State of the School District: Tarrytowns, NY

Summary Perspective

The Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns is a fiscal-sustainability story set within a structurally stable enrollment and governance framework. The district's governance, assignment model, and boundaries are settled. A seven-member elected board governs under standard New York Education Law for Union Free School Districts, with no state takeover, receivership, or mayoral control. The Princeton Plan assigns students to schools by grade level rather than neighborhood address, eliminating attendance-zone uncertainty. No boundary changes, redistricting studies, or school closure proceedings are active as of July 2026. Enrollment was 2,643 students in the 2023-24 school year across five open schools, and no long-run enrollment series is available on file to indicate a growth or decline trajectory. The district is not in turnaround, governance transition, or rapid growth. It is a stable-enrollment district whose most pressing questions are fiscal and informational rather than structural.

The fiscal picture contains several sustainability threads. The adopted 2026-27 budget of $107,369,986 does not balance on recurring revenue alone; it draws $1,500,000 from assigned fund balance to close the gap. The district's unassigned General Fund balance of $4,054,011 as of June 30, 2025 equals 4 percent of the ensuing budget, which is the statutory maximum under New York law, leaving limited additional reserve capacity. The district carries an Other Post-Employment Benefits liability of $120,944,187 as of June 30, 2025, representing promised retiree health benefits earned but not yet funded. The district sold $34,340,810 in new serial bonds on December 9, 2025, for building improvements, adding to $44,820,000 in outstanding debt as of June 30, 2025. At the same time, the Office of the State Comptroller assigned the district a fiscal-stress score of 0.0 with "No Designation" in 2024, and Moody's assigned an Aa2 credit rating with a rating action dated August 10, 2020. The 2026-27 tax levy of $76,219,275 represents a 4.75 percent increase, below the calculated tax-levy limit of 5.90 percent.

The academic data on file is limited in scope. Available assessment data consists of Advanced Placement proficiency rates from the 2023-24 school year, ranging from 5.6 percent to 100.0 percent across twelve subject and grade-level combinations. No Regents exam results, grades 3-8 assessment results, college entrance exam results, or AP participation rates are available. The most recent graduation data is from the 2019-20 school year, when the cohort consisted of 206 students, but no graduation rate percentage is reported. All five schools were designated Local Support and Improvement for 2025-26, meaning none were identified for state-required intervention. The district's Student Growth index was 48 for 2024-25.

The single most decision-relevant contextual fact for a family evaluating this district is the Princeton Plan. Because school assignment follows grade level rather than address, a family's specific location within the district boundary does not create different school destinations. This eliminates the neighborhood-zoning uncertainty that drives much of the anxiety in school-district housing decisions. What a family is buying into is a single pre-kindergarten through grade 12 pipeline with a known progression through five grade-banded schools, culminating at Sleepy Hollow High School.

This report describes what is true about the district and does not issue ratings, rankings, or recommendations. It presents the available evidence so that families can make their own judgments about fit.

Key takeaways for families

• The district operates five schools on a grade-based assignment model called the Princeton Plan, meaning a family's address within the district boundary does not determine which school their child attends. Grade level determines assignment, eliminating neighborhood attendance zone uncertainty for kindergarten through grade 12.

• Enrollment was 2,643 students in the 2023-24 school year across five open schools. No long-run enrollment series is available on file to indicate whether enrollment is growing or declining.

• The adopted budget for 2026-27 totals $107,369,986, a 5.94 percent increase over the prior year, and does not balance on recurring revenue alone. The district draws $1,500,000 from assigned fund balance to close the gap, meaning current-year revenue falls short of covering the full expenditure plan.

• The district's unassigned General Fund balance of $4,054,011 as of June 30, 2025 equals 4 percent of the ensuing budget, which is the statutory maximum under New York law. The Office of the State Comptroller assigned the district a fiscal-stress score of 0.0 with "No Designation" in 2024, and Moody's assigned an Aa2 credit rating with a rating action dated August 10, 2020.

• The district carries an Other Post-Employment Benefits liability of $120,944,187 as of June 30, 2025, representing promised retiree health benefits earned but not yet funded. This is a long-term obligation that does not affect current operations but represents a future fiscal commitment.

• The available academic data consists of AP proficiency rates from the 2023-24 school year, ranging from 5.6 percent to 100.0 percent across twelve subject and grade-level combinations. No Regents exam results, grades 3-8 assessments, college entrance exam scores, or AP participation rates are available in the data on file.

• The most recent graduation data on file is from the 2019-20 school year, when the cohort consisted of 206 students. No graduation rate percentage is reported, and this figure predates the most recent assessment results by four academic years.

• All five schools were designated Local Support and Improvement for the 2025-26 school year, meaning none were identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement, Additional Targeted Support and Improvement, or Targeted Support and Improvement. LSI schools continue locally led improvement processes with district support.

• The district's 2026-27 tax levy of $76,219,275 represents a 4.75 percent increase, which is below the calculated tax-levy limit of 5.90 percent by $837,756. The district did not need to seek a 60 percent override of the tax cap.

• The district serves territory within the Villages of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown in Westchester County, and tax collection is performed by the Towns of Mount Pleasant and Greenburgh on behalf of the district. Pocantico Hills Central School District, a separate K-8 district, sends its grade 9 through 12 students to Sleepy Hollow High School under a tuition or sending arrangement.

• Universal Pre-K admission at John Paulding School is lottery-based and not guaranteed, operating separately from the grade-based K-12 assignment model. A child's UPK lottery outcome does not affect their subsequent kindergarten through grade 12 assignment.

• No active boundary changes, redistricting studies, or school closure or consolidation proceedings were identified as of July 24, 2026. The Princeton Plan has no neighborhood boundaries to redraw, which means the typical mechanism for boundary changes in most districts does not apply here.

At a glance

The following table summarizes current-state signals for the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns. Numeric figures are drawn from data on file. Where a data point is not available, the table states "Not available" rather than estimating or omitting the row.

Several rows warrant brief explanation. The graduation rate row reflects the most recent data on file, from the 2019-20 school year, which includes only the cohort size of 206 students and no rate percentage. The current per-pupil spending figure of $30,663 comes from the US Census Bureau's Annual Survey of School System Finances for fiscal year 2023, the most recent federal finance data available; the state average for comparison is not available. The headline proficiency row summarizes AP exam results only, as no Regents, grades 3-8, or college entrance exam data are available. The market level signal is listed as not available because no housing market or property value data appears in the available district materials.

How to read New York accountability

New York State's accountability system under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act classifies schools into tiers based on multiple indicators, including academic achievement, student growth, chronic absenteeism, graduation rate, and English language proficiency. The designations, from most to least intensive, are Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI), Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI), Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI), and Local Support and Improvement (LSI). CSI schools are identified for the most serious performance concerns and face state-required intervention. ATSI and TSI schools receive targeted support for specific subgroup performance gaps. LSI is the default designation for schools not identified for CSI, ATSI, or TSI, meaning they continue locally led continuous-improvement processes with district support rather than being subject to state-required intervention.

New York's Student Growth measure tracks how much academic progress students make compared to other students with similar prior achievement. The growth index is a composite that combines growth across grade levels and subjects. For the Tarrytowns district, the Student Growth index was 48 for 2024-25. This is a single summary number; without context about the state's full scale and benchmarks, it should be read as a reported figure rather than interpreted as high or low.

New York's property tax cap law establishes a calculated tax-levy limit for each school district each year. If a district proposes a levy at or below this limit, a simple majority of voters can approve the budget. If a district proposes to exceed the limit, a 60 percent supermajority of voters is required. The Tarrytowns district's 2026-27 tax levy of $76,219,275 represents a 4.75 percent increase, which is below the calculated limit of 5.90 percent by $837,756. Because the levy is below the limit, the district did not need to seek a 60 percent override.

No charter schools operate within the district; the five schools listed are all district-operated. The district uses the Princeton Plan for school assignment, placing students by grade level rather than neighborhood, and no inter-district transfer or choice program is published.

For the Tarrytowns district specifically, all five schools received LSI designations for 2025-26, meaning none were identified for state-required intervention. The district's chronic absenteeism rate was 17.2 percent in 2022-23. The available academic data is limited to AP proficiency rates from 2023-24, and the most recent graduation data is from 2019-20, which means the accountability designations and growth index are based on more recent state data than what is available on file.

What kind of district this is: governance and geography

The Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns is a Union Free School District, a district type organized under Title 2 of the New York Education Law (EDN Sections 1709 et seq. and 3501 et seq.). In New York, a Union Free School District is independent of any municipal government and constitutes its own taxing jurisdiction. The district operates a full pre-kindergarten through grade 12 program with Sleepy Hollow High School as its in-district high school, making it functionally equivalent to a K-12 unified district even though the UFSD legal classification predates the modern unified-district framework. The district's official website is tufsd.org, and its administrative headquarters are in the Village of Sleepy Hollow. The NCES LEA ID is 3628650, and enrollment was 2,643 students in the 2023-24 school year.

Taxing authority and budget approval

The Board of Education of the Tarrytowns UFSD adopts the annual budget and levies the school tax on taxable property within the district's boundaries. The actual tax collection is performed by the Towns of Mount Pleasant and Greenburgh on behalf of the district, meaning the district sets the levy but does not itself collect payments. Voter approval of the annual budget is required under New York Education Law Section 2023. The annual school budget vote is held on the third Tuesday in May, as specified in EDN Section 2023(2). This is the same date on which board of education elections are conducted.

If voters reject the proposed budget, the board must adopt a contingency budget under EDN Section 2023(4). The contingency mechanism operates as a hard constraint: the tax levy under a contingency budget may not exceed the prior year's levy, which in practice means a zero percent tax-levy increase. In addition to the levy cap, the district loses spending authority for certain categories of expenditures that are considered non-contingent. These include new equipment purchases, certain capital outlays, and transfers of funds for community-use purposes. Capital projects, however, may still be presented to voters under separate propositions even when the operating budget is on contingency. The district maintains budget information on its budget information page.

Board of education composition and elections

The Board of Education consists of seven members, each elected to a three-year term. Elections are conducted at large, meaning all voters in the district vote for all seats rather than by geographic subdistrict. Members are elected rather than appointed. The next scheduled board election is May 19, 2026, as listed in the district's governance records. Board candidacy information is published on the district's board candidates page, and election results have been reported by local outlets including The Hudson Independent and Patch. Ballotpedia also maintains election records for the district.

No state takeover, receivership, mayoral control, or other non-standard governance arrangement applies to this district. The governance structure is the standard elected-board model prescribed by New York Education Law for Union Free School Districts. The board's general powers are defined under EDN Section 1709, which enumerates the duties and authorities of Union Free School District boards, including the power to adopt textbooks, employ teachers, maintain schools, and levy taxes within statutory limits.

Municipalities served and shared boundaries

The district serves territory within two villages in Westchester County: the Village of Sleepy Hollow and the Village of Tarrytown. Both municipalities are served in part, meaning the district boundaries do not necessarily align with the full corporate limits of either village. A resident living in Tarrytown or Sleepy Hollow is not automatically within the Tarrytowns UFSD boundary; the determining factor is the school district line, which is a separate legal boundary from the municipal line.

The Village of Sleepy Hollow is also partially served by the Pocantico Hills Central School District, which operates a kindergarten-through-grade-8 program. This means some properties in the Sleepy Hollow area fall within the Pocantico Hills CSD for elementary and middle school but may send high school students elsewhere under a sending arrangement. The Pocantico Hills Central School District is listed as a separate district with its own NCES identifier, and information about its partner high schools is available on the Pocantico Hills website.

Feeder and sending structure

The Tarrytowns UFSD is not a feeder district. It operates its own complete pre-kindergarten through grade 12 program across five schools, all of which are listed as open in the NCES Common Core of Data. The schools are John Paulding School, W L Morse School, Washington Irving Intermediate School, Sleepy Hollow Middle School, and Sleepy Hollow High School. Students who live within the Tarrytowns UFSD boundary attend these schools for the entirety of their pre-K through 12 education without transferring to an external district at any grade level.

However, the district does participate in an inbound receiving relationship. Pocantico Hills Central School District, which is a separate K-8 district, is one of the sending districts whose grade 9 through 12 students may attend Sleepy Hollow High School under a tuition or sending arrangement. In this relationship, Tarrytowns UFSD is the receiving district and Pocantico Hills CSD is the sending district. The flow of students is inbound to the Tarrytowns district, not outbound. This means that Sleepy Hollow High School enrolls both resident students from within the Tarrytowns UFSD boundary and tuition-paying or sending students from Pocantico Hills CSD. The district's schools page lists the five schools it operates.

Boundary change mechanism

School district boundaries in New York do not move automatically when municipal boundaries change. A routine municipal boundary adjustment within the Villages of Tarrytown or Sleepy Hollow, for example, would not by itself alter the Tarrytowns UFSD boundary. Instead, a separate proceeding under the New York Education Law is required. The relevant statutes are EDN Section 1501, EDN Section 1505, and EDN Section 2218.

The process is petition-driven. Residents or property owners in the affected territory initiate the proceeding by filing a petition with the district superintendent, who then conducts proceedings that may include a hearing. The district superintendent has authority to issue an order altering the boundary. Decisions of the district superintendent may be appealed to the New York Commissioner of Education under EDN Section 2218. In many cases, the process also requires a referendum of voters residing in the affected territory, meaning that the residents of the area proposed for transfer must vote to approve the change. This dual requirement of petition and referendum makes boundary changes infrequent and deliberately difficult to execute without demonstrated local support. The mechanism ensures that no single actor, whether a municipal government or a school board, can unilaterally redraw school district lines.

Academic outcomes: the evidence base

The assessment data on file for the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns consists primarily of Advanced Placement (AP) exam proficiency rates from the 2023-24 school year, reported through New York State's education data system. The database contains 55 assessment series spanning 2006 through 2025, with historical years from 2006 through 2017 represented in the system. The specific AP proficiency series available for this district, however, contain data points only from the 2023-24 school year. This means the on-file data supports a snapshot of current performance levels but does not support a multi-year trajectory analysis for the same subjects and grade levels.

New York State cancelled its spring 2020 assessments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a gap in the statewide assessment timeline. AP exams were administered in 2020 in a modified, shortened online format that may not be directly comparable to other years. Any assessment data from 2020 should be understood in that context.

What AP proficiency rates measure

AP exams are developed and administered by the College Board and scored on a 1-to-5 scale. A score of 3 or higher is generally considered proficient or passing, and many colleges and universities grant credit for scores of 3 or above. The proficiency rates reported here represent the percentage of students who took a given AP exam and earned a score of 3 or higher. These rates describe the performance of students who self-selected into AP courses and sat for the exams.

AP proficiency rates do not measure the academic performance of the full student population. They do not capture students who took AP courses but did not take the corresponding exam, nor students who did not enroll in AP courses at all. A district's AP proficiency rate is therefore a measure of outcomes among its AP-participating students, not a comprehensive measure of district-wide academic achievement. The data also does not include the number of test-takers per subject per grade, which means it is not possible to determine whether a given percentage reflects 5 students or 50 students. Small numbers of test-takers can produce extreme percentages that would look different with larger groups.

The on-file data does not include New York State Regents exam results, which are the state's required high school assessments in subjects including English, Algebra, Global History, U.S. History, and Science. It also does not include grades 3-8 English Language Arts or Mathematics assessment results, PSAT, SAT, or ACT results, or AP participation rates, which would show what percentage of the student body took AP exams as distinct from the proficiency rates among those who did.

AP proficiency results, 2023-24

The following AP proficiency rates were reported for the 2023-24 school year. Several subjects show results for both 11th and 12th graders, reflecting that students in either grade may sit for these exams.

In mathematics, AP Calculus AB showed a 59.4% proficiency rate among 12th graders. AP Calculus BC, a more advanced course, showed a 92.9% proficiency rate among 12th graders. The higher rate in Calculus BC may reflect a more self-selected group of students with stronger preparation in mathematics, though the data does not include the number of test-takers in each subject, making it difficult to assess how small sample sizes may affect these percentages.

In the sciences, AP Biology showed a 69.2% proficiency rate among 11th graders and 33.3% among 12th graders. AP Chemistry showed 100.0% proficiency among 11th graders and 80.8% among 12th graders. AP Environmental Science showed 63.6% proficiency among 11th graders and 30.0% among 12th graders. The 100.0% rate in 11th-grade Chemistry may reflect a very small number of test-takers, as a perfect rate in a small group can produce this result. Without enrollment counts per exam, the data cannot distinguish between a large cohort performing at a high level and a small cohort doing so.

In computer science, AP Computer Science A showed 66.7% proficiency among 11th graders and 5.6% among 12th graders. AP Computer Science Principles showed 45.5% proficiency among 11th graders and 25.0% among 12th graders. The sharp difference between 11th and 12th grade rates in Computer Science A, from 66.7% to 5.6%, could reflect small numbers of 12th-grade test-takers, different student populations between the two grades, or other factors the data does not capture.

Grade-level patterns

Across multiple subjects, 11th-grade proficiency rates exceed 12th-grade rates. This pattern appears in AP Biology (69.2% versus 33.3%), AP Environmental Science (63.6% versus 30.0%), AP Computer Science A (66.7% versus 5.6%), and AP Computer Science Principles (45.5% versus 25.0%). AP Chemistry is the exception, with 11th grade at 100.0% and 12th grade at 80.8%. Several explanations are possible: 12th graders who take AP exams may include students who delayed advanced coursework, or the 12th-grade groups may be too small for stable percentages. The data does not include the number of test-takers per grade per subject, so these differences cannot be definitively explained.

Subgroup data

The AP proficiency series on file are reported for all students only. No subgroup breakdowns by race, ethnicity, economic status, English learner status, or disability status are available in the computed assessment data for this district. This means the AP proficiency rates cannot be disaggregated to show how different student groups performed on these exams.

The district's enrollment in 2023-24 was 2,643 students. The racial and ethnic composition, as reported through the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data via the district profile, was 61.3% Hispanic (1,619 students), 29.7% White (786), 3.9% two or more races (104), 2.6% Asian (68), and 2.5% Black (65). American Indian or Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander categories each reported zero students. These enrollment figures describe who attends the district's schools but are not connected to assessment outcomes in the available data.

Data on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, Individualized Education Program participation, and English learner status are reported as missing for this district in the available data.

Graduation rate

The most recent graduation data on file is from the 2019-20 school year. The four-year graduation cohort consisted of 206 students. No graduation rate percentage is reported in the available data for this cohort. This data is several years old and predates the most recent assessment results by four academic years. The source is EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate) via the Urban Institute Education Data API.

Chronic absenteeism

The chronic absenteeism rate for the district was 17.2% in the 2022-23 school year, according to EDFacts Data Group 814. Chronic absenteeism is typically defined as missing 15 or more days of school in a year. This figure represents all students in the district. The district also reports chronic absenteeism data for 2024-25 through the New York State Education Department's accountability system, though the specific rate for that year is not included in the computed data on file.

Accountability status and growth

For the 2025-26 school year, based on 2024-25 results, all five schools in the district were designated as Local Support and Improvement (LSI), according to the New York State Education Department. This designation means that no district school was identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI), Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI), or Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI). LSI schools continue locally led continuous-improvement processes with district support rather than being subject to state-required intervention.

The district's Student Growth measure for 2024-25 reported an All Students index of 48. Student Growth in New York State tracks how much academic progress students make compared to other students with similar prior achievement, as described in the state's growth model documentation. The index is a composite measure that combines growth across grade levels and subjects. The growth index of 48 is a single summary number; without context about the state's scale and benchmarks, it should be read as a reported figure rather than interpreted as high or low.

What the data does not show

Several categories of academic outcome data are absent from the computed data on file. There are no Regents exam results. There are no grades 3-8 assessment results. There are no college entrance exam results. There are no AP participation rates. There are no subgroup breakdowns on any assessment measure. The graduation data is from 2019-20, four years before the most recent assessment data, limiting the ability to connect graduation outcomes to current academic performance. The AP proficiency rates that are available describe a specific segment of the student population: students who chose to enroll in AP courses and sit for the corresponding exams. They provide a window into the academic outcomes of college-bound students in specific subjects, but they do not provide a comprehensive picture of academic performance across the full enrollment of 2,643 students.

Inside the district: variation between schools

The Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns operates five schools, all open as of the 2023-24 school year. The schools are John Paulding School, W L Morse School, Washington Irving Intermediate School, Sleepy Hollow Middle School, and Sleepy Hollow High School. Their names indicate distinct grade-level designations, and the district's enrollment of 2,643 students in 2023-24 is distributed across these five buildings in a sequential pipeline rather than as parallel options serving the same grades.

Because each school covers a different segment of the K-12 continuum, there are no within-district comparisons to be made between two schools serving the same grade level and the same subject. A family residing in the district does not choose among these schools for a given grade; assignment follows the grade-band structure. This means that variation between schools in this district is fundamentally about variation across grade bands and across academic programs within the high school, not about choosing between competing elementary or secondary options.

The computed assessment data on file for this district consists of Advanced Placement (AP) proficiency rates from the 2023-24 school year, reported at the district level. Because Sleepy Hollow High School is the district's only high school, these district-level AP figures effectively represent that single school's results. The data spans twelve AP subject and grade-level combinations, and the spread across these subjects is wide.

For the 2023-24 school year, AP proficiency rates, which measure the percentage of test-takers scoring 3 or higher on the 5-point AP scale, ranged from 5.6% to 100.0% depending on the subject and grade level. AP Chemistry at grade 11 showed 100.0% proficiency. AP Calculus BC at grade 12 showed 92.9%. AP Chemistry at grade 12 showed 80.8%. AP Calculus AB at grade 12 showed 59.4%. At the other end of the distribution, AP Computer Science A at grade 12 showed 5.6% proficiency, and AP Computer Science Principles at grade 12 showed 25.0%.

Several subjects showed notable gaps between grade 11 and grade 12 test-takers. AP Biology showed 69.2% proficiency at grade 11 and 33.3% at grade 12. AP Environmental Science showed 63.6% at grade 11 and 30.0% at grade 12. AP Computer Science A showed 66.7% at grade 11 and 5.6% at grade 12. These grade-level gaps within the same subject may reflect differences in course sequencing, student self-selection into testing, or the small number of test-takers in any given subject-grade combination. A proficiency rate based on a small number of test-takers can shift dramatically from year to year with the addition or subtraction of a few scores, which limits the reliability of any single year's rate as a measure of program quality.

For the elementary and middle schools, the computed data on file does not include school-level assessment results. The district's enrollment data is reported in aggregate, not broken out by individual school. Free and reduced-price lunch counts and rates are missing from the computed data. Individualized Education Program counts and rates are missing. English learner counts and rates are missing. Race and ethnicity data are reported at the district level only: of 2,643 students in 2023-24, 1,619 were Hispanic (61.3%), 786 were white (29.7%), 68 were Asian (2.6%), 65 were Black (2.5%), and 104 were identified as two or more races (3.9%). No school-level demographic breakdowns are available in the computed data, which means the distribution of students across the five buildings cannot be described from the available figures.

Sleepy Hollow High School self-reports several outcomes for the Class of 2025 in its school profile. The school reports a 94% college enrollment rate, with 68% of graduates enrolling in four-year institutions. The school reports SAT mean scores of 552 in Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and 545 in Mathematics. The school reports two National Merit Semifinalists in the Class of 2025. These figures are attributed to the high school and are not available for the district's other schools, which do not graduate students or administer college entrance exams.

A family evaluating this district should understand that the available quantitative data describes a single-school pipeline rather than a choice among schools. The high school is the only school for which post-secondary outcomes are reported, and it is the only school for which AP assessment data is available in the computed data set. The elementary, intermediate, and middle schools' academic outcomes are not represented in the available computed data. New York State's ESSA accountability system publishes school-level accountability indicators through the state education department's data portal, which would be the primary public source for comparing performance indicators across the district's five schools. The district also publishes a curriculum guide and maintains a science research program at the high school, both of which describe academic offerings but do not provide school-level comparative outcome data.

Advanced academics and pathway access

Course access and entry mechanics

Sleepy Hollow High School structures its advanced coursework around open enrollment rather than competitive admission. According to the district's 2026-27 curriculum guide, honors, Advanced Placement, and college-level courses are open to all students. Teacher and counselor recommendations are strongly suggested but do not function as gating requirements. A student who is not recommended by their current teacher may consult the school counselor and may submit a Course Challenge Form, which provides a formal mechanism to enroll in a course despite a non-recommendation. The pathway to accelerated coursework therefore runs through a recommendation-and-override system rather than a test-based or lottery-based selection process. There is no separate selective or magnet school in the district; the advanced academic offerings are in-school course options at Sleepy Hollow High School, not a distinct program with its own admissions criteria.

Grade 8 Algebra I

The US Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2021-22 school year includes Algebra I enrollment data for the district, aggregated across five school-level records. The computed data confirms the district's participation in this federal reporting requirement but does not provide specific enrollment totals or placement mechanics for Grade 8 Algebra I. The district's 2026-27 curriculum guide may contain specific placement procedures for middle school mathematics acceleration, but the acquired research does not detail those procedures. Families seeking information about Grade 8 Algebra I placement would need to consult the curriculum guide or district counseling staff directly, as the available materials do not describe the referral, testing, or prerequisite processes that determine which middle school students take Algebra I before ninth grade.

Gifted and talented enrollment

The Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2021-22 school year reports gifted and talented enrollment for the district across five schools. By race and ethnicity, the enrollment comprises 60 Hispanic students, 70 White students, 11 Asian students, 8 students of two or more races, and 1 Black student, totaling 150 students. No American Indian or Alaska Native students and no Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students were reported in gifted enrollment. Additionally, 5 students with disabilities (IDEA) were reported in gifted enrollment, a category that overlaps with race and ethnicity. No English learners were reported in gifted enrollment. The available research does not describe the specific identification method the district uses to determine gifted placement. The CRDC data confirms that a gifted program exists and reports enrollment by demographic category, but the referral, screening, or testing procedures that produce that enrollment are not detailed in the district materials available for this report.

Advanced Placement breadth and results

Sleepy Hollow High School's 2026-27 curriculum guide lists multiple Advanced Placement courses spanning English, mathematics, science, social studies, world languages, and the arts. No International Baccalaureate programme appears in district materials. According to the school's own figures in its 2025 profile document, 265 students took 566 AP exams during the 2024-25 school year, and 85 percent of those exams earned a score of 3 or higher. These figures are self-reported by Sleepy Hollow High School and have not been independently verified for this report. The Civil Rights Data Collection for 2021-22 reports AP enrollment by race and ethnicity totaling 247 students: 108 Hispanic, 108 White, 12 Asian, 13 students of two or more races, and 6 Black students. Cross-tabulated categories show that 6 AP-enrolled students were English learners, 6 had IDEA disabilities, and 16 had Section 504 plans. These categories overlap with race and ethnicity and do not add to the 247 total.

The ceiling: dual enrollment and research programs

The highest-level academic pathway available to students in the district is dual enrollment, through which students register for college credit through a partner institution while taking the corresponding course at Sleepy Hollow High School. Some courses require a placement exam administered by the partner college. Completion of the high school course generally earns partner-college credit, though acceptance of that credit by future colleges is not guaranteed. Tuition and fees for dual enrollment are paid by the student or family, often at a reduced rate. The district lists six partner institutions: SUNY Westchester Community College, SUNY Albany, SUNY Oneonta, SUNY New Paltz, Syracuse University, and Monroe College. The district also offers a three-year Science Research program for students in grades 10 through 12, affiliated with SUNY Albany's University in the High School program. An additional research elective called Inquiry in Science is also available. These programs represent the most specialized academic offerings in the district's curriculum, focusing on extended independent research rather than standard coursework.

Detracking or honors restructuring

The available research does not indicate any formal detracking proposal, honors restructuring initiative, or related policy change under consideration in the district. No board minutes, public petitions, or administrative proposals concerning tracking changes appear in the materials reviewed for this report. The district's open-access model for honors and AP courses, as described in the 2026-27 curriculum guide, represents the current stated policy, but the research does not provide historical context on whether this model represents a recent change or a long-standing practice.

Enrollment, capacity, and boundaries: how stable is what you are buying

The Public Schools of the Tarrytowns operates under a grade-based assignment model known as the Princeton Plan. Under this model, a student's school is determined by their grade level, not by their neighborhood address within the district. If a residence is inside the district boundary, the address maps to the single school serving that grade. This means that two families living on opposite ends of the district, with children in the same grade, will be assigned to the same school. The district reports an enrollment of 2,643 students for the 2023-24 school year across five open school buildings listed on the district's schools page: John Paulding School, W L Morse School, Washington Irving Intermediate School, Sleepy Hollow Middle School, and Sleepy Hollow High School.

How assignment works

The Princeton Plan eliminates the concept of neighborhood attendance zones for kindergarten through grade 12. Because there is one designated school per grade under this model, sibling preference is not applicable; siblings in the same grade band attend the same school regardless of where they live in the district. Elementary progression is determined by grade level, culminating in Sleepy Hollow Middle School and Sleepy Hollow High School. A family living anywhere within the district boundary can expect this same progression path for their children.

Universal Pre-K at John Paulding School operates differently from the K-12 assignment model. UPK admission is lottery-based and not guaranteed. The district has indicated that winner and waitlist letters for UPK are mailed on March 14, 2026. Families should understand that UPK placement is separate from the grade-based assignment that governs kindergarten through grade 12, and a child's UPK lottery outcome does not affect their subsequent K-12 assignment.

Feeder certainty

Because the Princeton Plan assigns by grade rather than by neighborhood, the feeder pattern is uniform across the district. All students follow the same progression through the grade-banded schools, ending at Sleepy Hollow Middle School and Sleepy Hollow High School. There are no competing elementary feeder patterns that could send students from different neighborhoods to different middle or high schools. The certainty of this progression is a structural feature of the Princeton Plan: as long as the district maintains this model, a family's specific address within the district does not create different school destinations.

The district has noted that temporary building-use changes may occur during capital projects. These changes can cause grade cohorts to be relocated between buildings temporarily. The district states that such relocations do not change neighborhood boundaries, because the Princeton Plan has no neighborhood boundaries to change. What can shift is which physical building houses a given grade band during construction.

Capacity and utilization

No formal building-capacity or utilization report with rated capacities or utilization percentages was located in the reviewed district materials. Capital projects, including work at Washington Irving Intermediate School, are documented but do not include published utilization rates. The district's buildings and grounds facilities page and a set of construction-related frequently asked questions are publicly available, but neither provides a building-by-building accounting of enrolled students against design capacity.

The absence of a published utilization report means there is no district-published document that would allow a family to assess whether a particular building is approaching its functional capacity. Capital projects at Washington Irving Intermediate School are documented through construction bid advertisements and bond-related materials. A 2024 capital bond project for Phase 2 work at Washington Irving Intermediate School, including plumbing rebid, is listed on a construction project tracking site. The district's bond newsletter describes capital project scope. Voters approved a capital bond vote, as reported by River Journal Online. These materials address building improvements and construction sequencing rather than enrollment pressure or capacity analysis.

Boundary and redistricting activity

No active boundary changes, redistricting studies, or school closure or consolidation proceedings were identified in the reviewed period. The research checked the district's facilities hub, posted capital project materials, a March 10, 2026 facilities presentation, construction FAQs, and the BoardDocs public portal for agendas, minutes, and attachments containing terms related to boundary changes, redistricting, or school closures. As of July 24, 2026, none were found.

The district has no formal internal geographic substructure. There are no neighborhood attendance zones to redraw under the Princeton Plan. This means the typical mechanism by which school boundaries change in most districts, a board voting to redraw attendance lines, does not apply here in the same form. What could change instead is the grade configuration assigned to each building. For example, the district could reassign which grade bands are housed in which physical school. Such a change would affect all students in a grade equally, regardless of address, because the Princeton Plan does not tie school assignment to location within the district.

The signals to watch for, if a family is concerned about future changes, would include board of education agenda items discussing grade reconfiguration, capital project presentations that reference building capacity constraints, or facilities planning documents that propose moving grade cohorts between buildings. The district's BoardDocs public portal is where such items would typically appear. The district's facilities FAQs and buildings and grounds pages would also be relevant venues for construction-related building-use changes.

Grandfathering

No written grandfathering rule or recent boundary-redraw precedent was located in the reviewed materials. Because the Princeton Plan does not use neighborhood boundaries, the concept of grandfathering a student into a particular school after a boundary change is less applicable than in a neighborhood-zoned district. If the district were to reconfigure which grades are housed in which buildings, the change would apply to all students in the affected grade band districtwide, not to students in a particular geographic area.

Transfer mechanics

A general in-district transfer process is not published by the district. Under the Princeton Plan, with one designated school per grade, typical school-to-school transfer scenarios are uncommon because there is no alternative school within the district for the same grade. The district does not publish rules for resident students transferring to another public district, and no district-published tuition-student arrangement was located. The district's enrollment materials focus on district residency documentation rather than transfer options.

Residency verification

The district requires multiple current proofs of residency for enrollment. The public registration page on the district website requires documentation of residency, and a district registration packet specifies three current proofs of residency, each not older than 60 days. No routine audit, home-visit, or residency-investigation practice is published in the reviewed registration materials. No district-published penalty, tuition-recovery, or exclusion language for residency misrepresentation was located. The district's approach to residency verification, as published, centers on documentation at the point of registration rather than ongoing monitoring.

Enrollment direction

A long-run enrollment series is not available on file for this district. The district reports an enrollment of 2,643 for the 2023-24 school year, according to NCES CCD data. No district-published enrollment projection or demographic study was identified in the reviewed district materials. The district's budget information page and board of education materials are the primary public venues where enrollment trends would be discussed. No district-published analysis identifying where departing students enroll was located in the reviewed budget information or BoardDocs. Families seeking current enrollment direction should consult the district's budget presentations and board of education discussions, which are posted on the BoardDocs public portal.

Fiscal health and the tax picture

Federal data on spending and revenue

For fiscal year 2023, the US Census Bureau's Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) records the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns with total revenue of $92,230,000 and total expenditures of $87,761,000. Current spending, which excludes capital outlay and debt service, was $79,908,000. With a membership of 2,606 pupils, current per-pupil spending was $30,663, of which $21,201 went to instruction. The revenue mix was 74.5% local, 20.9% state, and 4.6% federal. In dollar terms, local sources contributed $68,699,000, state sources $19,293,000, and federal sources $4,238,000. The district's heavy reliance on local property taxes is typical of Westchester County school districts, where the state aid formula distributes less per pupil to property-rich areas.

Adopted budget and structural balance

The district's adopted budget for 2026-27 totals $107,369,986, a 5.94% increase over the prior year. The budget does not balance on recurring revenue alone. The adopted 2026-27 plan closes the gap only by drawing $1,500,000 from assigned appropriated fund balance, meaning that recurring current-year revenue falls short of covering the full expenditure plan on the budget's face. This is a common practice among New York school districts, but it means the district is spending down reserves to sustain operations rather than funding all current costs with current-year income.

Despite that structural feature, the Office of the State Comptroller's 2024 fiscal-stress monitoring system summary lists the district with a score of 0.0 and a designation of "No Designation," which is the lowest-stress category on the state's scale. The OSC system scores districts on indicators such as fund balance, operating deficits, and cash position; a score of 0.0 indicates no triggered indicators.

Federal pandemic relief and its wind-down

The district received $2,976,409 through the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP-ESSER) program. According to the district's own plan documents, these funds supported recurring costs including teachers, teaching assistants, after-school programs, summer programs, and support services. A March 10, 2023 amendment to the plan stated that teacher and teaching-assistant full-time-equivalent positions, along with various hourly-rate and stipend programs, would transition to the General Fund because state Foundation Aid had increased. The amendment also removed ARP funding for clerical COVID-nursing support and BOCES mental-health supports. The federal ESSER program obligated funds through September 2024. The district's plan documents did not provide a separate post-September 2024 reduction list, so the public record does not specify which, if any, positions or programs were ultimately reduced after federal funds expired.

Reserves and fund balance

The district's audited financial statements report an unassigned General Fund balance of $4,054,011 as of June 30, 2025, equal to 4% of the ensuing-year budget. New York State limits a school district's unrestricted fund balance to 4% of the current budget; this is a statutory ceiling, not a floor. The district has increased its unassigned balance each year: $3,353,484 in 2021, $3,457,217 in 2022, $3,738,941 in 2023, $3,904,875 in 2024, and $4,054,011 in 2025. The district has held at or near the statutory maximum each year, which means it has limited additional unassigned reserves to absorb future shortfalls without exceeding the cap.

Long-term liabilities: pensions and OPEB

At June 30, 2025, the district reported a total Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) liability of $120,944,187. This figure represents the present value of promised retiree health benefits that have been earned but are not yet funded. The district also reported a $4,217,491 net pension liability under the New York State and Local Employees' Retirement System (ERS) and a $6,389,183 net pension asset under the New York State Teachers' Retirement System (TRS). Pension-related deferred outflows of resources were $17,085,514 and deferred inflows were $8,023,312. These deferred amounts represent differences between expected and actual investment returns and actuarial assumptions that are recognized over future periods rather than immediately.

Debt and credit

As of June 30, 2025, the district had $44,820,000 in outstanding debt. The 2024-25 audit reports $5,595,253 in debt-service expenditure, though it does not publish this as a percentage of the total budget. After the audit date, the district sold $34,340,810 of serial bonds on December 9, 2025, for building and site improvements; these bonds are not reflected in the June 30, 2025 audited balance. Moody's assigned the district an Aa2 credit rating with a new rating action dated August 10, 2020. The Aa2 rating sits in the upper-medium grade tier of Moody's scale.

Tax levy limit and override history

For 2026-27, the district adopted a tax levy of $76,219,275, representing a 4.75% increase over the prior year. This levy is below the district's calculated tax-levy limit of 5.90% by $837,756. Under New York's property tax cap law, a levy at or below the calculated limit requires only a simple majority of voter approval. A levy exceeding the limit would require 60% voter approval. Because the district stayed within its cap, a simple majority applied. The district has not sought a 60% supermajority override in any of the budget votes on record.

How a household tax bill connects to the district levy

The mechanism works as follows. The district determines the total dollar amount it needs to raise from property taxes, which is the levy. This levy is then apportioned across the municipalities the district serves based on each municipality's share of total assessed property value within the district boundaries. Because the Tarrytowns district spans two municipalities, Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant, equalization rates are applied to account for the fact that each town assesses property at different percentages of full market value. The tax rate for each portion is calculated by dividing that portion's levy allocation by the total assessed value of taxable property in that portion. The result is expressed as a rate per $1,000 of assessed value. A homeowner's school tax bill equals their property's assessed value multiplied by the applicable rate, divided by 1,000.

For 2025-26, the Greenburgh portion of the district carries a tax rate of $18.7060 per $1,000 of assessed value, while the Mount Pleasant portion carries a rate of $1,749.625687 per $1,000 of assessed value. The large difference between these two rates does not mean Mount Pleasant property owners pay dramatically more in absolute terms; it reflects the different assessment and equalization bases used by the two towns. A property assessed at a lower percentage of market value will generate a higher nominal rate to produce a comparable tax burden.

Over the five-year period from 2021-22 through 2025-26, the Greenburgh rate declined every year, from $21.9026 to $18.7060 per $1,000, while the Mount Pleasant rate increased every year, from $1,598.148461 to $1,749.625687 per $1,000. These divergent trends reflect changes in equalization rates and assessed values in each town, not necessarily changes in the total levy. For 2026-27, the district adopted a $76,219,275 levy, up 4.75%; a complete five-year levy-dollar series was not located in the available district materials.

Voter history on budget and bond measures

The district's budget votes have consistently passed. In 2016-17, the annual budget passed 483 to 163. In 2019-20, it passed 687 to 162, with a budget amount of $78,996,817. In 2021-22, it passed 503 to 127. In 2025-26, it passed 965 to 212, with a budget amount of $101,350,265. In 2026-27, it passed 476 to 148, with a budget amount of $107,369,986. The district also passed an $87,000,000 capital bond in 2023 by a vote of 972 to 205. No budget or bond measure on record has been defeated by voters.

Capital projects and facilities

No aggregate deferred-maintenance or capital-backlog estimate was published in the district materials reviewed. A March 10, 2026 facilities presentation identified steam-pipe issues at Morse School and reported that 13 of 38 classrooms at Washington Irving School were under 550 square feet, compared with a 770-square-foot state standard. The presentation also described a $5,901,806 energy-performance project and a separate $10 million decarbonization and energy award. The December 2025 bond sale of $34,340,810 was issued for building and site improvements, consistent with the capital projects authorized by the 2023 bond vote.

The municipal and land-use context

The Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns operates within a municipal landscape that includes the Town of Greenburgh, the Village of Tarrytown, and the Village of Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County, New York. The district's budget process operates independently of direct municipal fiscal control. The district adopts a budget, holds a public hearing, and submits it to district residents for a vote. Municipal fiscal stress in the Town of Greenburgh would not directly set or approve the school budget, because the district's tax levy is governed through the district budget process and voter approval rather than through town council action. No municipal fiscal designation was found that directly controls the district's finances.

The proposed Village of Edgemont incorporation

The most significant municipal movement in the broader area is the proposed incorporation of a new Village of Edgemont within the Town of Greenburgh. This matter bears on the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns only indirectly. The district shares the Town of Greenburgh as a municipal overlay, but Edgemont lies outside the district's boundaries. No filing, study, or court order reviewed in connection with this incorporation documents any change to the district's school boundaries, tax levy, enrollment, or governance. The research assigns this matter a relevance tier of "same_municipality_indirect," meaning the activity occurs within the same town but does not alter this district's structure or finances.

The Edgemont Incorporation Committee filed a village-incorporation petition with the Town of Greenburgh on July 15, 2024. In September 2024, the Town noticed a public hearing to consider the petition's legal sufficiency under Village Law Section 2-204. On March 11, 2026, the New York Supreme Court in Westchester County issued a decision adverse to the Town in the legal-sufficiency dispute, and the Town announced its intent to appeal. The Appellate Division, Second Department, granted expedited calendaring and briefing for related appeals on April 13, 2026. On July 15, 2026, the Second Department ordered three related appeals to be calendared together. The matter remains in litigation as of the research cutoff.

The actors in this matter include the Edgemont Incorporation Committee, which filed the petition; the Town of Greenburgh and its Town Board, which is the receiving body for the petition; Paul Feiner, the Greenburgh Town Supervisor; the Center for Governmental Research (CGR), which produced scenario-based fiscal analyses; the New York Supreme Court in Westchester County; and the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department.

Each party has stated a distinct fiscal position. The Town of Greenburgh Town Board projects an Operating Fund loss of approximately $4.2 million resulting from the incorporation and identifies a separate Town-wide A-budget impact of approximately $500,000. The Town indicates that offsetting actions could include terminating 25 to 30 full-time employees. The Edgemont Incorporation Committee argues that a new village can maintain services near current tax rates through contracting arrangements and disputes the proposed village's responsibility for pre-incorporation Other Post-Employment Benefits liabilities and tax-certiorari liabilities. CGR, engaged to study the fiscal impacts, models property-tax changes for the proposed Village of Edgemont at approximately +2.7 percent, +5.0 percent, or +10.0 percent, and for unincorporated Greenburgh at approximately 0 percent, +0.7 percent, or -1.3 percent, depending on assumptions. These figures represent each party's own projections or models, not settled outcomes.

No filing or study reviewed projects any fiscal change for the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns as a result of the Edgemont incorporation. The district's tax base, enrollment, and governance are not altered by a village incorporation in a portion of the town that falls outside the district's attendance boundaries.

Housing and land-use context

The research checked for affordable-housing mandates or consent decrees naming the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns specifically, as well as for formal school district reorganization studies involving the district. The check covered the district's own website, Board of Education materials, and BoardDocs postings; New York State Education Department reorganization materials for any formal studies involving NCES LEA ID 3628650; Town of Greenburgh incorporation records and Edgemont petition and appeals orders; and official and court-record searches for affordable-housing mandates or consent decrees naming the district. As of July 24, 2026, no district-specific reorganization, boundary change, or housing mandate naming the district was identified in the materials reviewed.

The broader municipal environment includes housing-related activity in the Town of Greenburgh and the Village of Tarrytown. The Village of Tarrytown maintains a housing affordability task force. The Town of Greenburgh has been the subject of fair housing litigation, and affordable housing practices in Tarrytown have drawn media scrutiny. However, none of the materials reviewed documents a housing mandate, consent decree, or court order that directly alters this school district's boundaries, enrollment zones, budget, or governance.

What municipal changes would affect this district

For a municipal or land-use change to affect the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns directly, it would need to operate through one of several specific mechanisms.

A school district reorganization under New York State Education Department procedures could dissolve, merge, or alter the boundaries of the district. This process requires formal study, public petition, and voter approval, and is governed by state education law rather than by municipal action alone. The research found no formal reorganization study involving this district.

A village incorporation within the district's own boundaries could, over time, shift the composition of the local tax base or alter the political dynamics of budget votes, because school district budgets are subject to voter approval by district residents. However, the only active incorporation proceeding in the area, the proposed Village of Edgemont, lies outside this district's boundaries.

A court-ordered housing mandate or consent decree naming the district could, in theory, affect enrollment patterns or require the district to adjust attendance zones or capacity. No such mandate or decree naming the district was identified in the materials reviewed.

Changes to municipal fiscal health in the Town of Greenburgh, the Village of Tarrytown, or the Village of Sleepy Hollow do not directly set or approve the school district's budget. The district's tax levy is established through its own budget adoption process, which includes a public hearing and a vote by district residents. Municipal fiscal stress designations by the New York State Comptroller apply to municipalities and may signal broader fiscal conditions, but they do not override or directly control the school district's independent budget process.

Real estate and the price of admission

The computed home value index for the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns is $947,829 as of April 30, 2026. This figure is derived from Zillow ZHVI data at the ZIP level for codes 10510 and 10591, allocated to the district through the NCES-ZCTA relationship file. ZIP boundaries do not align with district boundaries, so this number is an approximation of district-area home values rather than a precise measurement. The rent index for the same area is $3,247 as of April 30, 2026, derived from Zillow ZORI data covering one of the two ZIP codes in the district footprint.

Residential development pipeline

The district encompasses the villages of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, and both have substantial residential construction underway or under review. The largest single project is the Edge-on-Hudson / Lighthouse Landing master development in Sleepy Hollow, comprising 1,177 units of townhomes, condominiums, and apartments, including affordable housing components in prior phases. This project is under construction. A 50 percent occupancy and certificate-of-occupancy milestone was reported in early 2026, triggering a $4.6 million developer contribution to the Village of Sleepy Hollow (River Journal Online, The Hudson Independent).

In Tarrytown, the 303 South Broadway adaptive-reuse proposal would convert an existing office property to residential rental units with on-site affordable housing as part of the program. The program was revised downward from an earlier concept of approximately 320 units, and zoning amendment and site-plan hearings remained open through mid-2026 (The Hudson Independent, LoopNet listing). Also in Tarrytown, Hudson Harbor Phase 5, known as The Gatehouse, is a proposed 81-unit residential rental component listed on the Planning Board agenda. A smaller proposal at 27 Main Street would add two residential units as part of a Main Street rehabilitation and expansion in the Restricted Retail / Main Street Historic District.

In Sleepy Hollow, the 193 Beekman Avenue project, known as Beekman Bowtie, proposes six townhomes and a rental apartment building with ground-floor commercial space. The Sleepy Hollow Local Development Corporation authorized a land-development agreement in October 2025, with zoning-map amendment, special-permit, and site-plan actions still in process in 2026 (Sleepy Hollow LDC resolution, October 14, 2025). A separate proposal at 135 Beekman Avenue for six apartments appeared in the February 26, 2026 Planning Board minutes, with public hearings continuing (Sleepy Hollow Planning Board agenda, February 26, 2026).

Zoning changes

Multiple zoning actions are in progress alongside these projects. The 303 South Broadway property in Tarrytown, located in an Office Building District fronting Route 9 and Route 119, has a zoning amendment and overlay under review that would enable the office-to-residential conversion with internal retail. In Sleepy Hollow, a zoning-map amendment and special permit are pending for 193 Beekman Avenue and related parcels, and an amendment to the Lighthouse Landing special permit is active for Edge-on-Hudson Block M, a mixed-use condominium building with retail and restaurant components (Sleepy Hollow public hearing notice). In Tarrytown, a zoning-text petition for 27 Main Street accompanies the rehabilitation proposal, with the site-plan public hearing continued on June and July 2026 agendas.

Commercial tax base

New commercial property is entering the tax base alongside residential development. A medical office building at 5 Legend Drive within the Edge-on-Hudson development was expected to break ground in 2026, per contemporaneous reporting. Mixed-use buildings with retail and restaurant space are under review at Edge-on-Hudson Block M and at 193 Beekman Avenue. The 303 South Broadway conversion includes internal retail and coffee-shop space associated with the office-to-residential conversion. The 303 South Broadway office property itself represents a conversion risk to the commercial tax base, as its zoning and site-plan application remained pending in mid-2026.

Tax-certiorari settlements represent refunds to property owners who successfully challenged their assessments, and three such settlements affecting the district were authorized between 2024 and 2026. For 19 South Broadway Owners Corp., a settlement authorized October 9, 2024, resulted in a district refund share of approximately $54,770 out of approximately $65,338 in total refunds from all sources. For 126 North Broadway LLC, a settlement authorized February 11, 2026, resulted in a district refund share of approximately $7,488 out of approximately $8,889 total (Greenburgh agenda, February 2026). For 100 B Broadway LLC, a settlement adopted June 11, 2025, resulted in a district refund share of approximately $1,991 out of approximately $2,361 total (Greenburgh minutes, June 2025).

PILOT and tax-stabilization agreements

The Lighthouse Landing / Edge-on-Hudson development operates under a PILOT or tax-stabilization agreement with an end date of 2044 (Port Chester IDA, Mount Pleasant resolution). Under this agreement, payments to the Village and the School District could not be reduced without their consent. A 2016 request by the developer for additional IDA benefits was publicly disputed (The Hudson Independent). No 2024-2026 dispute or executed additional abatement was located in the record reviewed, and no current annual school diversion amount was established in the available documentation for the 2024-2026 period.

Infrastructure

Two infrastructure projects are active in the district area. Federal funding of $25 million was announced in July 2026 for NYS Route 9 Complete Streets and safety improvements in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, with the corridor having advanced to preliminary design and phased implementation contemplated (LoHud). Separately, reconstruction of the Tarrytown H-Bridge began July 1, 2026, and is scheduled to continue into 2027. The H-Bridge is documented as the sole vehicular access in Tarrytown to waterfront areas west of the Metro-North tracks, though no enrollment effect was quantified in the record.

The choice ecosystem

New York's charter-school landscape is governed by two principal statewide authorizers: the State University of New York (SUNY) and the Board of Regents. The New York State Education Department's charter school office describes these entities as responsible for approving, overseeing, and renewing charter schools across the state. No charter school is listed as operating within the boundaries of the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns in the available research. Families residing in the district who wish to pursue a charter option would typically apply to charter schools in neighboring communities, subject to each school's enrollment policies and available seats. A 2026 opinion piece published in lohud discussed the broader charter authorization landscape in New York, but no specific charter dispute involving the Tarrytowns district is documented in the available sources. The NYSED charter schools directory and charter school inquiry page provide statewide listings for families seeking options outside the district.

The district does not operate a formal magnet-school system. According to the district's own published information, the primary themed option available to families is an elementary English-Spanish dual-language program. Families seeking a seat in this program apply through the district's lottery and enrollment form, as described on the district's dual-language page. The district describes the program as integrating instruction in both English and Spanish across elementary grade levels. No additional magnet or themed school options are published by the district.

Several private and independent schools operate in the broader geographic area surrounding the Tarrytowns district. These institutions publish their own tuition schedules and operate independently of the public school district.

Hackley School, located in Tarrytown, serves grades K-12 and offers five-day boarding in its upper school. According to the school's published tuition figures, 2026-27 tuition ranges from $52,880 for grades K-4 to $61,895 for grades 9-12, with a five-day boarding fee of $18,905. The school's admissions materials describe financial aid availability.

EF Academy New York is a grades 9-12 day and boarding high school. The school's published tuition for 2026-27 lists tuition at $47,200, boarding at $29,400, and a total of $76,600.

The Masters School, serving grades 5-12, offers both day school and upper-school boarding. For 2026-27, the school publishes middle school day and upper school day tuition at $65,800 each, five-day boarding at $77,200, and seven-day boarding at $83,350.

The Leffell School is a K-12 Jewish day school. Its published tuition schedule for 2026-27 ranges from $35,900 for kindergarten to $51,900 for grades 9-12, with intermediate grade levels priced between those figures.

The district tracks homeschool and microschool activity, consistent with New York State's home instruction regulations, which require families providing home instruction to file notice with their local school district. No specific data on the number of homeschooled students or microschool enrollments within the Tarrytowns district is published in the available sources.

New York has no enacted K-12 education savings account or voucher program. Senate bill S388 has been introduced but not enacted into law, and no local fiscal effect on the district from such a program has been identified as of 2026-07.

Programs, logistics, and special populations

Special education

The district operates under a least-restrictive-environment model, delivering services in students' home district and general-education settings when appropriate, supported by what the district describes as a full continuum of services. This approach aligns with the New York State continuum of special education services for school-age students with disabilities, which establishes the framework of placement options that districts must make available.

The district's published special education offerings include consultant-teacher services, resource room support, related services, special class placements, and integrated co-teaching. The district also provides transition and transitional-support services, travel training, adaptive physical education, and life-skills programming. Extended school year services are available, consistent with state guidance on the topic. Special transportation and the Committee on Preschool Special Education (CPSE) and Committee on Special Education (CSE) processes round out the district's published service array. The district's Pupil Personnel Services department oversees these programs. Parents or guardians who believe a child may need special education services can access the state complaint procedures published by NYSED.

Specific counts of students with Individualized Education Programs are not reported in the available data for the 2023-24 enrollment period. The district does not publish IEP counts in the sources available for this report.

English learners and dual language

The district provides English as a New Language (ENL) services and operates an elementary dual-language immersion program in English and Spanish. The dual-language program integrates native English and Spanish speakers for instruction in both languages, with the goal of developing bilingualism and biliteracy. The federal Office of English Language Acquisition provides the national policy framework for such programs, and the National Education Association publishes resources on English learner instruction.

Specific counts of English learner students are not reported in the available enrollment data for 2023-24. The district's enrollment composition provides context for the scale of bilingual services: 1,619 Hispanic students represented 61.3 percent of total enrollment in 2023-24, according to NCES Common Core of Data. Whether all or most of these students require English learner services cannot be determined from the available data, as Hispanic ethnicity and English learner status are distinct categories.

Pre-kindergarten

The district operates a lottery-based Universal Prekindergarten program. According to the district's own figures, the program serves approximately 144 children across eight full-day classes. Seats are assigned by computerized random selection, with waitlists maintained as needed. Full-day UPK operates approximately 8:00 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. at John Paulding Elementary and partner sites. The lottery model means that no family is guaranteed a seat, and the district does not publish information about historical odds of selection or the typical length of waitlist movement.

Career and technical education

The district offers multiple career and technical education pathways. Through a partnership with the Southern Westchester BOCES Center for Occupational Education, students can access occupational and trade education across multiple fields. A 2023-2024 career pathways catalog describes the range of BOCES occupational programs available to participating districts.

At Sleepy Hollow High School, the district offers AP Cybersecurity, which prepares students for the CompTIA Security+ industry credential. The course selection guide outlines additional pathways including the Individualized Senior Experience for work-based learning and career exploration, Project Y.O.U. for work-study and job placement, and a Student Help Desk Technician program operated through the high school's Technology Department. A partnership with Monroe College supports the Take a Look at Teaching program, which introduces students to careers in education. The Experiential Learning Program provides work-based learning opportunities and leads to the Skills and Achievement Commencement Credential.

Athletics and arts

The district's interscholastic athletic program, known as the Horsemen, is administered through the district athletics department. The middle school also maintains its own athletics offerings for younger students.

In the arts, the high school offers programs in visual and media arts and music and performing arts, including band, orchestra, and choral programs. The middle school maintains its own music and performing arts program. The district does not publish participation counts for arts or athletics programs in the available sources.

Transportation

Bus eligibility in the district is determined by distance from home to school, with thresholds varying by grade level. For students in PreK through grade 5, eligibility begins at 0.3 mile or greater. For grades 6 through 8, the threshold is 0.8 mile or greater. For grades 9 through 12, eligibility begins at 2.0 miles or greater, measured to the school's bus loop. These thresholds are published by the district transportation department.

A policy change effective 2025-26 aligns transportation for private and parochial school students only to days when district public schools are in session. According to News 12 Hudson Valley reporting from August 2025, parents and bus drivers pushed back against this change, which reduced service days and affected driver hours. The dispute illustrates how transportation policy decisions can affect both families relying on private school busing and the workforce that delivers the service. The AP-NORC 2025 State of School Transportation project and industry reporting on bus driver shortages provide broader national context for the pressures districts face in maintaining transportation service.

Bell times

The district's bell schedule varies by building, which means that families with children in multiple schools may need to coordinate different start and end times. John Paulding and Tappan Hill operate roughly 8:20 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. W.L. Morse runs roughly 8:55 a.m. to 3:25 p.m. Washington Irving operates roughly 7:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. The middle school and high school both begin around 7:45 a.m. The high school bell schedule is published on the school's website, and the district maintains a school schedules page with building-specific information.

Before and after school care

The Family YMCA at Tarrytown provides before and after school care for UPK and grades K-5. Before care costs $189 per month plus a $50 registration fee and runs 1.5 hours before school. The YMCA also operates the LEAPS enrichment program at John Paulding. If no spots are available in the LEAPS program, children are placed on a first-come, first-served waitlist. The YMCA also offers vacation camps and broader school-age programming that families can access during school breaks.

A grant-funded free after-school program at the middle school was reported by The Hudson Independent, expanding care options beyond the elementary level. The availability and duration of grant-funded programs typically depend on the terms of the specific grant, and families should verify current status with the district.

Calendar

For the 2026-27 school year, the board-approved calendar sets the first student day as September 2, 2026, and the last student day as June 25, 2027. The district does not operate on a four-day school week. The district also maintains a calendar page on its website. A separate calendar resource also tracks the district's schedule. Families planning around the calendar should note that the first student day in early September and the last day in late June define a roughly ten-month instructional year, with holidays and recesses distributed throughout as published in the board-approved document.

Safety, climate, and community

How New York State reports school safety

The district participates in New York State's School Safety and Educational Climate (SSEC) reporting system, administered by NYSED. The SSEC framework counts incidents rather than individual students, and its categories cover violence, weapons possession, drugs and alcohol, threats, and material incidents of harassment, bullying, or discrimination. These definitions evolve over time, and the reporting period spans July 1 through June 30, including summer school sessions. NYSED publishes SSEC incident data for districts outside New York City in annual "Rest of State" spreadsheet files, with the most recent covering 2024-25 and the prior year covering 2023-24. The SSEC definitions memo outlines the specific incident types and reporting criteria that districts must follow, and the reporting memo for 2024-25 provides current instructions. A family looking up this district's incident counts would find them in the state-published 2024-25 Rest of State file or the 2023-24 Rest of State file. Because the SSEC counts incidents and not students, a single student involved in multiple incidents would appear multiple times in the data, and a single incident involving multiple students would appear once. The categories themselves are broader than their colloquial labels might suggest: a "material incident of harassment" under SSEC definitions need not involve physical contact but must meet a severity threshold that materially disrupts the educational environment.

The district maintains a District-Wide Safety Plan adopted for 2026-27, with a draft version for 2025-26 also available. New York State requires districts to adopt and annually update such plans under its school safety plan regulations. The district's safety and security page provides additional information about building-level emergency procedures and security protocols.

Federal civil rights data on suspensions

The most recent federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) covering this district is from the 2021-22 school year. The CRDC reports disciplinary actions for students without disabilities, broken down by race, sex, and English Learner status. For in-school suspensions in 2021-22, the CRDC recorded 43 incidents involving students without disabilities across racial categories: 35 involving Hispanic students (28 male, 7 female), 1 involving a Black male student, 3 involving White students (2 male, 1 female), and 4 involving students of two or more races (3 male, 1 female). Separately, 4 in-school suspensions involved male English Learner students. For single out-of-school suspensions in 2021-22, the CRDC recorded 18 incidents across racial categories: 16 involving Hispanic students (10 male, 6 female), 1 involving a White male student, and 1 involving a male student of two or more races. An additional 5 single out-of-school suspensions involved male English Learner students. The district recorded 1 multiple out-of-school suspension in 2021-22, involving a White female student. These figures cover students without disabilities only; the CRDC also collects suspension data for students with disabilities, but those figures are not included in the data on file. No in-school or out-of-school suspensions were recorded for American Indian, Asian, or Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students in any category in the 2021-22 data. The English Learner category is a separate cross-tabulation in the CRDC, meaning English Learner students are also counted within their respective racial categories, so the EL figures are not additive with the racial totals.

Discipline approach

The district's Code of Conduct describes a progressive discipline approach with escalating consequences. According to the district's own framing, the code emphasizes student support and appropriate conduct, with consequences aligned to repairing harm and maintaining a safe learning environment. The full document is published on the district's Code of Conduct page.

School resource officers

The reviewed materials do not contain specific information about whether the district employs school resource officers or contracts with local law enforcement for on-campus security personnel. The district's safety and security page and its District-Wide Safety Plan address emergency preparedness and building security, but the available documents do not specify the presence or absence of sworn law enforcement officers in schools.

Cell phone policy and New York's statewide requirement

Board Policy 5695, titled "Students' Personal Electronic Devices," prohibits student use of personal internet-enabled devices during the school day except for specified, sanctioned purposes. Under the policy, devices must be silenced and stored as directed by building leaders, and violations are subject to Code of Conduct consequences. This local policy aligns with New York State's distraction-free schools initiative, which establishes a model standard prohibiting unsanctioned use of smartphones and other internet-enabled personal devices on school grounds during the school day, with enumerated exceptions. Districts across the state have been submitting plans to implement bell-to-bell restrictions beginning in the 2025-26 school year. The state provides implementation resources for districts developing their plans, and the NYSUT fact sheet summarizes the regulatory framework for internet-enabled device restrictions. The Hudson Independent reported on the district's ban on electronic device use.

Climate survey results

The reviewed materials do not contain published climate survey results specific to this district. The district maintains a social-emotional learning department and references climate-related initiatives on its website, but no district-administered climate survey results were identified in the available sources.

Transportation policy controversy

In August 2025, a local television outlet reported that families and bus drivers objected after the board of education approved a change to transportation policy. Under the approved change, transportation for private and parochial students would occur only when Tarrytown public schools are in session. The News12 report, dated August 15, 2025, quoted objections from affected families and bus drivers and described the policy's terms. As of the last reviewed reporting, no subsequent formal resolution was identified in district-posted materials. The controversy remains open as last reported by the cited source.

Leadership, governance, and labor

Dr. Raymond Sanchez has served as Superintendent of Schools since July 1, 2023. He came to the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns from the Ossining Union Free School District, where he held the superintendency from 2013 to 2023 (LoHud). A regional news outlet reported on September 23, 2024 that Sanchez was named New York State Superintendent of the Year for 2024-25 (LoHud). The district's website lists the Superintendent of Schools and the District Clerk, Nelly Valentin, as the two officially designated cabinet positions (TUFSD).

Over the past decade, the district has had two superintendents. Christopher Borsari served from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2023, departing via retirement. Sanchez succeeded him on July 1, 2023. This represents one superintendent transition in approximately ten years. No interim superintendent period was identified in the reviewed materials. The transition from Borsari to Sanchez involved a direct appointment following a retirement, with no documented gap in permanent leadership between the two tenures.

The Board of Education consists of seven members. Krista Barron serves as President with a term expiring in 2027. Amanda Wallwin serves as Vice President. The remaining trustees are Cecelia Gordon (term expires 2027), Michelle DeFilippis (term expires 2027), Alex Fletcher, John Paine (term expires 2029), and Liz Santillanes (first elected 2025, term expires 2029) (TUFSD).

Three recent board elections provide context on electoral engagement. On May 19, 2026, two candidates ran for two seats in an uncontested election; Liz Santillanes and John Paine were elected to three-year terms ending June 30, 2029. On May 20, 2025, a contested election was held for three seats, with reporting identifying Alex Fletcher, Amanda Wallwin, and Liz Santillanes as the winning slate (Patch). On May 21, 2024, local reporting indicated incumbents were returned alongside budget approval (Hudson Independent). No turnout figures were published for any of these three elections in the materials reviewed. The absence of published turnout data means the degree of community participation at the polls cannot be assessed from available public sources.

The district's sole identified bargaining unit is the Teachers' Association of the Tarrytowns, Local 3049, affiliated with AFT, AFL-CIO, NYSUT, and NEA. The latest located Teachers' Association agreement expired on June 30, 2025 (TAT contract). No public successor agreement, impasse declaration, strike authorization, or strike threat was located as of July 25, 2026, so the current bargaining status is unknown. No work stoppage history was identified in the reviewed materials. The absence of a publicly posted successor agreement means the district may be operating under expired terms while negotiations proceed, or a successor may exist that was not located in public sources. Either way, the public record does not confirm current labor terms.

Regarding state oversight, no current intervention was identified. The district is not listed among the New York State Office of the State Comptroller's stressed districts for FY2025 (OSC stressed schools), and no NYSED state monitor is assigned (NYSED state monitors). The district does appear in the OSC's historical audit records: in January 2019, the OSC issued a fixed-assets audit (2018M-185) covering the period from July 1, 2016 through May 8, 2018, which required a corrective-action plan within 90 days (OSC audit). This was an audit finding, not a fiscal-stress designation or the appointment of a monitor. Fixed-assets audits examine whether a district properly tracked and safeguarded physical assets such as equipment and infrastructure during the audited period, and the corrective-action plan requirement gave the district 90 days to address identified deficiencies.

The district's FY2025 audited financial statements, dated June 30, 2025, disclose pending real-property tax certiorari proceedings under RPTL Article 7 (FY2025 financial statements). The district reports $781,692 restricted for tax certiorari and $659,540 in claims paid during the fiscal year. These proceedings are pending and in process as of June 30, 2025, with no later public procedural status located. Tax certiorari proceedings under RPTL Article 7 allow property owners to challenge municipal assessments in New York; when a challenge succeeds, the district must refund or credit the resulting tax difference to the petitioner. The district maintains a restricted reserve while the ultimate liability remains undetermined, meaning the final financial impact depends on outcomes not yet reached. These are pending proceedings, not findings of liability.

A governance signal worth noting occurred on August 15, 2025, when a TV news report stated the board approved a transportation policy under which private- and parochial-school transportation would operate only when Tarrytown public schools are in session (News12). Community members and drivers objected to the change. No subsequent district-posted resolution was identified in the reviewed materials, and no formal grievance or litigation related to the policy was located. The policy's operational status and any future board action on it are unknown.

Risks and watch items: the forward calendar

The following items represent scheduled or anticipated events with identifiable dates or windows drawn from public district communications and reporting. Each is a dated fact or a stated expectation from a public source, not a prediction. Where a date is not yet set, it is identified as expected but unscheduled.

Board action on the 2026-27 safety plan. On July 6, 2026, the district published its 2026-27 District-wide Safety and Emergency Management Plan for public access and comment in advance of anticipated board action (safety plan). Board of Education consideration is expected on August 13, 2026. Adoption will set the district's emergency prevention, response, and recovery framework for the 2026-27 school year. The plan was posted as a draft for public review, consistent with New York State requirements that school safety plans be available for public comment before board adoption.

Summer 2026 construction milestones. The district's capital-projects presentation dated March 10, 2026 reported progress on multiple sites, including a turf field timeline and ongoing work at Washington Irving. Summer 2026 sitework milestones include work at Morse Elementary School and turnover of the Washington Irving lower parking lot, expected during August 2026. Site access and traffic circulation patterns may change ahead of the 2026-27 school year as a result. The district's facilities FAQ page provides additional context on ongoing construction impacts (TUFSD facilities).

Washington Irving addition and renovation timeline. A 12-classroom addition and phased renovations at Washington Irving are underway, with construction spanning multiple school years. Phased space changes are expected beginning around September 2026, with full completion targeted by fall 2028. The district's capital-projects presentation outlined phased timelines extending through future school years. Voters previously approved an $86.8 million capital project (Patch), and the Washington Irving work represents a component of that broader authorization. Construction spanning multiple school years means students and staff will experience phased space changes, with full completion not expected until fall 2028.

Teachers' Association contract successor. The latest located agreement for the Teachers' Association of the Tarrytowns, Local 3049, expired on June 30, 2025 (TAT contract). No public successor agreement, impasse declaration, or negotiation schedule was located as of July 25, 2026. The next scheduled bargaining milestone is not publicly identified; the status of negotiations is unknown. Until a successor agreement is publicly posted, the district's labor terms with its teachers remain unconfirmed in public sources.

Pending tax certiorari proceedings. The district's FY2025 audited financial statements, dated June 30, 2025, disclose pending RPTL Article 7 tax-certiorari proceedings (FY2025 financial statements). The district reports $781,692 restricted for tax certiorari and $659,540 in claims paid during the fiscal year. No scheduled court date or procedural milestone was located in the reviewed materials. The proceedings remain pending as of June 30, 2025, with no later public procedural status identified. Resolution of these proceedings will affect the district's property-tax refund obligations and reserve requirements, but no timeline for resolution is publicly available.

Board terms expiring in 2027. Three board members -- Krista Barron, Cecelia Gordon, and Michelle DeFilippis -- have terms expiring in 2027 (TUFSD). The district's annual budget vote and board election has occurred in May in each of the past three years on record (May 21, 2024; May 20, 2025; and May 19, 2026). No specific 2027 election date has been published in the reviewed sources. The next board election is expected but unscheduled.

Transportation policy follow-up. A TV news report on August 15, 2025 stated the board approved a transportation policy under which private- and parochial-school transportation would operate only when Tarrytown public schools are in session (News12). Community members and drivers objected. No subsequent district-posted resolution or implementation timeline was identified in the reviewed materials. Any future board action or policy revision is expected but unscheduled.

2027-28 budget development. The district posted its Board-adopted 2026-27 budget document on May 19, 2026 (budget document). The 2027-28 budget development cycle is expected but unscheduled in public sources. The budget process will establish the spending framework for the 2027-28 school year, including capital project allocations and staffing levels. Based on the district's recent pattern of May budget votes, a 2027-28 budget vote would be expected in May 2027, but no date has been set.

Surprising insights

Under the Princeton Plan, a family's specific address within the district boundary has no effect on school assignment. Two families living miles apart, with children in the same grade, will be assigned to the same school. This is unusual because in most districts, school assignment is tied to neighborhood attendance zones, and homebuyers typically evaluate specific addresses against school catchment maps. Here, the only geographic question that matters is whether a property is inside or outside the district boundary line itself.

The district's adopted budget for 2026-27 does not balance without applying $1,500,000 of assigned appropriated fund balance, meaning recurring current-year revenue does not cover the full expenditure plan as presented. Despite this structural gap, the New York State Office of the State Comptroller's 2024 fiscal-stress summary assigned the district a "No Designation" status with a 0.0 score, indicating no fiscal-stress indicators were triggered. A district can appear fiscally healthy by the state's monitoring framework while simultaneously using reserves to close a gap between ongoing revenue and ongoing costs.

The district's total OPEB liability of $120,944,187 as of June 30, 2025, as reported in the district's audited financial statements, exceeds the district's annual operating budget of $107,369,986 for 2026-27. This liability represents promised retiree health benefits that are not pre-funded in the manner that pensions are. It grows as retirees accumulate and health costs rise, and it constitutes a long-term obligation that will affect future budget planning regardless of current fiscal-stress designations.

Sleepy Hollow High School enrolls not only resident students from within the Tarrytowns UFSD boundary but also tuition-paying students from the Pocantico Hills Central School District, which operates only a kindergarten-through-grade-8 program. This inbound receiving relationship means the high school's population includes students from outside the district's tax base, and the academic outcomes reported at the high school level reflect a mix of resident and non-resident students. The arrangement is documented on Pocantico Hills's partner high schools page.

AP proficiency rates for 2023-24 show dramatic gaps between 11th and 12th graders in the same subject. AP Computer Science A showed 66.7% proficiency among 11th graders and 5.6% among 12th graders. AP Biology showed 69.2% versus 33.3%. AP Environmental Science showed 63.6% versus 30.0%. Without test-taker counts, these gaps cannot be definitively explained, but they illustrate how small numbers of test-takers can produce extreme percentages that shift dramatically with the addition or subtraction of a few scores.

Best fit: who this district serves well

A family evaluating this district should understand its educational offerings and logistical structure in terms of specific needs rather than general reputation. The following describes what the district provides and what it does not, framed by educational and logistical requirements.

For a family that values feeder certainty, the Princeton Plan provides a structural guarantee that is uncommon in most districts. Because school assignment is determined by grade level rather than neighborhood, there are no attendance zones to redraw and no risk that a boundary change would reassign a child to a different school. All students in the same grade attend the same building regardless of address. This eliminates a category of uncertainty that affects homebuyers in neighborhood-zoned districts, where a redistricting study can change school assignment without a family moving.

For a student who wants to access Advanced Placement coursework without competitive admission or testing gates, the district's open enrollment model is relevant. Honors, AP, and college-level courses are open to all students at Sleepy Hollow High School, according to the district's 2026-27 curriculum guide. Teacher recommendations are suggested but not required, and a student who is not recommended may submit a Course Challenge Form to enroll anyway. The pathway to advanced coursework runs through a recommendation-and-override system rather than a selective admissions process.

For a student interested in extended independent research, the district offers a three-year Science Research program for grades 10 through 12, affiliated with SUNY Albany's University in the High School program. This is a specialized offering that goes beyond standard coursework and provides a structured research experience over multiple years. An additional Inquiry in Science elective is also available.

For a student seeking college credit while in high school, the district offers dual enrollment with six partner institutions: SUNY Westchester Community College, SUNY Albany, SUNY Oneonta, SUNY New Paltz, Syracuse University, and Monroe College. Some courses require a placement exam administered by the partner college, and tuition is paid by the student or family, often at a reduced rate. Acceptance of dual enrollment credit by future colleges is not guaranteed.

For a family that values small district scale, the district enrolls 2,643 students across five schools, with a single high school. This scale means the district operates as a single pipeline rather than a system of competing schools, and a student progresses through the same sequence of buildings as every other student in the district.

The district does not currently offer an International Baccalaureate program. It does not operate a selective or magnet school. Universal Pre-K admission is lottery-based and not guaranteed; the district has indicated that winner and waitlist letters for UPK are mailed on March 14, 2026. A family needing pre-K should understand that placement is not assured. No published building capacity or utilization report was identified in district materials, which means a family cannot assess from available documents whether a particular building is approaching functional capacity. No in-district school choice exists for kindergarten through grade 12, because the Princeton Plan assigns by grade rather than by preference.

The computed assessment data on file is limited to AP proficiency rates for 2023-24 and does not include Regents exam results, grades 3-8 assessment results, or college entrance exam results in the computed dataset. Data on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, Individualized Education Program participation, and English learner status are reported as missing for this district in the available data. A family needing detailed information about special education services or English learner supports would need to contact the district directly, as these data are not available in the computed profile. The most recent graduation data on file is from the 2019-20 school year, four years before the most recent assessment data, limiting the ability to connect graduation outcomes to current academic performance.

Questions parents should ask

How many students took each AP exam in 2023-24? The proficiency rates on file range from 5.6% to 100.0%, but without test-taker counts, a rate could reflect 5 students or 50. Ask the high school counseling office or the district's data and accountability staff.

What is the current utilization of each school building relative to its design capacity? No published capacity or utilization report was identified in district materials. Ask the district's buildings and grounds department or the assistant superintendent for business.

What are the Grade 8 Algebra I placement procedures? The Civil Rights Data Collection for 2021-22 confirms the district reports Algebra I enrollment, but the specific referral, testing, or prerequisite processes are not detailed in available materials. Ask the middle school counseling office or the mathematics department chair.

What are the odds of receiving a Universal Pre-K slot, and how does the lottery work? UPK admission is lottery-based and not guaranteed, with winner and waitlist letters reported to be mailed on March 14, 2026. Ask the John Paulding School office or the district's central registration.

What is the district's plan for addressing the $120,944,187 OPEB liability reported as of June 30, 2025? This liability exceeds the annual operating budget and represents a long-term obligation that will affect future budgets. Ask the assistant superintendent for business or raise the question during a board of education budget presentation.

How will the district close the $1,500,000 structural gap between recurring revenue and recurring expenditures in future budgets? The 2026-27 budget balances only after applying assigned fund balance. Ask the superintendent or the assistant superintendent for business at a board of education meeting.

What specific staffing or program reductions took effect after ARP-ESSER funding expired in September 2024? The district's ESSER documents did not provide a post-expiration cut list. Ask the assistant superintendent for business or the superintendent.

What identification method does the district use for gifted and talented placement? The CRDC for 2021-22 confirms a gifted program exists with 150 enrolled students, but the referral, screening, or testing procedures are not described in available materials. Ask the district's pupil personnel services office or the curriculum coordinator.

What is the tuition arrangement with Pocantico Hills CSD for incoming high school students, and how many students are involved? Sleepy Hollow High School enrolls both resident and sending students, but the financial terms and enrollment counts are not detailed in the available data. Ask the assistant superintendent for business.

What is the district's current chronic absenteeism rate for 2024-25? The computed data shows 17.2% for 2022-23, but the district also reports data through NYSED's accountability system for more recent years. Ask the district's attendance office or the accountability coordinator.

What are the middle school mathematics acceleration pathways beyond Grade 8 Algebra I? The curriculum guide may contain specific placement procedures, but the available materials do not describe them. Ask the middle school principal or the mathematics department chair.

What is the status and timeline of the capital projects at Washington Irving Intermediate School? Phase 2 work including plumbing rebid is documented, and the district sold $34,340,810 of serial bonds on December 9, 2025. Ask the district's facilities department or consult the BoardDocs public portal.

Scope, method, and sourcing notes

This report compiles enrollment, assessment, finance, graduation, absenteeism, civil rights, and accountability data for the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns (NCES LEA ID 3628650) from federal, state, and district-published sources. The report does not rate, rank, or recommend the district. It describes what is true based on available data and lets families decide.

Enrollment and school listing data come from the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data for the 2023-24 school year. The district reported 2,643 students across five open schools. Race and ethnicity data are reported at the district level. Data on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, Individualized Education Program participation, and English learner status are reported as missing for this district in the available data and could not be filled. Child poverty data was unavailable for this district in the computed data.

Assessment data consist of Advanced Placement proficiency rates from the 2023-24 school year, reported through New York State's education data system. The database contains 55 assessment series spanning 2006 through 2025, but the specific AP proficiency series available for this district contain data points only from 2023-24. No multi-year trajectory analysis is possible for the same subjects and grade levels. No Regents exam results, grades 3-8 English Language Arts or Mathematics assessment results, PSAT, SAT, or ACT results, or AP participation rates are included in the computed data. No subgroup breakdowns by race, ethnicity, economic status, English learner status, or disability status are available for any assessment measure. The AP proficiency rates do not include test-taker counts, which means small numbers of test-takers can produce extreme percentages.

Finance data come from the US Census Bureau Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) for FY2023. The district's adopted budget figures, audited financial statements, bond materials, and credit rating are drawn from district-published documents and Moody's, as cited in the body sections.

Graduation data on file are from the 2019-20 school year, sourced from EDFacts ACGR via the Urban Institute Education Data API. The four-year graduation cohort consisted of 206 students. No graduation rate percentage is reported in the available data. This data is several years old and predates the most recent assessment results by four academic years.

Chronic absenteeism data come from EDFacts Data Group 814 for the 2022-23 school year, reporting a rate of 17.2% for all students. Civil Rights Data Collection figures, including Algebra I enrollment, suspension data, AP enrollment, and gifted enrollment, are from the 2021-22 school year. Accountability designations and Student Growth data are from the New York State Education Department for the 2025-26 school year, based on 2024-25 results.

No long-run enrollment series was available for this district. No district-published enrollment projection or demographic study was identified. No published building capacity or utilization report was located. No post-September 2024 ESSER cut list was provided in district materials. No written grandfathering rule or recent boundary-redraw precedent was identified, though the Princeton Plan's grade-based assignment model makes traditional boundary redistricting inapplicable. Market and housing figures, where referenced in the broader report, are approximations at the ZIP or municipal level rather than district-level precise figures. The high school's self-reported figures, including SAT means, college enrollment rates, and AP exam participation counts, are attributed to the school's own 2025 profile document and have not been independently verified.

About SchoolDecision.com

SchoolDecision.com publishes source-attributed profiles of US school districts and schools built from government data. It does not rate, rank, or recommend districts. Each profile compiles enrollment, assessment, finance, graduation, and accountability data from federal and state sources, supplemented by district-published materials. The publication describes what is true and lets families decide. Profiles are updated as new data become available, and limitations are stated explicitly rather than concealed.