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After spending upwards of a million dollars sending their three children to an elite Upper East Side private school, a couple is trying to have their money refunded over what they claim were false promises made by the institution.
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“To entice the Eliasons to annually pay these high tuition prices for the Girls, the School knowingly made multiple false promises,” the lawsuit, filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court, alleges. “For example, the School repeatedly represented to the Eliasons that the Girls would be taught only by certified and trained Waldorf education professionals…These representations, upon which the Eliasons reasonably relied, were false.”
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The lawsuit claims that the issue of non-Waldorf-certified teachers was more prevalent in younger grades such as kindergarten and nursery school. “This problem became so pervasive that on at least one occasion the School’s Executive Director had to intervene when it involved her own child’s class,” the lawsuit states.
ALSO READ: Upper East Side Street to Close for Elite School’s Benefit–Neighbors Share Frustrations
The Eliasons sent three of their daughters to the school for a total of 24 academic years and spent more than $1,100,000 on tuition while they were enrolled. They finally took their children out of the school prior to the 2023-24 school year and asked for their tuition to be refunded. The couple claims that the school both refused to honor their demand and also asked for an addition $64,000.
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A Waldorf-style education is based on the teachings and principles of Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher and educator who was active in the early twentieth century. Proponents claim that the learning style teaches kids to “assimilate information” rather than simply memorize facts, and encourages them to be “flexible, creative and willing to take intellectual risks.”
There are about 1,100 such schools in 60 different countries around the world. In addition to the Upper East Side school, there is another Waldorf school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
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