services. As a result, strategic fundraising has become more important than ever for independent schools of every size.

The beginnings of modern philanthropy

Modern philanthropy has evolved considerably over the last century, especially with the growth of online giving, donor management platforms, and digital communication. One important lesson remains unchanged: schools must broaden their donor base to sustain long-term fundraising success.

While your current students mostly come from the local area, they don't always remain there after they graduate.

The documentation required by international or non-United States students has always been . As I have pointed out many times, if you are not an American citizen and are living outside the United States of America, and you wish to attend a boarding school in the U.S., you need to start the process at least 18 months in advance of the date of your first class. See the for a detailed timeline. While the article discusses how to apply to American universities, the process is the same for students applying to American private K-12 schools.

Additional documentation

What is being adhered to more strictly is a policy which dates back to the Obama administration. This policy requires that applicants for U.S. visas furnish their social media usernames. in the New York Times gives an overview of the changes. An update to the was published on September 18, 2017. Specifically, it adds the following clause: "Social media handles and aliases, associated identifiable information, and search results."

This video discusses how the US Border Patrol now requires all immigrants to provide social media logins and passwords, phone records going back 5 years, and other details.

How does this impact your child's student visa application? It means that your child