Written By: Olivia Pierry

The highly anticipated and awaited senior year has finally arrived for the class of 2026. With it comes many fun traditions, one of which being off-campus privileges. 

This allows seniors to leave the school at any moment of the day if they don’t have any academic commitments, such as class or community time. The only exception to the rule listed above is not being allowed to sleep in for two consecutive blocks, ensuring students are present for the events held during community time. 

Seniors are truly enjoying this privilege, with many utilizing it about two to three times per week. Ishana Kumar ‘26 says she enjoys “being able to go get coffee with friends,” and Lavender Kerridge ‘26 loves how it feels “very freeing and comfortable as we are able to explore other places for lunch, as well as getting to leave during frees!”

The students love grabbing lunch at many places, the most popular being Saigon Table, Shake Shack, and Playa Bowls. Saigon Table, located in Rye town, serves a variety of Vietnamese food, and Shake Shack is a common fast food chain within the U.S., located in Port Chester among various other places. Playa Bowls offers countless options of smoothies and smoothie bowls and is also located in the heart of Rye. All of these places are also no more than a ten minute drive from the Rye Country Day Campus, ensuring students don’t need to have a long chunk of free time, as only half an hour will do to grab a quick bite. Whether alone or with friends, this privilege grants students the opportunity to experience a larger sense of freedom, preparing them for their coming years of college and university life. 

The biggest difficulty so far relating to this privilege had been finding overlapping free periods. Kumar states, “it’s hard to find a time where all of my friends can go.” Furthermore, Kumar says that leaving campus during school hours brings struggles with time management, since students have in the past utilized their lunch periods to get homework done in the past. She is now compelled to plan her time and schedule more rigorously if she does decide to leave for lunch. Thus, off-campus privileges give students the opportunity to retain an important skill: balancing school with other commitments—which will translate well beyond their high school years.

When asked how this privilege could be modified and improved for the future senior classes, Kerridge states that she would enjoy “double-block sleep ins – not having to come in at 9:45am, but having to be present for community time,” and Kumar states that “juniors should get off-campus privileges in their second semester as well,” anticipating the start of being able to leave campus. When asked why, Kumar says that there is not much of a difference between second-semester juniors and first-semester seniors, so juniors would act just as responsibly as seniors with this privilege.

Lastly, this privilege brings more than just a sense of greater responsibility; it brings a constant reminder of the hard work put in by seniors throughout their whole high school career to get to where they are now. Kumar states that utilizing them grants her a feeling of “We did it!” This privilege has become a prominent part of the RCDS senior life and will continue to influence the final year of Class of 2026!