Best Private Elementary Schools in Seattle
Seattle's private-elementary market has a distinct top tier: five schools — The Bush School, Seattle Country Day School, The Evergreen School, University Child Development School (UCDS), and Bertschi School — that show up consistently across Niche, Seattle Met, Tomo, and parent-forum coverage. Bush is the city's only K-12 secular independent. SCDS and Evergreen are the two named gifted K-8s. UCDS and Bertschi anchor the K-5 progressive cohort along with Spruce Street, Epiphany, and Meridian (all A-tier).
Thirteen A-tier and seven B-tier schools fill in the long tail. King's School (evangelical K-12) and Bellevue Christian's Three Points campus represent the Christian K-12 systems whose elementary programs draw from the Seattle metro. The Catholic parish K-8 cohort — St Joseph (Capitol Hill), Villa Academy, St John (Greenlake), Holy Names — anchors A-tier, with smaller parish schools spread across the city in B-tier.
The central tradeoff Seattle families weigh is the 5th-grade transition. The S-tier secular K-5s (UCDS, Bertschi) and PK-5s (Epiphany, Meridian) all 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. Schools that span K through 8 or 12 — SCDS, Evergreen, Bush — eliminate that decision but at the cost of a different admission criteria set and a different cultural fit.
S Tier · 5 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
- 004UNIVERSITY CHILD DEVELOPMENT SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING271 students
- 005BERTSCHI SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING226 students
A Tier · 14 schools
- 006KING'S SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING1,209 students
- 007BELLEVUE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING918 students
- 008ST JOSEPH SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING575 students
- 009ST JOHN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING469 students
- 010HOLY ROSARY SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING465 students
- 011SACRED HEART SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING408 students
- 012FRENCH AMERICAN SCHOOL OF PUGET SOUND(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING312 students
- 013VILLA ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING298 students
- 014SEATTLE WALDORF SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING193 students
- 015THREE POINTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CAMPUS(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING269 students
- 016SAINT THOMAS SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING250 students
- 017EPIPHANY SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING232 students
- 018THE MERIDIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING174 students
- 019SPRUCE ST SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING108 students
B Tier · 12 schools
- 020ST LUKE SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING367 students
- 021HERITAGE CHRISTIAN ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING253 students
- 022OUR LADY OF FATIMA SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING250 students
- 023ST GEORGE PARISH SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING240 students
- 024ST ANNE SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING228 students
- 025ST CATHERINE SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING227 students
- 026ST MONICA SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING222 students
- 027RENTON PREP CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING220 students
- 028ST BRENDAN'S CATHOLIC CHURCH(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING217 students
- 029ST THERESE CATHOLIC ACADEMY(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING198 students
- 030OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING181 students
- 031AMAZING GRACE RENTON PREP CHRISTIAN SCHOOL(PRIVATE SCHOOL — INDEPENDENT) · KING165 students
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