When Waldorf doesn’t work.

Title I provides funding to schools and districts and the allocation of these funds to states allows schools to create new programs, as well as staff recruitment and development, in order to promote academic success for students. 

ESSA also promotes professional development for teachers who can then follow evidence-based instructional practices to meet student needs (American College of Education, 2025).

While there is a rise in charter Waldorf schools in America, independent private schools like the one I teach at, receive limited funding and rely heavily on tuition funds to support programming.  This tuition is income-based and there is support for families who are not able to reach the sliding-scale amount. 

These supports make it possible for families of all areas of socioeconomic status to send their children to the school.  One drawback is that there are limitations on the budget and the school cannot afford to hire paraprofessionals to work alongside individual students. 

In the past couple of years, this has created a schism between families who have children requiring a paraprofessional in the classroom and the school staff, as there is no support in place for these children other than the possibility of limited educational support provided through the curriculum. 

One way we mitigate the concerns parents come with is to establish a relationship with families from the start.

The Waldorf child ideally spends two to three years in the Early Childhood classroom.  These teachers meet with the family in the home, in order to have a foundational sense of the child’s living environment, as it plays a critical role in development.  The teacher receives this background information to better help understand and meet the needs of the child and the parents receive support in the way of parenting advice, nutrition, sleep and other educational resources in support of the child.  When the child reaches the age to move on to first grade, this new teacher meets the family in the home to establish a new relationship that will ideally cultivate and extend throughout the consecutive eight years of education.