Situated on a scenic 33-acre campus in Middlefield, The Independent Day School (IDS) has cultivated a dynamic, student-centered environment grounded in a deep understanding of each child as both an individual and a learner. Since 1961, IDS has inspired a community of independent thinkers who are resilient, confident, and willing to take risks as they engage with others in the pursuit of learning. 

Though IDS had built a strong reputation for its innovative academic approach, school leaders recognized that its internal operations, particularly around enrollment and financial aid processes, had not kept pace.

“We are so dedicated to delivering a high level of customer service in everything we do, and the tuition assistance process is one of our highest priorities," shared Matthew McCaffrey, Director of Enrollment Management. 

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Leading With Elevated Customer Service

“Today's families are sensitive to genuineness, so when we say to them ‘we’ve got this great new product and it's going to make your life easier’, we want to make sure that that's the truth,” explained McCaffrey. 

“I would say we delivered on that claim, and Clarity helped us do it.” 

“The number of inquiries I get from confused families that need help has decreased dramatically. For three decades working in enrollment management I’ve been inundated with questions, and Clarity has had an immediate impact on alleviating that burden.” 

Clarity’s Family Support team ensures your families can talk to a real person, over email, chat, or on the phone, if they have any questions. Full support is available in both English and Spanish, and with 93% scoring their experience at least a 4/5, schools can rest assured knowing their families will receive responsive and reliable support when they need it most.

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Clearer Data, Better Decisions

“While it was the ease-of-use for our families that initially got us interested in Clarity, we learned very quickly that the backend of the system was also going to benefit us in terms of saving time and being more accurate.”

“Clarity allows us to centralize our tuition assistance data. We’re able to utilize the data to make comparisons year-over-year and to make projections. Data collection and presentation are some of my priorities, which makes Clarity an attractive solution to me in that it helps me eliminate two or three steps in the analysis process.” 

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Time Savings For a Team of One

“I'm a team of one, so where Clarity helps us save the most time is with double entry,” shared McCaffrey. “We used to use spreadsheets in addition to our financial aid system, but with Clarity that process of double entry has been eliminated.”

“Those are time savings I can reinvest into making sure we continue to be the leader amongst our peers in customer service, which allows us to differentiate ourselves from some very well-known, very solid competitors.”

“It’s 2025. Everyone expects efficient, easy-to-use software and great customer service. When a product is built logically, can make us more efficient, and the company is customer service oriented, that's a company I'm interested in working with."

"It was really more a question of why we weren’t already using Clarity.”