Private School Tuition, Fees and Policies
Parent Q&A
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Tuition-when is it due at your school?
July 2010
Hi- the middle school that we currently attend bills in May and July for the upcoming school year. This means the entire tuition is pre-paid before the year starts. Is this how other east bay middle and high schools bill? Is this reasonable? curious parent
My son's private middle school has three options: 1) pay in advance by May 1 2) pay in two installments May 1 and unfortunately I can't recall the date for the remainder 3) pay in monthly installments, with a ''convenience'' fee attached to each payment. My daughter's private elementary school does the monthly thing, but I guess one could pay it all in advance if one wanted. There is no incentive to pay it in advance. I think it's easier for the school if they have the tuition paid in advance, presumably because it makes it easier to pay bills and organize funding for other projects throughout the school year. anon
My kids have attended 4 different K-12 private schools over the years. Three of them billed monthly, dividing the year's tuition into 10 equal payments. The fourth school wanted either the entire sum, or half of it, before school started, with the balance due - I think - in December or January. At this school, tuition could be divided up in 10 monthly payments but there was a substantial "processing fee." You could also pay monthly by making arrangements for a student loan (the school gets its tuition in full before school starts, you pay back the loan monthly.) Have you looked at the web sites for other schools? Most of them have very detailed information on their websites about how much tuition is, and when it is due. a Mom
What are the yearly costs for private school?
May 2010
We live in the East Bay and our kids are not yet school age, but getting there. What are the yearly costs for private school? I've heard the increases are usually about 7% - is that true? How available is financial aid? We make about $190k, which may sound like a lot, but we have a mortgage and would like to retire some day. Would we be laughed at for aid? How much???
Each private school is different, but in my experience in the last 2 years as the parent of a private school student, the tuition does increase more than the yearly 3- 4% standard cost of living increase, however, our school has been very mindful of the current economic climate and has not raised tuition as much as they might normally have in the past 2 years.
The bottom line is this, choosing to send your child to a private school is a choice that will require you to have to sacrifice, period. Unless you are fairly wealthy, sending your child to a priavte school takes most if not all of your discretionary income. It means no vacations or VERY modest vacations, it means that you have to REALLY watch your money. It is a choice. It is something that you do because you really believe that your child and your family will be better off for it.
I understand that in the bay area with a big mortgage and after taxes $190k doesn't go far for a family, I am in the same boat. Some schools choose to spread financial aid around and some reserve it only for the most deserving families. You very likely could get no financial aid and if you do get financial aid it will probably be only about 10-20% at best of the total cost of tuition. $190k is still a lot of money, the median income for a family of 4, even in the bay area is only $65k or so and let's face it, a private school education is a luxury. Again, choose a private school because it is the best thing for your child and your family. Only you can decide if it is worth the sacrifice. anon
Our children go to a private school in Berkeley. The cost has increased from about $12K six years ago to nearly $18K for next fall. The availability of financial aid may vary from school to school, but your income level is quite high. I would imagine it would depend on how much equity you have in your home regardless of the amount you pay monthly for the mortgage. We have friends who, based on the information you have provided, have been in similar- sounding situations and they received minimal aid but didn't have much equity in the home. Those with more than $200K in equity didn't receive aid (I think that was the amount). The sense of it seems to be that your retirement is not really not something they care about. There are enough people who really need aid (so they can make ends even kind of meet NOW and are probably not even able to think about retiring ever) that people who just want it so they can maintain a comfortable lifestyle aren't eligible for much. However, it is always worth asking and applying. good luck
I recently reviewed a financial aid survey from bay area private schools. Your income of $190k would exclude you from financial aid at most schools, but there are some schools that give aid at this level, especially if you have limited financial assets. 7% per year is not unusual as a year-to- year increase in tuition, but this would be high as a sustained rate of increase. Tuition is likely to increase at slightly above the general cost of living, both because of the high labor content of schools, and the increasing expectations that parents have for private schools. Recent Private School Board Member
Looking at 8% increases every year?
Feb 2007
I am a parent of two children in private school. My eldest child is in second grade. We just got the tuition rates for next year, 2007/2008 and the rate of increase was staggering. 8%. The reason stated in a well-written, well-reasoned accompanying letter talked about keeping teachers' salaries at a competative level. Last year the reasons were healthcare and workers comp increases. Well-reasoned or not tuition will have gone up over 22% in three increments (kindergarten to 3rd grade). Our income certainly hasn't gone up that fast and it is starting to take a real toll on our family's financial outlook. My question is this? Does anyone have any experience dealing with a school's finance committee and somehow getting the rates of increase to slow down? We make a fair amount of money so won't be eligible for financial aid but school tuition is starting to be impossible for us as we look towards paying thourhg eighth grade. We have done financial planning but didn't factor in increases like this. Any suggestions? (I am not asking for anyone to tell us to just leave and go to public school. We love the school and our children are thriving.) - Feeling mighty pinched and worried about it.
I think the reality of the situation is that schools have a very tough time balancing the costs of paying and retaining good teachers with trying to control tuition increases. If you want to retain good, skilled and experienced teachers that you have invested lots into you have to keep their 'compensation package' competitive. On top of that I know that for our business health care costs have steadily risen around 15% each year for the last several years. While workers comp took a dip couple years ago there seems to be some upward pressure on that again also. The added difficulty of schools and teachers is that it is hard to 'increase' productivity of teachers. You can't put more students in the classroom to generate more income because that destroys the 'small class size' that we're all looking for in private schools.
So how do good private schools control tuition increases?!?! From what I understand it is endowments and fund raising. Old established private schools convince people to donate large sums of money to create an endowment that can be invested to generate income to fund the school. At least that is how I understand it... Private School Parent Also
When we were applying to our private school, the director told us explicitly to expect tuition increases of around 7% each year. It's steep, but at least we knew in advance what we were in for.
This is the main reason we didn't enroll our two children in private school. We thought we might be able to swing the tuition but we were not entirely confident that the raise my spouse had been promised from his employer would materialize. As it turned out, it took them a year to get around to actually finding the money in the budget to be able to offer salary increases. By that time, my oldest was thriving at his local public school so it didn't seem worth it to move him. The only advice I can give you is if you are getting close to the edge (for example, you are contemplating going into serious debt to make those tuition payments), I think you should consider registering at your local public school--as a contingency plan. I don't know what district you are in but many school districts allow parents to give a preference for what school they would like and the most popular choices usually have waiting lists. If you don't need the spot in your local public school, you can call the school and let them know that they can give it away to someone else on the waiting list. If it helps at all, my two children are happy in their public school and thriving. Most kids do great in whatever school they attend if parents stay involved and on top of what's going on.
I know many parents of children in private school who are in a similar situation! I don't have experience dealing with a private elementary school, but I did bring this subject up with the administration at a highly coveted preschool that my daughter attended. The response I got was sympathetic, but I was essentially told that if I couldn't afford the school and did not qualify for financial aid, then perhaps I should look at an alternative, less expensive school. They said they had many children on the waiting list who could take my daughter's place. When we were looking at elementary schools for our daughter, we *did* figure in an annual increase of 3-8%, since the schools were all very open about this being a normal fee increase. If you check out the websites of private school, many of them state this info. in the tuition section. My advice to anyone thinking of attending a private school is that it's really important to assume there were will this kind of increase each year. This is one of the reasons why we did not send our child to private school, and why many families choose to move if they are unhappy with their local public school. Private schools are, after all, businesses (unlike public schools), and if the market is such that they can ask for an 8% increase and the majority of parents will pay, you can't blame them for asking for it. happy public school mom
Trying to estimate the cost of private school
March 2004
Much to my surprise, I am considering sending my children to private school. I never thought I would do this since my husband and I grew up attending public schools, but times have changed. Sigh... Anyway, having no experience with the world of private school tuition, I'm trying to estimate how much this will cost me. Do private schools raise their tuition every year? If a private school charges $15k/year for 2004-2005, will parents really be expected to pay $30k/year by the time the child is in high school?! (10 years with an average rate of increase of 7%/year) For parents whose children are now in private high schools charging $15k/year, did you start out paying $7-8k/year when they were in elementary school? I'm just trying to get a handle on the true financial cost I may be in for if we go the private school route. Thanks for any information you can provide! (I realize most schools offer financial aid, but I'm just trying to understand the true costs.) - former Economics major!
Dear Econ major mom:
Yes, you should expect that almost every private school will raise their tuition yearly. As a Director of Admission in schools over the past fifteen years, I have never known nor worked for a school that did not.
In July of 1990 I began working at a boarding school that charged $13,500. That school's tuition today is over $25,000...and its a lesser expensive one!
Yes, there is almost always some financial aid available if you qualify. There are also low interest low programs for tuition costs.
I remember advising one of my school's board not to push through the $20,000 mark because I was concerned about enrollment and affordability for families. No one listened to me, families continued to enroll...and now we're moving on towards (and through) $30,000.
Should you like information on all the reasons why the investment in your child's education might well be worth those amazing costs, just ask!
Wanda
In response to the question about private school tuition, oh, do we wish we'd asked ourselves (or others) those questions when we put our oldest daughter into a private kindergarten nine years ago. The tuition was about $7K then and is almost $15K now. Of course, our salaries haven't risen at that rate during the past 9 years. (And, we now have two kids in the school!) To make matters worse, we thought our kids would just be in private school through sixth grade, but then their school added 7th and 8th grades and by the time our oldest daughter got to that age, no one was leaving for public middle schools. Taking a 12 year-old away from all of her friends was something we couldn't bring ourselves to do.
I suspect that because the economy is no longer booming, school tuition increases may slow down now. Private schools will have to be sensitive to the change in financial conditions or they will have trouble filling their classes. But, it's certainly worth thinking about. We went the private school route because our daughter didn't get into either our first or second choice of Berkeley elementary schools. Since then (1995), the Berkeley elementary school scene seems much improved. We've been very happy with the education our daughters have gotten, and we know they've had more personal attention than they would have had in public schools, but if we had it to do over again, we would probably have decided differently. Fortunately, our daughter will be going to a public high school next year, and we'll get a little relief...just in time for college. Good luck with your decision!
Empty Pockets
It seems that private schools (at least some) raise tuition each year. Our older son has been in private school for 3 years and this is the first year for our younger son (we didn't start in kindergarten). Each year the tuition has gone up almost $1,000.00.It's pretty outrageous, but this is what we've chosen so we adjust our budget around it. You might try to get financial aid. Some schools have a decent financial aid budget and you might be surprised even if you think you make too much money. It's worth a try and can't hurt....just a lot of paper work. Good luck. We have never regretted our decision to put our boys in private school from public. poorer but better educated
To the parent assessing the real cost of private school--I am on the other end of your quandry. I have a 13 year old 8th grader and a 17 year old 11th grader. Until this year both my children had gone to private schools since kindergarten. This year we moved our son from Lick- Wilmerding (private)to Skyline High (public) in Oakland because of the cost. Our daughter will be going to Skyline in the fall.
The cost of private school has gone up 4-7% every year. Last year we realized that to keep both of them in private school through high school was going to cost us another $150,000--and that was just for 6 more years of school. We realized that we simply could not blindly keep paying that kind of money; as we need to be concerned about the future.
Part of the decision was based on the fact that I am no longer employed for health reasons, however, I am thrilled to be out of that rat race. Sometimes I bemoan our prior choices, even though I was very happy with the schools we had chosen.
Skyline is working just fine for my educationally exceptional child. It may not be the best academics in the world, but my son is learning many other important things as well--like learning to deal with people who are different than he is.
I think that had we been able to commit to being active parents in public school we could have made it work. I am finding that by paying attention and making myself heard I am able to get our needs met so far. If you want to talk more about these choices, feel free to give me a call. Barbara
Tuition Break for Teachers?
Nov 2003
Is it true that if you teach at a private school, like Head-Royce or CPS, your children get to go tuition-free? Just wondering...
I don't know about Head Royce, but if you work at CPS, your child can attend for 50% of the tuition, which is still pretty pricey, especially on a teacher's salary, but does make a significant difference. anon
Head-Royce does offer tuition remission - but it is NOT free, and the child still has to be admitted. Tuition remission depends on a variety of factors, including how many students are using the pool of money, as well as policy, which is being REVIEWED currently, so what exists currently may not be true for any new hires.
The private schools I'm aware of all keep their tuition the same and do online classes. The teachers for the most part are still working the days to prepare the online program and provide it and are getting paid, so payment is still due as usual. My childcare program went to 50% payment, though I get zero value for it now except retaining my spot for when school goes back in session, which I'm a little upset about since they used to have activities and lessons and are offering nothing virtually. I'm still paying but I'm much happier to keep paying when the programs are at least attempting to provide replacement instruction/enrichment virtually, esp since my kids really like it and enjoy school and all of their activities that moved online.
Most of the K-12 independent schools, including our K-8, are providing daily lessons and content from what I hear, so therefore no, not reducing tuition (since staff are still being paid). That said, I know our school is absolutely working with families who have lost jobs to help them through incredibly tough times. The impact of the crisis varies widely by family, though--within our school community, I know of a family where both parents are now out of work, and of multiple families (including our own) where both parents are still being paid full salaries and able to work from home or in essential fields out of the home. Many families are somewhere in between. My expectation is that families like ours that have not yet suffered an income loss will pay as usual for as long as the school continues to pay employees as usual, and those who have lost jobs will be helped as much as the school is able through the tuition assistance program. (Fortunately at our school, most families have already finished paying tuition for the current year given the payment schedule for that, so it's largely about next year.) It also sounds like your child is preschool-aged, and that is another story entirely as far as how well the school can provide instruction and content--I think the more relevant reference there is other preschools vs. other independent schools. The remote learning isn't ideal for early elementary, but it's working decently for our kids. Our kindergartener does need adult help transitioning between activities, but our school has done a great job providing supports for this (including lots of videos from teachers demonstrating each lesson or activity). If/when the school does need to start laying off staff, I would expect that there might be some reduction in costs passed onto families, but I very much hope we won't get to that point, and that "real" school will be able to resume in the fall. Fingers crossed!
I think school by school the situation is a bit different, but here goes how I see it. If you are making the same income, just working from home and taking care of your kid, you absolutely positively should continue paying full tuition. It is essential for the survival of the school, and the economy of our community and the nation. All of us have to give something. We are in this together. Now, if you are making less income because you are on unemployment or lost a job or whatever, that is a different situation. Hopefully your school has a strong financial aid program. If your tuition is paid for the year I wouldn't bring it up but for next year hopefully they can accommodate your situation. But keep in mind they are accommodating everyone else's situation as well. You didn't mention whether your school is continuing to provide learning in some form to your child. My kid goes to Oakland Hebrew Day School. They have put in enormous effort to create an online forum in a very short period of time. My kids even have art and P.E. Yes of course it is not the same as in the classroom. But it requires more, not less for the teachers, administrators and staff to put together and they need to get paid. I think any of us who are still being paid, or are financially able to should continue to pay all the same schools, camps, nannies, housecleaners, tutors, gardeners, etc etc as long as we are able to. It's not their fault they can't work the way they used to. But again, if your income has taken a hit, that also needs to be taken into account as you can't pay what you don't have.
No word from Bentley re tuition or longer semester. Their current online learning environment is as good as it can be, I think.
To help with your info gathering, I'll share my experience as a K-8 teacher at a private school in SF.
As far as I know, our school has no intention of extending the school year into the summer. Instead, we have cancelled events for the rest of the year (like trips and field day) so that we have more instructional time--even if it is during this period of distance learning. Extending into the summer would be very complicated--you list some reasons, another to consider is that teacher contracts are often 9 months. So, a school might not have the staff to offer instruction (I would have to pay for childcare in the summer so that I could teach, for example--like you, right now I'm juggling home schooling a 5 year old while working, aka teaching online to 10 year olds).
For families (both those of students and those of faculty) experiencing financial hardship, our school has a separate fund to help support them during this time. I assume the school is also offering different payment schedules, such as what you described.
I hope that helps.
We have a kindergartner at a private school. Your concerns are broadly shared. It's hard to care for and teach a child and work at the same time (if one is lucky enough to be able to work from home) and private school tuition is a giant voluntary expense that suddenly seems wasteful.
Our thought is that we don't mind continuing to pay tuition because we want the school to stay open and everyone there to stay employed, and also when this is all over and schools open again, we want our child to keep attending there. We love it. This closure is a few months (I hope) out of many years of schooling. Of course we could lose our jobs tomorrow and the situation would be very different, but unless or until we lose income we are paying for all our regular commitments as usual.
I too wondered why we couldn't pick up the school year in summer assuming that SIP is over by then. The obvious answer is that educators are still working now so having them teach over the summer would be additional work for which there would need to be additional finds allocated. I personally would prefer that all the schools treated this time like summer break with the assumption of picking up in May or June or whenever it's possible. I think it is very hard to move mammoth bureaucracies (one of the reasons we opted for private in the first place) to make those kinds of changes and it seems that whatever happens all the schools, public and private, in the state will act together.
Hi:
My 4 yr old is attending a pre K - 8 grade private school in Oakland. The school is amazing in that they fully transitioned to online instruction in just a matter of a few days after shelter in place was announced. This includes her preschool which has children ages 3-5. Her classmates have two 30 minute online zoom sessions M-F and her teachers also host office hours daily if parents have questions. While online Children are working collaboratively on activities (that have been emailed to us that we print. The school also sent home a packet of two weeks worth of prepared packets). During the zoom session children are also in conversation with one another to keep up their communication skills. It certainly doesn’t make up for a complete day of instruction but it’s enough to keep my LO engaged and on some type of routeein. It’s definitely a lot of work on us as parents to get her set up on the computer with all of her materials and of course we have to monitor to make sure she’s following instruction. But it’s only 1 hr total. I fully expect to pay full tuition this month because her teachers are doing what they can to keep the children learning. I wonder whether your child’s school might consider some type of modified online instruction even for just 30 mins daily? The school should figure out a way to be creative, use their resources and adjust as much as possible to ensure the kids are continuing to learn. Otherwise it would be difficult to justify paying full tuition. Is it possible for you to make this suggestion to your child’s school? No judgment of course; just sharing my experience. Good luck this has been a tough time for us all!!!
I don't think there's much you can do. My daughter goes to kindergarten at a private school and the contract we signed has a "force majeure" clause which makes us still responsible for tuition in this situation. I'm sure you signed something similar. With that said my daughter's teachers are still working hard to provide an education remotely and school administration has been providing a lot of support remotely so it makes sense to continue paying. A lot falls on the parents for teaching but the teachers are putting together the materials and holding multiple zoom sessions a day so they are by no means enjoying this time off. This has definitely been hard on them as well. My daughter's school has announced that for people facing financial hardship because of the virus they could contact them to work something out. Also if you had purchased the tuition refund insurance then you could withdraw your child and receive 50% of the remaining tuition back although you would miss out on all the educational support. Going that route wouldn't guarantee their readmission for next year though.
Our child is in preschool at a small independent school that's already been going through some precarious financial times. The head of school sent out a very candid email a few days ago saying that they will do everything they can to keep the doors open, but that in order to do that they need parents to continue paying whatever they can. They are offering to work with anyone who's been affected financially, and they're also applying for small business loans and doing some calculated layoffs that they say they're hoping to be able to make short-term (I don't have more info on that part yet). They're also offering online learning but it's not really applicable for the preschool kids, that's mainly resources for parents to work w/kids at home and some availability by teachers to basically become remote parenting coaches (which I appreciate). We are continuing to pay tuition because we are able to do so and want our school to be open in the fall. I understand that for many committed families this may just not be an option, and I'm worried about the future of our little school. There's no "right way" to do this -- everyone's just trying to figure it out the best they can.
Our small private school, Sunnyside MicroSchool, discounted the tuition during Shelter in Place. Now they are offering a very reasonable sliding scale for the remaining monthly payments, which I thought was incredibly generous. They are offering 1:1 tutoring sessions with teachers multiple times a week, class sharing time, and group special topic classes that are 1 hr long (poetry, yoga, Spanish, engineering). Because of the population of kids it serves (gifted, sensitive, quirky, 2e/asynchronous learners), all day online video calls don't work at all, so they don't do any class for more than an hour at a time. So we feel really happy with what they are offering and the price they are offering it at.
I'm like you: I don't know that there is a good answer to this problem. But I can share my current situation. My 3-year-old son is enrolled at AIM (American International Montessori) in Berkeley, which has Japanese and Chinese immersion classes. They have an infant program, a program for children ages 3-5 (which includes the Kindergarten year), and an elementary school program for grades 1-5. The most recent plan is that AIM is gonna try to provide useful distance learning for the kids, through online classes. Not classes that will last as many hours as a regular school day, but at least something on every day. What they have offered us is that you can sign up your infant for this for 50% of the regular tuition, or your 3-to-5-year-old for 70% of the regular tuition. (So that's a 30% price reduction, not a 70% reduction.) I'm not sure what they're offering for the elementary program.
Obviously distance learning works better for older kids. The fact that the infant classes are gonna be 50% of regular price comes from their acknowledgement that what you're normally getting for your infant is child care that can't be replaced with distance learning. But for my 3-year-old, it's pretty clear that he's not gonna be able to sit in front of a computer all day and do online classes while I'm freed up to work. Maybe it will be better than having to teach him all by myself, but he's gonna require constant attention. So clearly what we're gonna get from distance learning isn't really worth 70% of what we were getting before. But on the other hand, there might still be SOME value from what he can get, especially the value of hearing native Japanese speakers to assist his language learning. And my wife feels like we have a moral obligation to continue to support teachers and schools. So we're gonna try out the distance learning thing for a month and see how it goes. The school is trying to be flexible and give us some options, like the option of trying out the online stuff and then canceling after a month. Or the option of just not paying anything at all. So I can't fault the school, which seems like they're trying to come up with the best options for a near-impossible situation. And it sounds like AIM is being more proactive and practicing better communication with the parents than RIS is.
I'm curious to hear from other folks about how they're dealing with this situation. I'm sure a lot depends on your particular situation, like what your job is, how old your kids are, etc. At this time, my wife is still trying to work full-time from home, while I'm self-employed and working occasionally from home, while we try to split child-care duties for a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old. What we're finding is that it's impossible for parents to work full time from home and also home-school their children at the same time. Which should be obvious to everyone, but now we have the proof. Good luck to everybody else out there in the same boat!
I'd love to chat more with you on this. We are planning to send our son to a private school in the fall. But frankly, I'm not thrilled about paying more than $20K for virtual kindergarten, if next year ends up being remote. I'm so curious how parents at existing private schools are managing this.
My son’s independent HS recently offered families a partial refund on year and semester long lunch and transportation plans. They are still paying the kitchen and transportation staff, so the refund covered the non-labor portion of the costs (if that’s how you say it). They also offered the option to forgo the refund to help the school navigate the unexpected costs that have popped up due to SIP. No break on tuition, but the students are still getting plenty of instruction virtually and the administration is providing lots of support.
I'm a TRIS parent too and have been frustrated with the lack of communication beyond "There will be no reimbursement of tuition fees offered." Managing four 30-minute Zoom classes each day is hard for everyone. We've missed a few classes, we've been 15-minutes late, the schedule was wrong, the log-in didn't work, we've had the video freeze. We had to buy the 4-year old an iPad. Sometimes Circle Time leaves my child feeling worse afterwards. If I had a 2-year old, it would really not be worth it at all. Some thoughts/solutions I wish schools could consider:
1) The unemployment figures are staggering and schools should acknowledge this and be transparent about tuition reduction policies. I really like what I'm hearing about AIM's approach - there is a nod towards this being a shared burden, parents of younger children get a larger refund, and parents who are comfortable can choose to contribute their discount back to the school/teachers.
2) Everyone is facing huge uncertainty over the next year or two. Schools cannot keep their contracts and tuition the same and assume business as usual. We've already prepaid through August 2020, so it makes me nervous about how to approach the 20-21 school year when it comes time to sign up (and pay) next month with a 3% tuition increase. Pre-paying again is hardly an option, but parents are penalized with paying 7% more if we don't - AND we're still on the hook for the full years' tuition and the insurance would only refund 60% for financial hardship. What I want: Consider pre-paying quarterly (not for the full upcoming year) and have a 60-day notice clause so that the school has ample notice to fill an upcoming vacancy and parents who experience financial hardship aren't out up to $11k for the year AFTER insurance.