New Families

Welcome! We are excited that your family will be joining our community. We hope this information will help your transition to The Hudson School.

New students in grades 5-12 are invited to participate in Mini-Courses on June 11th from 11 am to 3 pm. Mini-courses are a half-day of various activities and field trips planned by teachers. We will send out registration with mini-course descriptions in the last week of May. 

Lower school students and families can attend playdates in Church Square Park on July 18 or August 15 to meet other new and returning families.

All THS students complete summer reading and assignments before the start of school. Summer reading bags are available to new students in June.

New middle and upper students will receive their summer reading after Mini-Courses on June 11th or by appointment after June 20th. Lower school students will receive theirs by appointment.

 

In July, you will receive a hard copy packet in the mail with an Openings and Closings calendar, as well as a few needed forms for the start of school. 

Most of the critical information we need will be available on your FACTS Family Portal under webforms. We will send out instructions on how to provide medical information and demographic updates, as well as provide links to order THS clothing, registration for individual music lessons, and anything else needed for September. 

THS provides all school supplies for students, including a School-owned Chromebook for grades 5-12 and iPads for the Lower School. The only thing students need to bring on the first day is a backpack.

Lower school families will attend listening conferences the week before school begins. You'll receive registration information from the Lower School Head in August.

New middle and upper school students are invited to orientation on Wednesday, September 3. This hour-long activity will introduce you to teachers and staff and orient you to basic rules and procedures, as well as the important places in the building.

Upper school students will receive their lockers, Chromebooks, and any needed accounts for the first day of school. 

Most school communications will come through your FACTS- Family Portal account. In August, you will receive sign-in information through the primary email that you provided on your application. You can update contact information and see trimester grades/narratives through FACTS. Once school begins, you will also be able to see your child's schedule. This is the school’s digital library for documents and links that you will find useful throughout the year, such as: Anticipated Absence Form, Lunch Orders, and Calendar information.

FACTS is also how we send alerts when there is a snow day or local emergency. It is very important that your contact information is accurate.

Every Sunday, we send out a weekly E-Newsletter with announcements/events for the upcoming week and reflections from our Head of School.

The most accurate calendar will always be the online calendar.

Morning homeroom for grades 5-10 begins at 8:15. Students arriving in their homeroom after 8:20 will be marked tardy, unless the office has been called regarding their late arrival due to traffic or public transportation issues. Students in grades 11 & 12 must check in with their homeroom teacher in the lobby before 8:30 am.

Afternoon homeroom for middle school ends at 3:25. Upper school students may leave after their last class of the day. After school activities run from October-May, M-Th, from 3:30-4:10. A sign up form for activities will go out via email in September.

See our Openings and Closings one-page calendar here: Link to PDF

Complete the Anticipated Absence Form | PDF 109KB

If you need to inform us of an unanticipated absence, early dismissal, or late arrival, please email or call the main office at 201-659-8335. Parents are contacted by 9:00 am if we have not received any notification.

The Hudson School encourages families to provide students with a healthy bagged lunch from home each day. However, if you wish to order your child lunch, we have set up service with the following lunch provider.

Students  can order through Alessio's Cafe. Order cut off is Thursday at midnight to receive student lunches for the following week.

All students who commute through NJ Transit are eligible for student rates. Pick up a carbon copy discount form at your local station, and we will validate it at school. If you are commuting from NYC, we can provide you with a student MetroCard.

Many school districts in NJ participate in a state transportation reimbursement program, which provides families with roughly $800 per student each year toward their transportation costs.

Jersey City prefers to use its own form. Jersey City residents must live 1.5 miles (lower/middle school) or 2 miles (upper school) from The Hudson School to be eligible for reimbursement.

To submit, please print/complete the form and return it to The Hudson School’s main office to submit to your home district on your behalf. Reimbursement forms are only considered by the BOE if they have funds left to allocate, so it is important that you submit this as early as possible. Submit your B6T form here.

 

Below is a list of participating counties: 

  • Belleville
  • Bloomfield
  • Branchburg
  • Caldwell/West Caldwell
  • Cedar Grove
  • Edgewater
  • Englewood
  • Fort Lee
  • Glen Ridge
  • Jersey City
  • Maplewood & South Orange
  • Millburn & Short Hills
  • Montclair
  • Newark
  • North Bergen
  • Randolph
  • Secaucus
  • Teaneck
  • West Orange

The following forms are for use by parents to inform the school nurse of important medical information about their child:

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to email the nurse

 

Admissions Contact
Tel: 201.683.5247
Email: [email protected]