Every year, tens of thousands of Bay Area parents choose private education for their children in elementary school, despite annual tuition bills that can run to $35,000 or more.
“I think community is a big part of it,” says Deborah Dowling, executive director of the California Association of Independent Schools. “It’s not necessarily geographic, but it’s a community of people who share similar values and who spend their days together and have chosen and are excited to be living their lives together. I think that joining a community is often a very big motivator in moving into a private, independent school.”
One thing is certain: There’s no shortage of opportunity in and around San Francisco. Though less than 50 square miles, the city of San Francisco is home to more than 90 private schools that serve about 22,000 K-12 students, according to the California Department of Education. Add in the neighboring counties of Alameda, Marin and San Mateo and the number of schools more than triples, with the population of private school students growing to almost 66,000.
Betsy Little, an educational consultant at Little and Molligan who has helped place students for almost two decades, says the pandemic has increased interest in Bay Area private schools.
“If the kids have only been learning online, they’re not happy, whether it’s public or private,” she says. “But the [private] schools here have done a good job … of operating during COVID.”
[READ: Exploring Private High Schools in San Francisco.]
Choosing a Private Elementary School
Admissions experts point to many reasons why Bay Area parents choose to explore private options for elementary school. Some may simply be looking for a better school than what is offered by their public district, and others may be seeking religious education.
Many private schools also offer smaller class sizes with more individualized instruction. “Elementary school is really a sweet time,” says Crystal Land, head of Head-Royce school in Oakland, California. “There’s a real sense of intimacy, there’s a real sense of being known and there’s a real sense of community.”
Of course, elementary school is also when children build foundational skills in many subjects. “Reading, writing, math, science, scientific thinking, all of those things are seeded in elementary school,” Land says. “Probably most importantly, elementary school is where there is joy of learning. Kids don’t think about school as work as much as a really fun and wonderful place to be.”
Many private schools also offer strong programs in areas like theater, art and science, as well as an extensive list of extracurricular activities, such as sports teams and music lessons. This can save busy parents from having to book their own activities and then shuffle kids around town.
“There is a breadth of opportunities that may be available at an independent school,” Dowling says. “Maybe that opportunity is education in a particular type of religion. Or maybe they have a great program for teaching kids the violin. Or maybe they’re really well known for their literacy programs and the way that they get kids excited about reading. Or, it might be a community service program.”
Tuition and Financial Aid
Cost is a major factor in choosing a private elementary school. Elementary school generally lasts six years — longer than high school or college — and that can be a long time for some families to be writing large checks.
In California, the average annual tuition cost for private elementary school is about $11,000, according to the Education Data Initiative. But schools in the Bay Area charge significantly more. At The Hamlin School, an all-girls K-8 school in San Francisco, for example, tuition is more than $39,000 a year, according to the school.
Most schools do offer financial aid and payment plans, which allow parents to spread out their costs. At Hamlin, for example, about 23% of students receive financial aid, which totalled about $2.8 million in the 2021-22 school year, according to the school.
[READ: Is Private School Tuition Tax Deductible?]
Private Elementary Schools in San Francisco
For those who want to explore private elementary schools in the Bay Area, here’s a sample of what’s available:
— Alta Vista School in San Francisco serves K-8 students. The school has a focus on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) and a student-to-teacher ratio of 9-to-1 in grades K-5.
— Cathedral School for Boys in San Francisco is an Episcopal, all-boys school serving about 260 students in grades K-8. The school’s Big Brother/Little Brother program pairs students from elementary and middle school in a mentoring relationship.
— Chinese American International School in San Francisco serves almost 500 students in grades PK-8, including about 380 in grades PK-5. The school offers language immersion in English and Chinese.
— The Hamlin School in San Francisco is an all-girls school serving about 435 students in grades K-8. The school has been in the community for more than 150 years. About 51% of Hamlin students represent families of color.
— Head-Royce School in Oakland is home to about 900 students in grades K-12. The school, which can trace its lineage back 135 years, has a student-to-teacher ratio of 8-to-1 and offers more than 100 sports teams, clubs and extracurricular activities.
— La Scuola International School is a Reggio Emilia-inspired, Italian immersion school in San Francisco. It serves about 320 students in preschool through eighth grade, and offers a sliding scale tuition.
— Montessori Family School serves children in preschool through eighth grade across two campuses in Berkeley and El Cerrito. The school offers a kindergarten bridge program and mixed-age classrooms for grades 1-3 and 4-6.
— The Nueva School is a PK-12 school for academically gifted students, with campuses in San Mateo and Hillsborough. It emphasizes project-based, interdisciplinary learning, with a student-to-teacher ratio of 6-1.
— Park Day School in Oakland, California, serves about 315 students in grades K-8, including about 215 students in grades K-5. The student-to-teacher ratio is 9-to-1 in grades K-2 and 12-to-1 in grades 3 and 4. The school offers “indexed tuition” based on each family’s financial resources.
— San Francisco Waldorf School offers the child-centered Waldorf approach for students in preschool through 12th grade. The school is spread across three campuses, with a two-year kindergarten program and a separate grade school for grades 1-8.
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Examining Private Elementary Schools in San Francisco originally appeared on usnews.com
