• Shirts must have a collar; only the top button may be left unbuttoned; button-down shirts must be tucked in; no words or pictures (small logos OK); on Fridays only, school-logo collarless shirts are permitted
• Pants: conservative colors; no cargo pants, jeans, sweatpants; worn at waist level
• Kippah and tzitzit must be worn at all times
• No torn garments; hair must be neat, not below midpoint of ear, above collar in back; no extreme styles; no hair dyeing
• No inappropriate jewelry or piercings
• Sweaters/sweatshirts with appropriate logos permitted with collared shirt underneath
• No hats or sunglasses in school; no hoods during class
• Shoes/sneakers with backs required, socks required; no sandals, flip flops, or slippers
• Must be clean-shaven or well-groomed (except when mandated by Halacha)
• Sneakers required during PE

• Shirts must have sleeves covering the elbow; necklines to the collarbone; only MHA/GMSG sweatshirts or plain sweatshirts allowed; shirts long enough to cover midriff; no words or graphics (small logos OK); no tee shirts; not skin tight
• Skirts must cover knees at all times; slits below the knee; waistband must cover midriff
• No torn garments; hair must be appropriate for a bat Torah; no inappropriate hair dye colors
• No inappropriate jewelry or piercings other than earrings
• No hats or bandanas
• Appropriate footwear at all times; sneakers required during PE with shorts/leggings under skirt

Dress code violations result in a notification to student and parents. After a 2nd or 3rd incident, a parent meeting is required. After 4 infractions, additional disciplinary action is taken.

Boys wear navy or khaki pants. Girls wear navy or khaki skirts. All students wear white or blue polo shirts. Uniforms are available through Lands' End, use our school number (900169277) when ordering.

• Tutors are permitted to enter the building only after school hours and during lunch
• OT, PT, and other therapy appointments may be scheduled during school hours only if supported by an IEP
• All visitors must sign in at the front office and wear a visitor badge
• Exceptions require written request and approval from administration; medical/mental health exceptions require documentation and a 504/8-week plan

MHA restricts parent classroom observations in order to protect:

• Confidentiality and privacy of other students
• Student emotional safety and comfort
• Classroom dynamics and the learning environment

Therapists are welcome to observe classrooms. Parents are encouraged to arrange meetings with teachers to discuss any concerns about their child's progress.

MHA-CYOS believes that students should be placed in the grade that is most developmentally appropriate for them as whole children. Grade placement is not determined by academics alone, nor by age alone, nor by parent preference alone. Rather, the school considers the full developmental profile of the child, including academic readiness, social development, emotional maturity, and executive functioning.

As a general rule, students are expected to progress with their chronological age cohort. Age matters because school is not only an academic environment — it is also a social, emotional, religious, and developmental environment. A student may have academic strengths above grade level or executive functioning challenges below grade level, but that does not automatically mean the student belongs in a different grade.

Requests for retention, grade skipping, or any other alternative grade assignment will be considered only in exceptional circumstances and only when supported by substantial evidence. Parents who wish to explore an alternative grade placement must present the school with outside clinical, neuropsychological, psychoeducational, or developmental documentation showing that the proposed placement is appropriate across all four of the following domains:

• Academic readiness: The student demonstrates academic skills and achievement that align with the proposed grade placement and can reasonably sustain success in that grade's curriculum.
• Social development: The student is able to relate appropriately to the students in the proposed grade and is likely to function well within that peer group.
• Emotional readiness: The student has the maturity, resilience, independence, and self-regulation necessary for the proposed placement.
• Executive functioning: The student has the attention, organization, task initiation, planning, flexibility, working memory, and self-management skills needed to function successfully in the proposed grade.

Outside documentation must come from an appropriately qualified clinician, psychologist, neuropsychologist, or educational evaluator. The school will also consider its own internal data, including classroom performance, teacher observations, social functioning, behavior, work habits, attendance, and Judaic and general studies readiness.

Alternative grade placement will not be approved for reasons unrelated to the child's documented educational and developmental needs — including, but not limited to, athletic advantage, physical size, parental preference for birth-order positioning in the class, sibling convenience, social strategy, or a desire to create a more favorable competitive profile.

Final decisions regarding promotion, retention, grade skipping, or alternative grade placement rest with the school. The school will review parent input and outside evaluations carefully and respectfully, but must make the final determination based on what it believes is in the best interest of the student and the integrity of the educational program.

Class chats ARE for:

• Class-specific information (trips, collecting money for teacher gifts, etc.)
• Lifecycle moments and meal trains for families in the class
• School-related updates and Parents Council updates
• Calls for volunteers for school events

Class chats are NOT for:

• Specific questions about your child or issues they are having
• Concerns that should go to an administrator
• Non-school-related topics (shul events, politics, Israel updates, etc.)
• Personal opinions or lashon hara
• Questions answerable from the school website
• Posting homework