The Montessori School at Washington Avenue - Preschool/Kindergarten & Summer School

The Montessori School at Washington Avenue - Preschool/Kindergarten & Summer School offers a daily schedule that includes Inside Time with day care materials, Group Time with greeting and calendar, Montessori Class Time with choice of materials, snack, and Outside Time in the play yard. Children participate in activities such as Music and Movements, Aesop’s Fables, Spanish, Composer and Artist of the Month, art and crafts, creative movement and music, supervised cooking, a Tea Party as a grace and courtesy activity, and Story Time. The program also includes practical life skills like pouring, buttoning, tying shoelaces, spoken language exercises, vocabulary building, phonics, reading, handwriting, mathematics using manipulatives, and studies of plants, animals, geography, land and water forms, continents and oceans, history, and mapping, as well as a Summer School that uses models, puzzles, books, projects, and arts and crafts.

• Ages: 2–6 years old
• Schedule: School hours Monday–Friday, 7am–6pm, with Half Day (9am–12pm or 12:30pm–3:30pm), Extended Day (9am–3pm or 12pm–6pm), and Daycare (7am–6pm) options; academic years run 8/18/2025–5/21/2026 and 8/17/2026–5/21/2027
• Price: 2025–2026 tuition ranges from $6,900 for Half Day, $10,500 for Extended Day, and $13,500 for Daycare; 2026–2027 tuition ranges from $7,000 for Half Day, $10,600 for Extended Day, and $13,500 for Daycare, plus book and material fees, a $125 application fee, a $200 enrollment/re-enrollment deposit, a ten-hour or $200 per-child work commitment, a 10% sibling discount on tuition, $12 per hour day care, and a late pick-up fee of $5 per five minutes after 6:00pm.

The Montessori School at Washington Avenue has served the San Leandro, San Lorenzo, and surrounding communities since 1991 and offers programs for children from age two through kindergarten, including a Two Year Old program for ages 2–3, a Preschool/Kindergarten program for ages 3–6, and a Summer School for ages 2–6 with rotating themes of Invertebrate Animals (2026), Human Anatomy (2027), and the Solar System (2028). The school follows a Montessori curriculum based on the principles of Maria Montessori, with multi-age groupings, a prepared environment with specially designed materials and activities, and classroom focus areas in Practical Life, Sensorial Development, Language and Literacy, Mathematics, and Cultural Studies. Each classroom includes a head teacher and two qualified assistants for a group as large as 36 students, with one teacher visually observing and supervising at most 12 children in attendance, and the school uses a touchless attendance system, motion-detecting hand sanitizers, daily sanitizing and janitorial, and an emergency disaster plan.

All teachers have state-required units in Early Childhood Education, CPR and First Aid Training, Mandated Reporter Training, and criminal background checks, and most hold higher education degrees and Montessori credentials through Montessori accredited training programs or are currently in training. Lead teachers are AMS credentialed, all teachers are actively working toward their Montessori credential, and all employees, including assistants, administrators, and supporting staff, receive a full background check through the FBI and Department of Justice. The school is affiliated with the American Montessori Society (AMS), is licensed by the State of California through Community Care Licensing, is non-sectarian, and enrolls children from various ethnicities and religious beliefs, with all parents members of the Parent Association and each family responsible for ten hours of work commitment per year per child.

The Montessori School at Washington Avenue states that it is dedicated to providing a nurturing and stimulating environment, views each child as a unique individual with limitless potential, and is dedicated to cultivating lifelong learners who possess a love for knowledge, strong character, and the skills necessary to succeed in an ever-changing world. Parent testimonials describe the curriculum as well structured and balanced, mention caring and skilled teachers, and note experiences such as children growing socially and academically, being prepared for elementary school and kindergarten, looking forward to attending school, and receiving support from specific teachers named in the reviews.

Last updated February 15, 2026.