DEERFIELD — A new financial aid initiative announced by Deerfield Academy will see all qualifying families earning less than $150,000 pay $0 in tuition and fees at the private school.

The move, announced publicly by the school last week alongside an exclusive Wall Street Journal story, will also see families earning more than $150,000 paying no more than 10% of their verified income for tuition and fees. The initiative is open to U.S. families and they must have two years of verifiable W-2 income with assets consistent with their income profile.

Head of School John Austin said slashing these fees for families is an attempt to increase the accessibility of an education at the private school, which, this year at Deerfield Academy, is set at an annual fee of $74,440 for boarding students and $53,860 for day students. Increased accessibility and affordability, he added, can “attract young people of promise who really want to come to a school like Deerfield.”

“Certainly, we hope that it will increase interest on the part of families who previously thought they couldn’t afford an education like this one,” Austin said in an interview in his office on Tuesday. “You want to have a diverse student body in the spirit of the great pluralistic tradition of this country, so you’re bringing kids who come from many, many different kinds of backgrounds … and that really has a positive impact on the experience of everybody at this school.”

Tuition at Deerfield Academy is all-inclusive, meaning it covers room and board, classes, textbooks, a MacBook Air, athletics, arts and access to the school health center, according to Director of Communications Jessica Day. The school also offers supplemental aid, which can cover travel expenses to and from school, school-sponsored travel programs, clothing to meet the dress code and dorm furnishings, along other things.

The financial aid budget, Day said, has “steadily increased” over the last several decades and the fiscal year 2026 financial aid budget is set at $15.9 million, a 6% increase in order to accommodate this new program.

Deerfield Academy currently enrolls 653 students from 32 states and 42 countries, with 541 of those students being domestic. Day added that the financial aid initiative will be funded through a portion of the school’s endowment, as well as “planned fundraising efforts.”

Austin said the school convened a task force of trustees and staff over the last year to “think creatively about our approach to access and affordability,” which resulted in this program.

He said the program goes back to the time of 20th-century Head of School Frank L. Boyden, whom Austin said was a “pioneer when it came to financial aid at Deerfield,” and this is taking a bit of a new approach when it comes to aiding families.

“[Boyden] wanted to make sure that a Deerfield education was accessible to kids from different economic backgrounds and so it’s always been a part of who we are,” Austin explained. “Some schools have a threshold under which families don’t pay tuition, so that’s not new. I think the focus on middle-income families and the clarity of our approach in regards to those families is new and is a different way of thinking about tuition and affordability.”

Tying into that, independent schools are often viewed as the domain of the wealthy and Austin said Deerfield Academy is trying to change that by opening its doors to families who historically might not have applied due to the financial burden of attending the school.

“We are trying to attack a certain kind of perception … and attack this idea that these are places of exclusion because they’re not,” Austin said. “We have a deep, deep commitment to making this experience available to all kids.”

The move comes at a point where Austin said Deerfield Academy is “in a strong position in terms of the history and the reputation of the school,” and at some point, the affordability question for independent schools needs to be addressed.

“If not now, when?” Austin said. “You have to start somewhere.”

For more information about Deerfield Academy, visit deerfield.edu.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.