How to Open a School: Planning, Budget & Recruitment Tips

Beginning the Planning Process

Find a community of like-minded educators to support you. Join online professional communities to meet other people who are starting schools in their areas. Reach out to teachers and administrators that you know and respect, or network with education professionals in your nearby districts. Starting a school can be a difficult and lengthy process. By having a community to bounce ideas off of and seek advice from, you’ll feel more supported and connected throughout this journey.

Prepare a rough timeline of your school opening. Your timeline should map out the steps you’ll take to open your school, including when your school could realistically open. Most educational entrepreneurs need at least one full year between beginning this process and officially opening their schools. Take a look at this sample timeline: September/October: Contact accrediting bodies and review state education laws. November: Prepare your school’s mission statement. December: Check out possible buildings and study local demographics. January: Assemble your board of directors and start enrollment for the school. February: Work with the board to finalize your mission statement and incorporate the school. March: Have your proposed building inspected by the fire department and school officials. Initiate any necessary construction work. April: Interview and hire faculty and staff. Design school curriculum. May: Review student enrollment applications and send out admission letters. June/July: Purchase or collect donated furniture and teaching equipment. Assemble classrooms and equip the school with internet/phone services. August: Begin orientation meetings with faculty and staff. September: Open the school for its first academic year!

Create an advisory board with at least four members. Assemble a board of at least four members: a chair, a vice chair, a secretary, and a treasurer. Ask a few parents or influential people in your community to apply for the positions, especially if they have a vested interest in education. Reach out to people who have financial, legal, and management experience that can bring their skills to your school. When you’ve found someone you want to join your board, send them an email or schedule a lunch where you can tell them about your mission and the need for your school. Find a compelling way to describe your path and how it’s brought you to this step. Then, schedule a meeting (in-person or over Zoom) to tell your potential board members more about why you need their expertise and how they will serve your community. If someone does commit, make sure you agree on the amount of time, financial support, and skills you need from them.

Choosing a Type of School

Decide if you want to start a public or private school. Outside the public school system, you can start a charter or magnet school and keep it public. However, starting a charter school is an extremely complicated (and expensive) process, which makes it an unlikely choice for first-time school founders. It may be best to start with a private school business model. Review the options below to choose the best school type for you: Charter schools are free to attend but run on an application system. Charters are granted by the state along with 3-5 years of funding. If the school fails to meet expectations, the charter is not renewed. Because charter schools run independently of the public school system, they can offer unique learning environments and specializations. However, teachers have a constant pressure to go above and beyond that can lead to burnout. Magnet schools are another type of public school that specialize in certain areas, e.g. technology, science, history, or the arts. Some magnet schools admit students based on achievement, while others operate on a lottery system. Traditional private schools operate completely separately from public school systems, which is why they charge tuition and fees to attend. Private schools can be nonprofit or for-profit, and they can also be religious or non-religious. Microschools or learning pods are schools with class sizes of 15 or less. The students are usually of varying ages, and the schedule and curriculum are built around their needs.

Decide between starting a religious or non-religious school. Typically, you would only start a religious school if you have strongly-held religious beliefs yourself. Moreover, you should believe that religion is a fundamental part of education. Religious schools must be private, and they typically draw in families that follow that religion in their personal life. Keep in mind that some religious schools only hire teachers and administrators that identify with that religion—this could limit your school’s performance or perception of inclusivity. In some states, it’s also required for religious schools to be sponsored by or affiliated with a religious institution, such as a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple. Non-religious schools are based on secular teachings that aren’t bound by any specific religious beliefs. Rather than having religion-based policies and curricula, non-religious schools usually develop a set of core values that are upheld by teachers and students.

Decide whether your school will be for profit or not for profit. For-profit schools are generally managed by one owner or proprietor, most commonly a corporation that owns several schools in several locations. For-profit schools can be more overwhelming to manage, but the owner truly does have the final say in every decision related to the school. Non-profit schools, on the other hand, are run by an active board of trustees. This board is typically in charge of the hiring process and pass down management of the school for generations. It’s much easier to raise funding for nonprofits, as they’re permitted to accept tax-deductible contributions from community members and businesses. However, you first have to apply for tax-exempt status with the IRS in order to be recognized as a nonprofit organization.

Legal Requirements & Accreditation

Review the requirements to open a school in your state. The laws in your state can usually be found on the education department’s website. Read through all statutes applicable to private schools and educational guidelines. It may be worth hiring a lawyer to help you navigate the legal requirements of opening a school. Look for a lawyer with experience in schools, or even someone who accepts pro bono work in the education field.

Complete the incorporation and accreditation processes. Accrediting and incorporating your school ensures its legitimacy. Get information on accreditation and incorporation from your state’s Department of Education. Your board of directors, with the help of an attorney, needs to carefully draw up the Articles of Incorporation and the Bylaws of the Board. Often, there's a corporate filing office or business bureau with which you can fill out the papers. Usually, there is a fee of several hundred dollars associated with the forms. After incorporating your school, apply for accreditation with your state’s educational division. Begin this process at least 2-3 months before the start of school. The authorized educational agencies in your area will conduct an assessment of your school and whether it’s following educational standards. Once your school has been successfully accredited, you can start accepting enrollments.

Register as a nonprofit, if applicable. By filing as a nonprofit, you'll be able to receive grants, donations, and other types of funding that wouldn't normally be available to a for-profit organization. To obtain nonprofit status, the organization must be operated exclusively for religious, educational, scientific, or other charitable purposes and fulfill the following requirements: Net earnings may not inure to the benefit of any private individual or shareholder. No substantial part of its activity may be attempting to influence legislation and may not intervene in political campaigns. The organization’s purposes and activities may not be illegal or violate fundamental public policy.

Obtain an EIN and file for tax-exempt status. Visit the IRS website or a local office to apply for an Employee Identification Number (EIN). An EIN acts as your corporate SSN, distinguishing you as a nonprofit educational corporation with the IRS. To register your EIN, fill out the IRS form found here. The tax-exempt status can be time-consuming, and you may want to consult a lawyer to go over the paperwork with you and ensure that you're interpreting and filling it out correctly. To file for tax-exempt status, fill out IRS form 1023, found here.

Budgeting & Business Plans

Create your school’s business plan. Your business plan contains the roadmap for how you will start your school. There are many models you can use while writing a business plan, from one-page “lean canvas” business plans to 100-page documents with complex questions. Regardless of how you format it, your business plan must describe your goals for the school, the reasons they are attainable, and how you plan to achieve them financially. Make sure to include the following sections: An executive summary. A description of the school. The workforce structure. Your budget plan and market analysis. A checklist of objectives for the schools. Marketing and enrollment strategies. An estimate of how many students you’re likely to enroll.

Prepare your projected budget and tuition cost. Focus on a 3-year operating budget. List all possible expenses for your school, including staff salaries, building upkeep, cost of materials, etc. Calculate how much money you’ll need to fundraise and charge as tuition fees to keep your school afloat. Ideally, the person on your board with financial experience should be developing your business budget. You can also hire an accounting firm with nonprofit experience to create your budget for you. Lean on the conservative side when calculating your expenses and income. Worst case, you’ll end up with more money than you had planned for!

Look for funding options to start your school. Your school can operate on earned income or outside funding. Depending on how you've set up your business model, you may be collecting tuition, working on grants and other state-based funding for nonprofits, or engaging in other types of fundraising campaigns. Apply for grants appropriate to your school and use the money toward implementing your vision. Look for investors in your community or through online platforms like Donor Box and Give Lively. Make sure to write a solid business proposal that you can present to potential investors. If you own tangible assets like land property or computer sets, you can use them as capital for fundraising and grants.

Designing School Culture, Curriculum & Policy

Develop a mission statement for your school. A compelling mission will guide you through the startup phase and beyond. Consider the following questions while crafting your mission statement: What are your values? Who do you want to serve? What kind of education does this community need? What will your school provide that other schools cannot? What kind of social, intellectual, and emotional experience do you want to give your students? Where do you want your school to be in 5 years, 25 years, and 100 years? What type of school do you want to start? For-profit or nonprofit? Nonprofits are extremely difficult to establish but have long-term benefits. If you want to start on a smaller scale, you could consider beginning with a few after-school classes, a part-time homeschool coop, or a playgroup.

Create your school’s identity and brand. Your school’s identity will help inform its culture and public perception. Start by identifying your niche—what makes your school special? Why should students and caregivers choose to attend your school? Then, choose a school name and mascot. Choose something that’s aligned with your school values or that represents something important to the community. Finalize your school’s brand by choosing fonts and colors that will consistently be used to represent and market your school. Stick with a color palette of 4-5 shades—try a palette generator like Coolors to preview different color combinations. Use a graphic design website like Canva to create your school’s logo. If design isn’t your strong suit, ask someone on your board or hire a freelancer from a service like Fiverr. You could also open your school brand decisions up to the community! Issue a town- or city-wide contest that potential students can enter. Ask them to design their dream school’s name, mascot, color palette, and logo.

Design your school’s curriculum. A school’s curriculum will guide daily operations and lessons. Find your state’s curriculum requirements and use those as a guideline. When developing a curriculum, you need to consider both the practical organizational matters of day-to-day operations, as well as the scope and sequence of learning you hope your school will achieve. A well-written curriculum should address the following categories of information: Day-to-Day Operations How long are classes? How many classes in a day? When will the day start and end? How will lunches be organized? How will teachers be scheduled? Learning Assessment What do your students need? What is the objective of the students' learning? What criteria will be used to assess learning? How will students be tested? What constitutes graduation from the school?

Write a teaching statement. Teaching statements outline the educational pedagogy that teachers will use. Articulate the pedagogy you'd like your prospective teachers to use, understand, and develop in their classrooms. Describe the ways in which teachers will be held accountable for their student's learning and the ways in which they may run their classroom. Will your school be test-heavy? Writing-based? Discussion-centered? May teachers select their own texts or select from approved books?

Get your curriculum approved. Your curriculum must be approved by the School Board in your state. Contact the Department of Education in your state to learn exactly what it is you need to do to schedule an audit and how you can go about preparing for it. Without curriculum approval, your school won’t be state-certified or eligible for state money. To avoid this lengthy auditing process, consider using a pre-existing curriculum such as Montessori or Waldorf. If you're interested in forming a school with a pre-set ideology or pedagogy, contact the legislative body for the organization you'd like to join. They can help you with the next steps in adopting their curriculum.

Develop school policies and procedures. Policies and procedures guide school operations and expectations. Work with your board to create a student-parent handbook. The handbook should outline behavioral and academic expectations, as well as what the consequences are if they’re not met. Consider policies on disciplinary actions, attendance processes, and expected parental involvement in school activities. Create a separate handbook for staff that outlines school policies as well as employment information, such as sick leave policies, vacation day accrual, payroll processing, standards for dress, and expectations for afterschool activities. Use this sample employee handbook and sample student/parent handbook to get started. To develop your procedures, create an operations manual for staff that outlines how you’d like things to be done at the school. When it comes to attendance, for example, note who takes attendance, how it’s reported, what counts as a tardy/absence, and if/when parents are notified of their child’s attendance status. Keep your operations manual simple for the time being—you will inevitably have to alter and add to it as new situations arise at school.

Building Development & Staffing

Find the right building for your school. Acquiring and developing facilities is a significant undertaking. Begin the search early for a sufficient location to house your students or plan for the renovation and construction of new buildings. Once you’ve found an appropriate space, apply for inspections with the local fire department and city building inspectors. Along with your inspection, learn the zoning codes for your school’s location. Zoning may affect what types of structures you can build on your school property. If possible, design your physical space to facilitate your school’s mission and curriculum. For example, perhaps you want permaculture to be a hands-on part of the science curriculum. Make room for gardening spaces in your school. Or maybe you want your school to highlight critical race theory—build a DEI library and discussion spaces into your building plans.

Find staff that aligns with your needs and mission. Search to find strong school administrators with experience in the field and a vision that matches your own. Hire the teachers you need for your chosen subjects—attract and retain first-rate teachers who are passionate about education and compassionate with students. Your teachers will be the single most important factor in the quality of your school’s education, so choose them wisely.

Marketing & Enrollment

Market your school. Send out announcements to your local parent groups. Ask your friends to spread the word. If you already have parents excited about your school, you can ask them to host open houses and invite your friends. The important thing is to know your market, and what you need to do to be successful in attracting the number and kind of students you want to enroll. While it may be tempting to take anyone who wants to enroll in your school, it's very important that prospective parents are fully on board with your vision, or it could cause serious problems later. If you have a large school to fill, you could consider designing a high-impact branding, marketing, and public relations plan and be prepared to carry it out with gusto Alternatively, you could choose to list your school on a marketplace to take care of much of the marketing work.

Start enrolling students in January of the start year. Host open houses or round tables with neighborhood families. Share your vision with enthusiastic parents, teachers, and students to facilitate an exchange of learning. Find excitable and willing students to welcome to your school. When they enroll their child, ask parents to sign a contract and put down a down payment. Many great organizations exist that can take the hassle out of processing tuition payments for you.