Best Private Elementary Schools in Seattle + Eastside
The K-5 / K-8 private market across Seattle and the Eastside has a distinct top tier: the secular independents that anchor the gifted, progressive, and language-immersion cohorts. On the Seattle side, Seattle Country Day School (1962, gifted K-8) and The Evergreen School (1963, gifted K-8) are the two named gifted-elementary anchors. University Child Development School (the K-5 elite that began as a UW lab school) and Bertschi School (Capitol Hill K-5, founded 1975) anchor the secular progressive K-5 cohort, with Spruce Street, Epiphany, and Meridian filling in the broader progressive-K-5 field. The Bush School is the city's only K-12 secular independent with an elementary program. On the Eastside, Open Window School (Bellevue, founded 1986) is the gifted K-8 paired with Evergreen in published gifted-K-8 coverage, and BASIS Independent Bellevue offers an AP-heavy K-12 option as part of the national BASIS Independent chain.
A-tier covers a broader and more institutionally diverse cohort. The Catholic parish K-8s — St Joseph (Capitol Hill), Villa Academy (Laurelhurst), St John (Greenlake), Sacred Heart (Clyde Hill), Holy Rosary (West Seattle) — anchor the parochial elementary network. French American School of Puget Sound (Mercer Island, the only French-immersion accredited K-8 in the state) and the Eastside French Immersion School of Washington (Bellevue) lead the language-immersion options. Three Points Elementary on the Mercer Slough is the Eastside campus of the larger Bellevue Christian K-12 system. Saint Thomas School in Medina (founded 1951, originally affiliated with St. Thomas Episcopal Church and now a nonsectarian NWAIS K-8) is the senior Eastside independent at this grade band, sitting in the same Medina Lake-Washington-corridor wealth concentration as Three Points. The Bear Creek School and Bellevue Children's Academy span the Eastside K-12 elementary cohort with a more recent (post-2000) institutional footprint.
B-tier covers the broader parish K-8 network and the smaller language and specialty schools — the Seattle Catholic parish K-8s with strong category presence but smaller scale (St Luke, Our Lady of Fatima, St Anne, St Catherine, St George, Amazing Grace Renton Prep), the Eton School (Bellevue Montessori K-8), Tzu Chi Academy Seattle (Bellevue, Chinese-language Saturday + weekday K-12), and Holy Family Parish School (Kirkland).
The structural decision families weigh at the K-5 level is the fifth-grade transition. The S-tier secular K-5s (UCDS, Bertschi) and PK-5s (Epiphany, Meridian) force a middle-school search; their graduates typically continue to Lakeside (5-12), University Prep (6-12), Seattle Academy (6-12), Bush, or one of the Eastside K-12s (Overlake, Eastside Prep, Bear Creek). The schools that span K through 8 or 12 — SCDS, Evergreen, Bush, Open Window — eliminate that decision but at the cost of a different admission criteria set and a different cultural fit.
S Tier · 6 schools
- 001THE BUSH SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING715 students
- 002SEATTLE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING411 students
- 003THE EVERGREEN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING444 students
- 004OPEN WINDOW SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING359 students
- 005UNIVERSITY CHILD DEVELOPMENT SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING271 students
- 006BERTSCHI SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING226 students
A Tier · 19 schools
- 007KING'S SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING1,209 students
- 008BELLEVUE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING918 students
- 009THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING673 students
- 010ST JOSEPH SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING575 students
- 011ST JOHN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING469 students
- 012HOLY ROSARY SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING465 students
- 013SACRED HEART SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING408 students
- 014CHESTNUT HILL ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING329 students
- 015FRENCH AMERICAN SCHOOL OF PUGET SOUND(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING312 students
- 016VILLA ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING298 students
- 017SEATTLE WALDORF SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING193 students
- 018THREE POINTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CAMPUS(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING269 students
- 019SAINT THOMAS SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING250 students
- 020EPIPHANY SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING232 students
- 021BASIS INDEPENDENT BELLEVUE(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING231 students
- 022ETON SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING227 students
- 023THE MERIDIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING174 students
- 024FRENCH IMMERSION SCHOOL OF WASHINGTON(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING149 students
- 025SPRUCE ST SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING108 students
B Tier · 19 schools
- 026ST LUKE SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING367 students
- 027PROVIDENCE CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING350 students
- 028WOODINVILLE MONTESSORI SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING312 students
- 029EASTSIDE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING239 students
- 030UNITED SEATTLE&BELLEVUE KOREAN SCH BELLEVUE CAMPUS(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING345 students
- 031TZU CHI ACADEMY SEATTLE(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING282 students
- 032HOLY FAMILY PARISH SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING260 students
- 033HERITAGE CHRISTIAN ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING253 students
- 034OUR LADY OF FATIMA SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING250 students
- 035ST GEORGE PARISH SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING240 students
- 036ST ANNE SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING228 students
- 037ST CATHERINE SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING227 students
- 038ST MONICA SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING222 students
- 039RENTON PREP CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING220 students
- 040ST BRENDAN'S CATHOLIC CHURCH(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING217 students
- 041ST THERESE CATHOLIC ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING198 students
- 042OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING181 students
- 043AMAZING GRACE RENTON PREP CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING165 students
- 044JEWISH DAY SCHOOL OF METROPOLITAN SEATTLE(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING77 students
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