Afford

Application Fee: $100

This fee is payable online at the end of your application process.

Acceptance Fee: $1500

The Acceptance Fee is a one-time, non-refundable payment due when a student accepts an offer of admission, that is not applied to the contracted tuition due. The Acceptance Fee is discounted to $750 for siblings, if the first child enrolled at MSD is still at MSD or if the first child has graduated from 6th grade at MSD, and so long as the parents’ account with the school is in good standing. 

Early Childhood After School Care Fees for 5-days a week: $5450-$9160 annually depending on pick-up time

Elementary After School Care Fees for 5-days a week: $1810-4590 annually depending on pick-up time

After school care is available through 6:00pm for children enrolled in Early Childhood, Kindergarten, and Elementary levels. Early Childhood students staying for After School will remain in their own classroom until 3:00pm. Those staying until a 4:00pm or 6:00pm pick-up time will transition to the After School building with the Kindergartners that are staying for After School. Annual costs depend on the age level, number of days per week and hours per day selected.  

Before School Care Fee: $790 annually

This fee is for care beginning from 7:45 a.m. for all programs.

MSD offers Enrichment Programs after school, "No School" Camp during Teacher Workdays and Spring Break, and Summer Camp. Each of these options are available at an additional cost.  See corresponding tabs under "Programs" menu for more information.

Montessori School of Durham encourages families to apply for financial aid. Financial aid is designed to make education at MSD possible for all families based on demonstrated financial need and the availability of funds. MSD partners with Clarity Financial Aid to determine a family’s level of financial need based on the information that families share in the application which includes assets, income, expenses, and debts. Applicants’ information is processed and standardized by Clarity, so that we can make equitable comparisons of need. The application is mobile-friendly and fully translated into Spanish. 

Offers of financial aid are made when admission is offered to a family so a family understands the tuition due before enrolling. If a family qualifies for financial aid, the awarded amount is listed in the contract deducted from the tuition rate of the applicable level. Our Financial Aid Committee only reviews financial aid applications for families who have applied for admission. With questions and/or for support in the financial aid process, contact financialaid@msdurham.org.

Complete the following steps to be considered. See the section below for deadline information.

Step 1

Go to the online Clarity application 

Step 2

Begin your application and add Montessori School of Durham to your student applicant entry. You can save your application and log out at any time and return later to complete it.

Step 3

Complete your application and pay the $65 Clarity application fee.

Step 4

US taxpayers: Complete the Clarity Enhanced Tax Verification (ETV) process to release their W2 and personal tax return transcripts from the IRS. You'll be asked to authorize the sharing of your tax transcripts and verify your identity. Clarity offers two options for enhanced tax verification process: “Clarity” and “IRS”. Please reference the Tax Verification Guide to preview the steps of this process.

(The IRS pathway is significantly faster, allowing for the tax documents to transfer to Clarity within 24 hours. For this reason, any applicant who applies close to the financial aid application, will need to select the IRS pathway in order to meet our priority deadline. Clarity has found that families who have an IRS.gov account before starting the Clarity Application have a much easier time completing the process.)

Step 5

Submit your Clarity application and follow the link to return to your dashboard. Here you will see any additional supporting documents requested by schools. Upload your supporting documents by the deadline. Keep in mind that at a later date, you may be prompted by the school via Clarity to upload additional documentation as needed.

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If you need support during the process of completing your application, there is in-app, phone and email support available through the “Help” button in the bottom left of the screen. Additional resources:

• Clarity Family Application Guide
• Guía de Aplicación Para Las Familias
• Clarity Application Quick Reference Guide
• Guía de Referencia Rápida

January 6, 2026: Current families

January 16, 2026: Prospective families wishing to be considered in the first round of admissions

Later financial aid applications can be accepted with later admissions applications.  Any remaining funds will be awarded to those who qualify as admission is offered to the applicant.