The Tampa Day School Story
Understanding How Students Learn Since 1970
For more than five decades, Tampa Day School has been built on one belief: every child deserves an education that recognizes their strengths, understands their challenges, and gives them the tools to succeed.
What began as a small reading clinic is now a private school preparing students in grades 3 through 8 for success in high school, college, and beyond. Our reach has grown, but our purpose is the same one that started it all.
Understand. Honor. Achieve. With Passion!
Where it all began …
In 1970, Joan Schabacker founded the Tampa Reading Clinic and Day School in South Tampa. It was a tutoring program and small school for children in grades 1–5 who struggled with reading and needed something the traditional classroom couldn’t offer.
Small classes, individual attention, and close relationships between teachers and students defined the school from its first day. They still do.
Tampa Day School Today
Today, TDS students are capable learners who need a different approach to reach their full potential.
Our students work at grade level, supported by small classes, experienced teachers, research-based instruction, and a structured, encouraging environment. Our programs are organized into Lower Division (grades 3–4), Middle Division (grades 5–6), and Upper Division (grades 7–8), so students get support that fits their stage of development.
We don’t lower expectations. We give students the tools to meet them.
The Whole Child
Learning at TDS reaches beyond the classroom. Performing arts, STEM, athletics, electives, and hands-on projects give students room to take creative risks, work as a team, and find strengths they didn’t know they had. For many students, the confidence they gain on stage or in a lab carries straight back into the classroom.
Explore Electives, Sports & Clubs →
Learning Solutions: Our Roots in Specialized Instruction
The founding mission lives on in Learning Solutions, our tutoring and intervention program. Since 1997, it has offered one-on-one and small-group instruction in reading, including dyslexia remediation, as well as math, writing, study skills, and executive functioning.
Services are available to TDS students and children throughout the Tampa Bay area during the school day, after school, and over the summer.