Our Diversity

Before there was DEI, there was IPS. From Day One in 1963 we set about to create a place for families from distant lands who often struggled to find a place of support and belonging. Before long, our community, including teachers and staff, drew from a much wider population than consular families, including professional expatriates and American families both with and without recent immigration stories. This is New York City, after all.

IPS welcomes families and children of all linguistic backgrounds. Immersion in the language is the best way for young English language learners to gain fluency. Play is the universal language of childhood, and children instinctively develop their receptive and expressive English skills.

In the most digestible way, IPS can be understood at the potluck events where parents and children relish each other’s culinary delights. The flags you see on this website represent the nationalities and fresh ancestral ties of IPS families in one recent year.

For many years, to help economic diversity, we have given financial aid — funded by generous gifts from current and past IPS families — to families who would otherwise not be able to afford the tuition.

Though IPS has always been diverse, equitable and inclusive in the stories we tell, songs we sing, costumes we wear, and food we eat, we have embraced the new social justice movement and have provided training to our staff to make sure we are sensitive to the evolving needs of our society.