Since we have an HISD thread figured it makes sense to bring private school info to another feed.

We are a few years out from the kiddos being in kindergarten but trying to figure out a private school short list. We live in Independence Heights and the school here is a D rated school so its never been an option.

What's the general consensus on various private schools in houston (elementary primarily)?

I have 3 kids and all attend or attended private schools from PK3 through 12th grade. Currently they are 8th, 12th, and College. We went the Catholic School route, so I can only comment on that type of private school.

Most, if not all, of the lower grade schools are PK3-8th grade and then go off to high school. Duchesne (all girls) goes PK - 12th grade, but I'm not sure if any other Catholic schools have the full range of grades.

If looking at Catholic schools for PK3-8th, be aware that they are not equal. Campus leadership, funding, and community all play a vital role in the quality of the school. There are 3 schools equidistant to my house and 1 is vastly superior to the others in terms of quality of education. I served on the board of that school for several years and was happy to find it was just as good behind the curtain as it was in front.

For Catholic High School, we are blessed to have a variety of quality choices in Houston. I feel like each provides a high-quality education so you cannot necessarily go wrong with the school you choose, but each campus definitely has it's own personality. They key is visiting multiple times, talking to parents, go to a few sporting events, attend tours/open houses and then make a decision based on how their culture aligns with your own.

What I find crazy is most of the Private High Schools cost as much as Public Universities. Annual expenses for my college kid, including tuition, books, apartment, and food are about the same or less than 1 year of HS tuition.

For some transparency I am not completely new to private education world. My husband is though. He went through DISD.

I went to St Thomas More here in Houston, family also went to strake/st Agnes. I moved away before high school. My grandmother taught in both HISD and in private catholic schools.

The parental involvement and class size is a plus for me and I have no problem helping with homework. And If we have to sacrafice some family vacations for tuition costs, absolutely worth it to me.

Looking at the various schools, st rose of lima. St theresa, Duchesne/St Regis (pricey I know), is there any sort of ranking or grade these schools receive or would a tour be the best way to find out the school info? Are scholarships still a thing with private? I know it was when I went through.

Thanks TexAg, sounds like we will start making some visits to get a sense of the school.

Regarding scholarships, most schools call it "financial aid" and most schools spread it around to many families. They do require you to complete forms that prove your financial situation and award on a needs based. What I have found is that many families that could use some help do not ask or take the time to complete the application.

TexAg2001 said:

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I have 3 kids and all attend or attended private schools from PK3 through 12th grade. Currently they are 8th, 12th, and College. We went the Catholic School route, so I can only comment on that type of private school.

Most, if not all, of the lower grade schools are PK3-8th grade and then go off to high school. Duchesne (all girls) goes PK - 12th grade, but I'm not sure if any other Catholic schools have the full range of grades.

If looking at Catholic schools for PK3-8th, be aware that they are not equal. Campus leadership, funding, and community all play a vital role in the quality of the school. There are 3 schools equidistant to my house and 1 is vastly superior to the others in terms of quality of education. I served on the board of that school for several years and was happy to find it was just as good behind the curtain as it was in front.

For Catholic High School, we are blessed to have a variety of quality choices in Houston. I feel like each provides a high-quality education so you cannot necessarily go wrong with the school you choose, but each campus definitely has it's own personality. They key is visiting multiple times, talking to parents, go to a few sporting events, attend tours/open houses and then make a decision based on how their culture aligns with your own.

What I find crazy is most of the Private High Schools cost as much as Public Universities. Annual expenses for my college kid, including tuition, books, apartment, and food are about the same or less than 1 year of HS tuition.

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I totally agree with your last point .. My current Aggie (who lives in a place that I feel is on the upper threshold of rent), "all in" is cheaper that my high schooler's private school tuition. We also love our high school and it is definitely not one of the most expensive in town. i.e. not Kinkaid or St. Johns (nothing against them, just we are not priced at that level).

My kids attended STM and STH. I know some people who's kids attended St. Rose of Lima and enjoyed it, but I don't have a personal opinion, and I don't know much about St. Theresa other than playing them every year in sports.

Scholarships are very much based on the individual school's financial situation. At STM, they give only a handful of scholarships each year and they are only for 8th grade (maybe 7th also...can't remember) and based on a variety of things (academics, school involvement, etc). The scholarships are only for a few thousand $ and not full tuition. They also offer need-based financial aid.

The high schools offer scholarships, primarily based on the entrance test exams scores, and need-based financial aid. Again, these scholarships are not full tuition.

How much are yall dropping a year on private school?

4 kids, all went to or still in parochial school. the one high schooler did not go catholic for high school, but did go to a private arts school.

I'd do parochial school every time if I could to it all over. there are definitely public options that are just as good educationally, but having my kids get a Catholic education was key for our family.

cost for parochial school varies, but 9k to 12k range is good estimate for the good ones.

Here is a good graph in this article.

https://generalacademic.com/houston-private-school-tuition-2022-2023/

From the article --

For the 2022-2023 school year, Houston private school tuition will set families back $24,225 a year on average per child. This represents an 8% increase in tuition as compared to the 2021-2022 academic year, piling onto a total price increase of 10.3% since before the pandemic.


The price of admission varies by grade, but there won't be huge savings for younger students:

Kindergarten $19,682
6th Grade $23,221
12th Grade $25,962

That is a good range for most Catholic elementary/middle schools. Some of them, like Regis and Duchesne, are between $20k - $30k, though.

The high schools are generally $20k+ per year. I know of a few that are slightly less than $20k and several that are $30k+.

correct, but note I limited my range to parochial schools.

Thanks for the clarification. I mentioned Duchesne and Regis because they are also Catholic schools, but they are not affiliated with a particular parish. Schools not connected to a parish will generally have higher tuition.

I say that because some may not realize that.

We send ours to Catholic school (PreK-3 and Kinder). For us the class size, quality of education, religion teaching, and campus safety were important. There are probably 4 catholic schools closer to where we live but we are happy with our choice.
I would call and get tours setup, ask about their budgets and financial support from the community. Our schools tuition covers about 85% of the cost and the other 15% is obtained through fundraising efforts.
Also be aware with financial aid or scholarships that it is usually just the tuition cost and doesn't cover any of the fees. So I would ask about those costs as well to get a full picture.

Drafting this in between work emails. It's a lot to try and squeeze into a post on an anonymous message board. Would be happy to connect separately to provide additional thoughts, but will try to provide some helpful notes below because I've pulled a lot of good intel from this board over the years.The tough part is that I'm not sure there is a perfect or "right" decision. They all have different tradeoffs.

Specific to your question on trying to rank the schools. I think tours are definitely the best way to get a "feel" for each school. We have two kids at St. Theresa (one in the ECC and another in the "big" school). We toured or know people at both St. Rose and Regis / Duschene. We were contemplating moving our oldest, who starts kindergarten next year, to Regis or the public elementary we're zoned to (OFE), but ultimately decided to stay at St. Theresa.

OFE: Great HISD school. We bought our current house just to be zoned to this school. A lot of people in the neighborhood send their kids there and have generally very good things to say. It's a BIG elementary school (like 900 kids). Classroom sizes are large (20+ kids). Hard to imagine kids are getting necessary 1 on 1 instruction with classes that large (one or two bad apples would really make things difficult). Felt like our kids would be a little overwhelmed in the environment. Onsite afterschool care is not particularly good (interestingly, afterschool care was one of the biggest differentiators between some of the schools). Have a neighbor who works at the school and told us she would not leave her kids there. We do utilize afterschool care right now, so this became a bit of a deal breaker for us. Just didn't feel comfortable with it. Ultimately, didn't feel like this was a bad option, just not the best for our kids.

St. Theresa: Our oldest started at the ECC when he turned one and then matriculated into the school for pk3+. Overall, we've been very pleased with how much our son has grown at St. Theresa. The ECC always felt like a warm and inviting environment, and we have experienced the same at the school. Classroom sizes are small and the teachers really seem to care about their students. We're parishioners at St. T, so really enjoy the community that our kids get to experience. They often see their teachers and friends at mass on Sunday and I think that's important. Academics have been good so far (but only experienced up to PK4..). Have heard that the middle school is maybe not as strong as the elementary school, but it does seem to be getting better. Most kids transition to Strake, St. Thomas, St. Agnes, etc. and parents say they were well prepared. It's still very much a parish school - doesn't have the same level of administrative polish that schools like Regis have. But we're ok to look past that. Demographics don't seem to be as wealthy / pretentious compared to Regis / St. Anne's. Probably similar to St. Rose. Afterschool care is pretty good - they utilize Kidventure, which is a third party that comes in at the end of the day. The younger kids seem to have a lot of fun - less so as they get a bit older. Price is reasonable (less than half of Regis). Wish $$ was no object, but it is.

Regis: Big step up in price, but you feel the difference on campus. It's a really nice place. Classrooms, gym, playground, etc. are all top notch. Lots of extracurriculars, foreign language opportunities, etc.. What you'd expect for the price point. All boys, so they tailor some of the classroom instruction accordingly, but it didn't feel that different. We have a boy and a girl, so double drop off and pick up at Regis and Duchesne would be a PITA. Afterschool care is 100% Regis employees / teachers, which I thought was really nice. They coordinate between athletics, etc. so it's all a pretty seamless transition. It also felt less Catholic than a parish school (and more bureaucratic), which could be a pro or a con. Demographics definitely felt wealthier. Not sure we would have fit in with the parent group as well (idk). Wouldn't hesitate to send my kid here. Cost was definitely a factor (3rd kiddo on the way). 3x Regis / Duchesne is daunting...

your mom lol

"Demographics don't seem to be as wealthy / pretentious compared to Regis / St. Anne's. Probably similar to St. Rose."

In regards to the demographics at St. Anne's, I will say I'm pretty interested/anxious to experience it as a parent. When I attended in the 90's and early 2000 most of my friends were not from the school's immediate area at all. I would even estimate maybe 2/3 of my class lived further then 10 miles away. Off the top of my head there were kids from the East End, Channelview, Third Ward, Meyerland, even one as far away as Brookshire. There certainly were a few that lived in the River Oaks area, but it wasn't the majority.

I've heard that now it may have changed and as you mentioned has become more pretentious. I have yet to experience it through the application process, so I'll be curious to meet other parents and hopefully find down to earth families that we can enjoy.

bigjag19 said:

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Best I can tell you is the quality of moms at St. Michael the Archangel is off the charts.

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We are a St Annes family. The parents overall are really involved in the school. There are always some scheduled class play dates before the school year where you get the meet the other parents. Some we have more in common with than others but we have a good core group.

We were also a host family this year and were paired up with a new family. The host family is to help with any questions they have about policies, uniforms, deadlines, what to expect etc.

We are an older couple so at times it is hard to relate to the younger families. Our priorities are more family/kids focused and less about personal fun.

Also last year St Anne parents went to the school and said they wanted to have police officers at school full time. The school asked for financial support to make it happen. It is now the only catholic school in Houston with a full time police presence.

I visited Epiphany of Our Lord Catholic School last month and they had a full time police office in the building.

Thanks for the insight. St Anne's always had a strong community when I was a student, so I'm excited to be apart of that again as a parent.

Parent involvement and just quality of family and home life of classmates at private, at least from what I've seen, is far superior to the local public schools. The public school I went to as a kid was in a small affluent town, so most everyone was decent, but we had a few. With a private school, because parents are paying for the education, you are going to get a higher ratio who are willing to put in the time and effort for their kid, and for the school. And most are people I wouldn't be concerned with my kids going over to their house, having a sleepover, things like that. There are obvious exceptions, but it seems to be much more the norm.

My nephews live in West U and go to Lamar. One of my biggest concerns with private was just a bunch of rich kids learning to be rich kids from eachother, because that was how we viewed the private schools when I was a kid. That's my in-laws reason for sending their kids to Lamar. Their dad is a surgeon, live on a street of surgeons, and they didn't want their kids to get a skewed view of things. But with the magnet schools or whatever it is called that HISD does, though Lamar is right in the middle of West U/River Oaks, very few of the kids live in the area. My nephews girlfriend lives in Sharpstown, daughter of illegal immigrants who don't speak English at home, and she is a latchkey kid in a rough apartment complex most of the time. It's not to disparage poor people, I commend her family for making it work, but that is much more common, if not the norm at HISD schools, and not probably people I want my daughter(s) spending a ton of time with outside of school. And both my nephews play football for Lamar, and having been to a few of their games, and seeing the kinds of parents of his teammates, "we" are definitely the minority. I have heard some of the most awful, racist, vulgar, inappropriate things sitting in the stands of his games, and it isn't coming from the few white people. You can't offend me, I don't care what they say, but I hear it and even I blush a little for some of the more sensitive folks around.

If you are looking for affordability, flexibility and you want to be more involved in your child's schooling, Trinity Classical School is a great choice. It's a two day a week in school, with two days at home parent co-teaching. You can get their work done honestly in about half a day so they have more creative time and then you have three day weekends. More rigorous as they get older. Some friends have gone this route and swear by it. Work is thorough and they are pretty advanced from public school.

My friends sometimes take mid year vacations and the kids do their work homeschool styled for the week.

Cost is obviously less than half of other private schools.

I have lots of friends at Trinity. In middle school you have the Latin that really ramps up and your kid needs to be wired for that academically. You also miss out on a lot of team sports in MS and HS. It is a great value and is academically rigorous.

Yes they have cross country and that's it. Other sports you'd have to play select or club

My school aged children do a remote homeschool hybrid at Kolbe Academy, and we love it. There's Holy House Academy at Our Lady of Walsingham, which isn't too far away. I went to their gala this year, and I was very impressed. We looked at parochial schools before we opted to go that route instead. Otherwise, i think visiting the parochial schools. See if they have an information night or something. Catechesis was more important to us, so we honed in on that part in our search, and everything else took a back seat. Also when we started thinking about this, homeschool was not on our radar. It's worth considering.