For private schools
Class list software for private and independent schools
Families choosing an independent school expect their children to be known, not sorted. Shibutz helps you place students with that level of care: honoring sibling and cohort relationships, keeping each section balanced, and holding a record you can share with a division head or a founding family without scrambling.
Where private-school placement gets delicate
Smaller cohorts and closer relationships raise the stakes on every decision. A misplaced pairing is noticed quickly.
Every family knows every other family
In a tight community, one awkward pairing travels fast. You need to honor the requests that matter without turning the roster into a negotiation you cannot win.
Reputation rides on small numbers
With two or three sections per grade, a single unbalanced room is a larger share of the whole grade. The margin for a quiet mistake is thin.
Placement history lives with one person
When the admissions director or division head keeps the reasoning in their head, a staffing change can wipe out years of context about which students thrive together.
How Shibutz supports an independent school
The goal is not automation for its own sake. It is a defensible, repeatable process that survives a change in staff and a hard conversation with a family.
- 1
Bring your existing roster in as it is
Import from Excel or your SIS export and keep the details that matter for your community, from support needs to the relationships your teachers already know.
Read the roster setup guide - 2
Encode the relationships families care about
Set friend preferences and separation rules so sibling cohorts, close friendships, and pairs that need distance are honored consistently across every section.
Set student preferences - 3
Keep a record any division head can pick up
Because the rules and results are stored together, a new administrator can open a placement and understand the reasoning instead of starting from a blank page.
Review placement results
A grade with two sections and no margin for error
A K-8 independent school splits each grade into two sections. This year the third grade has a set of twins the family wants separated, three students who need reading support, and a friendship the teachers agree should stay intact for one more year.
The admissions director imports the roster, marks the twins as a keep-apart pair, sets the reading-support students to spread across both sections, and locks the friendship as a keep-together preference. One run produces two balanced sections that respect all three requests.
When a board member asks how placements are decided, the head of school opens the workspace and walks through the rules that shaped the lists. The process is the same one the school will use next year, whoever is sitting in the chair.
Questions from private and independent schools
- We only have two sections per grade. Is this still useful?
- Yes. Small grades are where balance matters most, because one heavy section is a large share of the cohort. Shibutz checks size, gender, and support balance across your sections no matter how few there are.
- Can we honor sibling and family relationships?
- Yes. You can set keep-together and keep-apart rules for any pair of students, so sibling cohorts and specific friendships are handled consistently rather than from memory.
- What happens when our admissions director leaves?
- The roster, the rules, and the generated results stay in one workspace. A new administrator can open a past placement, read the constraints, and continue the same process without losing the reasoning.
- Is student data handled carefully?
- Placement data stays in your workspace and is used to build your class lists. See the features page and privacy policy for how student information is stored and handled.
Give your placement process the care your families expect
Honor the relationships that matter, balance every section, and keep a record that outlasts any one administrator.