FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

All children beginning in Preschool study a world language. Preschoolers learn Spanish and Junior Kindergarten students are exposed to both Spanish and French. Students in Kindergarten through grade 8 are required to study either French or Spanish.  

No.  Congressional's belief in the importance of innovative, dynamic teaching is one reason the school does not participate in the SOL program.  Our SOL-independence empowers teachers to introduce new resources and explore challenging new material.  Teachers can tailor their teaching to their students.

Congressional's own benchmarks of achievement are fully articulated.  For each school, a concise scope and sequence outlines curriculum and learning objectives by subject area.  Assessment of student performance includes a teacher's direct observation of a child's understanding.  The external indicator we use is Educational Records Bureau (ERB) testing. 

Children in all grades have specialized teachers for physical education, music, art, and world language. Middle School students also study speech and drama which includes debating, public speaking and broadcast journalism. Middle school students also take a financial literacy class once a year.

Congressional offers an extensive after school sports program with Junior Varsity (Grades 5-6) and Varsity (Grades 7-8) teams that play other local schools. We offer a variety of sports and have a no-cut policy. As a result, we love that around 95% of our middle school students participate in athletics.

Our teams are a part of the Capital Athletics Conference and the president of the conference is our Director of Athletics and Physical Education, Coach Tavis Laws.

Visit our Athletics page to view all the sports offered.

All students in Kindergarten through Grade 8 are required to wear uniforms. They are optional for younger children.

Congressional School offers both door-to-door and community stop bus transportation. This service is able to be selected for students in preschool or higher. To learn more and to see the community stops and door-to-door eligible zones, please visit the transportation page on our website.

Congressional's Extended Hours Program (EHP) is available in the morning from 7:00-8:15 am and in the afternoon from 3:30 to 6:00 pm.  We do not provide transportation for children who are in EHP.

Visit the EHP page for more details.

Congressional School is committed to accepting and enrolling a well-qualified and diverse student body.  To that end, we make every effort to ensure that motivated, talented, well-rounded students have the opportunity to receive an education at Congressional, regardless of cost. 

Financial aid decisions are made independently from admissions decisions.  Financial aid is based solely on demonstrated need as determined by our Financial Aid Committee, which relies on the analysis provided by the School and Student Services for Financial Aid (http://sssbynais.org/parents) as well as the availability of funds and the number of applicants for financial aid.  Financial aid is available beginning in our Preschool classes.

We know that financing an independent school education can be a difficult process, and we would like to help in any way we can.  For any questions concerning financial aid, tuition or payment plans, please do not hesitate to call our Director of Admission and Financial Aid, Gretchen Herbst: 703-533-1064.

Early Childhood hours are from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Preschool - 8th grade hours are from 8:15 am to 3:30 pm.

Extended Hours are at 7:00 - 8:15 am and 3:30 - 6:00 pm.