Bellevue Children's Academy (BCA) is an independent PreK-5 program in the Bridle Trails neighborhood, founded in 2000 by Yuka Shimizu with nine students and now operating two campuses on NE 24th Street with combined enrollment near 770. BCA is an authorized International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme school and aligns its academic curriculum approximately one grade level ahead of Washington State standards, with particular emphasis on math, reading, and Mandarin. Class sizes typically run small, with student-teacher ratios near 8:1.
Within the Eastside elementary independent set, BCA's closest peers are Open Window School (the gifted K-8 in Bellevue), BASIS Independent Bellevue (the K-12 STEM-leaning program that runs Pre-Calculus by eighth grade), Eton School, and Bel-Red Bilingual Academy. BCA distinguishes on the IB framework and the international network: in 2019 it joined the International Schools Partnership, a global network of more than 80 schools across 22 countries, which gives BCA students access to international exchanges and shared curriculum projects. The bilingual / dual-immersion comparison runs closer to Bel-Red than to Open Window, but BCA's accelerated-academic positioning overlaps with all four.
The school reports 96 percent of students exceeded year-end reading benchmarks in 2024-25 and tracks growth on standardized assessments such as the MAP. Tuition for the elementary program runs roughly $26,500. Leadership under Head of School Michael Gwaltney has emphasized inquiry-driven instruction within the IB framework — the longest-running IB Primary Years offering on the Eastside.
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