Frequently Asked Questions

At New Roots Charter School, we offer an interdisciplinary academic program featuring hands-on, community-based learning that supports students in learning 21st century skills.  

Our middle school is Montessori-inspired and in high school all students earn college credit through our concurrent enrollment classes.

To make the best decision for your student, we encourage you to explore your options and select the school that best meets your student’s unique learning style.

Please schedule a conversation with our Enrollment Coordinator to find out if our small class sizes, award-winning academics, and sustainably-minded program is right for your student.

Our core curriculum is designed around essential questions and themes so that, at any given time, the topics studied in different courses are related to each other. Courses are inquiry-oriented and focused on critical thinking. We are a small public school that provides personalized accountability to all students. Students work closely with faculty members who supervise their academic progress and engagement. The results are clear in student satisfaction and our high scores on Regents and SAT exams.

New Roots is intentionally small, placing an emphasis on small class size, individual attention and an inclusive social environment.

Breakfast and lunch are free. We are very proud of our menu that features healthy teen comfort food, made fresh daily from real ingredients. Omnivore, vegetarian, and vegan options are available for each meal.

We’re part of an innovative initiative across the country connecting school lunch programs & hands on learning with local farms. We know that healthy nutrition creates a positive impact on a student’s ability to think creatively and contribute powerfully at school, and supporting that is an essential part of the New Roots experience.

Our Farm to School team strives to serve a variety of local whole foods daily. We do not use processed, packaged, or pre-made foods, and are committed to keeping excess sugar, additives, and preservatives out of our food.

Yes! Students contribute to the community through service learning projects, where they apply their learning to projects outside of the classroom. Students use an extended campus that includes our main building, TC3’s downtown campus, area farms, businesses, organizations, and natural areas.

Research demonstrates that students who attend smaller schools are safer, have better attendance and behavior, demonstrate higher achievement and engagement, and are more likely to graduate. Smaller high schools improve achievement because they include a culture of caring, greater student contact with teachers, greater parent involvement, and more meaningful and engaged curricula. Small high schools have been shown to reduce the graduation gap between various demographics.

Our main campus is in the heart of downtown Ithaca. We have been in the historic Clinton House since our doors opened in 2009. To learn more about our building, please click here.

Students have many opportunities to walk out of the Clinton House into the wider community and its facilities through our programs, which enhances the school’s collegiate feel. Our downtown Ithaca campus provides us with many great spaces to support our school program while enhancing the community-based education that New Roots is known for. We cook and serve lunch in the beautiful social hall of the Greek Orthodox Church, we hold community meetings in the auditorium of the Community School for Music and Arts. We use facilities such as the gyms at the Southside Community Center and the Henry St. John building, as well as local gorges, trails, and parks for diverse physical education activities.

New Roots is an independent public school, and is not part of a school district. Each student’s district of residence collects federal, state and local funding on the student’s behalf.  When the student chooses to attend New Roots or any other charter school, the district of residence pays the charter school a portion of their funding at a rate determined by the New York State education department.

Middle School: 8:50 am – 3:30 pm.

High School: 9 am – 3:30 pm, with an extended period from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm that allows teachers and students to have smaller meetings, make up missed work, and receive additional support.

If you live within 15 miles of Ithaca, your home school district will provide busing for you to get to our campus.TCAT offers free bus passes to everyone under 18, or until they graduate from high school.

Our local Board of Trustees, with expertise in education, organizational management, and sustainability, reports to the State University of New York, the NYS Education Department, and the State Comptroller. Our Board is responsible for strategic planning, fiscal and academic oversight, and for hiring and supervising the Principal and Superintendent. The community is welcome at the Board’s monthly meetings.

Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainability education at New Roots prepares students to organize their communities to promote a long-term, high quality of life for all people and preserve the natural systems that support us.

Charter public schools are academically accountable in two ways. We are held accountable by our authorizer and, most importantly, by the families we serve. We defined our academic goals when we submitted our charter petition. To be authorized, the goals must be rigorous, and to stay open, we must demonstrate that students are reaching our academic goals. We are required to re-certify every 5 years, and receive approval to continue based on our academic achievements. Our last re-certification was granted in early 2025, with full approval and authorization from the SUNY Board, and included the authorization to open a middle school.

Yes. New Roots students have to meet or exceed New York State graduation requirements, in addition to meeting New Roots graduation requirements. These include graduating with college credit through our concurrent enrollment program with TC3, demonstrating mastery of essential skills and knowledge areas through the creation of an online digital graduation portfolio and a senior team capstone project.

Yes. Our students graduate with a Regents diploma, which requires that they take 5 Regents exams, one science, one math, one English, and two social studies.  Students take a core curriculum sequence of four years of science, math, Social Studies and English featuring interdisciplinary connections, problem-based learning and a global perspective. Students learn Spanish to meet the foreign language requirement.

Through the CollegeNow program at Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3), New Roots students receive college credit for concurrent enrollment courses successfully completed during junior and senior year. Research demonstrates that students who graduate from high school with college credits are more likely to apply to and graduate from a four-year college. Our goal is to prepare our students for the next level of education and empower them with the tools for success.

Two approaches that inspired the New Roots model are Environment as Integrating Context for Education (EIC) and Expeditionary Learning Schools (ELS). Both approaches improve both achievement scores and student engagement.

As a New York State Charter School, we are open to all middle and high school eligible students who live in New York State, regardless of school district of residence, space permitting.

Students from 6th through 12th grades are eligible to enroll at New Roots. Any student eligible to attend public school in New York State may apply. Residency in NYS and eligibility to attend grades 6-12 are the only requirements to attend.

New Roots is designed as a small school for up to 40 students per grade.