Sanford School is a private, college preparatory, coeducational day school for students in junior kindergarten through grade twelve, located in Hockessin, Delaware. Originally known as "Sunny Hills School", it was founded on September 23, 1930 by Sanford and Ellen Sawin, in memory of their eldest son Sanford Sawin, Jr. The school's name was changed to Sanford in 1966, fifty years after his death.

Originally operated as a family-oriented country boarding school and farm, Sanford graduated its first class in 1937 and the next year was accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Sanford's leadership was run by a member of the Sawin family until the mid-1960s. In the mid-1970s, the school was re-organized as a full-fledged day school. In 2001, Douglas MacKelcan, Jr. announced a $10 million capital campaign to significantly improve the infrastructure of the school, renovate historic classroom buildings, and construct several new facilities.

Sanford competes in interscholastic sports as a member of the Independent Conference. They have made history by winning both girls and boys basketball State Championships in 2010 and 2011, the first school to have done so in the history of Delaware.

James Terry Sanford (August 20, 1917 – April 18, 1998) was a United States politician and educator from North Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, Sanford was the 65th Governor of North Carolina (1961–1965), a two-time U.S. Presidential candidate in the 1970s and a U.S. Senator (1986–1993). Sanford was a strong proponent of public education and introduced a number of reforms and new programs in North Carolina's schools and institutions of higher education as the state's governor, increasing funding for education and establishing the North Carolina Fund. From 1969 to 1985, Sanford was President of Duke University.

An Eagle Scout as a youth, Sanford became an FBI agent after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1939. During World War II, he saw combat in the European Theatre and received a battlefield commission. Following his return to civilian life after World War II, Sanford attended and graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law and began a legal career in the late 1940s, soon becoming involved in politics. A lifelong Democrat, he was noted for his progressive leadership in civil rights and education; although his opponents criticized him as a "tax-and-spend" liberal, Sanford is remembered as a major public figure of the South after World War II.