What Brooklyn Free School does

Brooklyn Free School is an independent K-12 day school founded in 2003 in the Clinton Hill/Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, operating from a brownstone. The school serves approximately 40 families through a democratic free school model that eliminates standardized curriculum, mandatory testing, and grading. School governance is conducted through a weekly Democratic Meeting using Robert's Rules of Order and the Iroquois Method, in which students and staff hold equal voting rights on school decisions (excluding health and safety matters). The educational portfolio includes the K-12 democratic free school program, a Social Justice Seminar (weekly 60-90 minute participatory inquiry for Middle and High School students), student-led Affinity Groups organized around shared identity, and the Democratic Meeting governance system itself.

Revenue is generated almost exclusively through sliding scale tuition, where each family's financial contribution is set in proportion to its financial resources to maintain economic, racial, and cultural diversity within the school community. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and operates on an annual billing cadence. The school supplements tuition with donations accepted through Venmo, GoFundMe, and stock-donation channels. No venture capital, private equity, or institutional ownership is present. Go-to-market relies on earned media coverage (NY Times, Wired, Teen Vogue, This American Life, Huffington Post, USA Today), community referrals within progressive education networks, and direct enrollment from families. The school is currently in a transitional phase: it has paused its 5-day-a-week operations to secure its legacy and develop new infrastructure, while continuing to offer classes, programming, and trainings for teachers, homeschoolers, and small schools.

Name

Brooklyn Free School

Legal name

Brooklyn Free School

Website

https://brooklynfreeschool.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Brooklyn Free School is a K-12 independent day school founded in 2003 in Brooklyn, NY, serving approximately 40 families through a democratic free school model with sliding scale tuition. The school is pausing 5-day operations to secure its legacy.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Independent K-12 Alternative Education

NAICS

Elementary and Secondary Schools (6111), Elementary and Secondary Schools (611110), Elementary and Secondary Schools (61111)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Alternative/Pedagogical Model Private Schools (Project-Based, Democratic, etc.) (EDAJABAJ)

Keywords

• Independent K-12 school
• Alternative education
• Democratic free school
• Progressive education
• Student-centered learning

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Sliding Scale Tuition: Brooklyn Free School generates revenue through sliding scale tuition payments from families. Tuition is scaled based on each family's financial resources, enabling economically diverse participation.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Brooklyn Free School is an independent K-12 day school that delivers a democratic free-school education to approximately 40 families in Brooklyn, NY. The school operates without a standardized curriculum, mandatory testing, or grades, and instead centers student voice and self-directed learning through weekly democratic governance meetings, social-justice seminars, and student-led affinity groups. Tuition is offered on a sliding scale based on family financial resources to sustain an economically and racially diverse community.

Product overview

Brooklyn Free School is a K-12 independent day school founded in 2003 serving approximately 40 families. The school's core offering is its Democratic Free School educational model, which features no standardized curriculum, mandatory testing, or grading. The portfolio includes the Democratic Meeting governance system, Social Justice Seminar curriculum, Affinity Groups for identity-based community support, and Sliding Scale Tuition for financial accessibility. All components work together to create a student-centered, anti-racist, and liberatory pedagogy where children are equal partners in their educational development.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• K-12 Democratic Free School Education Full-time K-12 independent day school education based on democratic free-school principles for approximately 40 families in Brooklyn, NY. Features no standardized curriculum, mandatory testing, or grading, and empowers students as equal partners in determining their educational paths. Delivered through weekly democratic meetings, social-justice seminars, student-led affinity groups, and self-directed learning.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Emerging players

• Wildflower Schools (network): Decentralized network of small, Montessori-inspired teacher-led micro-schools. Comparable on small-scale, mission-driven, student-centered independent-school model and decentralized hub structure relevant to BFS's pivot toward teacher/small-school support.

Broad incumbents

• Rudolf Steiner School (NYC): NYC independent K–12 Waldorf school with a long-established alternative, arts-based, non-standardized curriculum. Operates in the same NYC alternative private-school market as BFS at materially larger scale.
• Harkness method schools (e.g., Phillips Exeter Academy): Established elite independent schools using student-led discussion-based pedagogy. Adjacent on the spectrum of non-lecture-based, student-voice-centered pedagogy, though at vastly larger scale and tuition level.
• City and Country School: Long-established NYC progressive independent school (nursery–8) with progressive, child-centered pedagogy. Comparable on NYC geography, independent status, and progressive-education positioning, at greater scale.

Direct peers

• Sudbury Valley School: The founding democratic free school (est. 1968) in Massachusetts. Operates the same student-led, no-mandatory-curriculum, equal-vote governance model that Brooklyn Free School is explicitly modeled on; the most direct conceptual peer.
• Brooklyn Sudbury School: NYC-based Sudbury-model democratic school serving K–12. Operates in the same Brooklyn alternative-education market with overlapping pedagogy (no grades, no required classes, equal student-staff vote).
• The Riverside School (NYC): Small progressive independent K–8 school in NYC with student-centered, project-based pedagogy. Comparable on size, NYC geography, and alternative-education positioning, though less explicitly democratic.
• Albany Free School: New York State democratic free school following the Sudbury model with sliding-scale tuition and student equal vote. Closest geographic and ideological peer to Brooklyn Free School, serving a similarly small family base.
• New School of San Francisco: Bay Area democratic, student-driven K–8 school with progressive pedagogy and shared governance. Operates the same progressive, anti-racist, student-voice-centered framework as BFS at small scale.

Regional players

• GreenWood Charter School: Public charter school in Brooklyn emphasizing arts integration and progressive, student-centered learning. Comparable NYC geography and small-school alternative pedagogy, though publicly funded rather than independent.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/brooklyn-free-school

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Brooklyn Free School