@mothere Your kid can leave after Saturday classes and return home on Sunday pretty much as often as you want. For overnight, you just have to request permission in advance (an easy process as they use an app.)
You can also take them out to lunch, dinner or to a movie, etc. without special permission as long as it is within “town hours”.
@mothere here is a link to the Student Handbook: https://sps.myschoolapp.com/ftpimages/36/download/download_1770212.pdf
A description of various types of school leave begins on p. 46. You will also find answers to other questions you had, such as academic support. I hope this helps.
Comprehensive tuition for the upcoming year is set at $62,000. This should include tuition, fees, room & board.
Also, parents that live close by often watch their kid’s games. Its a nice way to see your kid and meet other parents.
Actually, based upon my experience with highly regulated industries, organizations are usually on their BEST behavior during such monitoring agreements. Therefore, I’d argue that SPS is safer now than it ever has been.
I have no dog in the fight except having a kid who was accepted there and several other places. If she doesn’t go to SPS, that certainly won’t be the reason.
Agree with the point re SPS and current behavior…during our process we concluded that SPS is probably running a tight ship. Likely, the pendulum swung too far in the other direction. I have no evidence of any of this but typically that is what happens at companies when they are penalized and have oversight. In the end, I thought the oversight probably lowers the probability of “bad” behavior by students because the faculty is more vigilant.
That might be a positive for many families.
We were at the St. Paul revisit. We went sure that this was where my child would wind up.
After leaving we are less sure. It felt conformist (creating the archetypical St. Paul male/female) and very lacrosse heavy in a way that was not as scholarly as I had anticipated - perhaps was the mix of kids we saw.
I know they send a lot of kids to top colleges but I could not get a sense of whether there is a place for an intellectual scholarly kid who wants to discuss existential questions amid all the rah rah athletes. Is there room for a kid who does not want to embrace bro culture?
@mothere I certainly don’t mean to invalidate your revisit impressions, but the idea of SPS being lacrosse heavy (or athletics heavy for that matter) makes me chuckle. The past three seasons, the boys varsity lacrosse team had a winning record of 5-13 (27.8%), 3-15 (16.7%), and 4-13 (23.5%). Hardly a powerhouse… The debate team, on the other hand, IS a powerhouse: https://www.sps.edu/news-detail?pk=1079355&fromId=188895&siteId=935.
“Is there room for a kid who does not want to embrace bro culture?”
Most definitely. What I appreciate most about SPS is how well rounded the kids are and, compared to many other boarding schools and our local public, it did not seem as sports obsessed. Even if individually sports obsessed, they were also a little nerdy and very bright. Not all, but many I would put in the intellectual camp. Kids wear many hats at SPS - that varsity lax player could also be the class president, a brilliant pianist, and on the robotics team. Kids excel in the classroom, in the arts, and in sports but at SPS I’d definitely put the first two categories forth as the school’s strengths over the latter.
Although there are some students on a few teams that seem to embrace bro culture, it isn’t the norm and definitely not the ideal of most of the student body, IMO. It’s going to be more conformist than say Putney but we found it less conformist than many other boarding schools.
Is there space for kids to be quiet and alone and to not be constantly with others 24/7?
On a 2000-acre campus?? You can get lost anytime you want! 
My daughter is a rather private person, and her favorite spots for studying are the library, on a blanket outdoors, or in the dorm kitchen.
Regarding the debate team cited in post #47 above by @GoatMama, I can attest to the attributes shared in that article.
I know of a true story where one of the SPS debaters went on to law school & with self coaching upset the #1 favored law school team on their homecourt (Northwestern’s law school) which employs multiple full time mock trial & moot court debate coaches. (May not sound like much, but it was a very big deal at the time.)
“Is there space for kids to be quiet and alone and to not be constantly with others 24/7?”
In addition to the points made by @GoatMama, there are some singles available. If your child is the type that benefits from having their own space to retreat to, it is worthwhile writing that and why. No guarantees, of course, because they can’t accommodate everyone.
My more social child enjoyed having a single the last two years as a space to retreat to after being “on” and engaged all day.
Re: the Debate team, during our time as an SPS family, I thought it was wonderful how cooperative the team was and how the more experienced members really worked with those just starting out.