I knew as soon as I step on this beautiful 25 acre campus this was the place for my daughter to…read moreattend. After interviewing 15 schools Austin Waldorf School was it. Kim made us feel right at home when we came for a visit. My daughter told me in the car on our way home mom this is the school for me. She never liked school and wasn't eager to go to school. It was like pulling teeth. When we found out 2 weeks before school started that my daughter got accepted there were tears of joy and happiness from her and I. We knew this was the perfect fit for her. She is so eager to learn and super excited everyday to attend Austin Waldorf School and wants to graduate here. My daughter has blossomed and has grown so much here. The teachers really take their time with the kids and love them as their own. I never experienced the care like they do at Austin Waldorf. The community here is so welcoming. We drive over an hr to get to school and it is well worth it. I cant say enough positive and inspiring words for this school. We made the best fitting and perfect school for my daughter. Thank you Austin Waldorf for this opportunity to teach my child!

Waldorf is such a wonderful education. Unfortunately if the teacher is not great (or going through…read morepersonal crisis and has a large and demanding class) your child will suffer. Steiner's view was to nurture the soul of the child and unfortunately Austin Waldorf is seeming more budget focused and the teacher for our grade certainly really let us down and did not even have the care for us as a family to speak with us directly. I would avoid this particular Waldorf.

Wow, what can I say, I feel like we won the jackpot when we found Magellan. our daughter started in…read moreKindergarten and although she isn't very good at adapting or transitions, she immediately fell in love with her teachers and school friends.. There are no cliques and no bullying and when we have had issues we have raised them with the teachers and they have jumped on them to solve them immediately, and unlike other private schools there's no sense of entitlement from the parents or students. Also, because the school is so good at awarding scholarships not everyone is 'rich'! The school also has a great parent teacher association which offer weekly meet-ups and play dates as well as adult only events. Each class also has a WhatsApp chat group so parents can easily communicate with each other. If it sounds like one big happy family you'd be right, that's exactly what it feels like. In terms of academics my adhd child has thrived. Diagnosed at 4 we thought she would struggle but the school has been amazing at supporting her needs and accommodating her. They also offer many different seating types from a bouncy ball chair, to cushions on the floor and other such. It's very holistic and non political and offers many diverse ways of learning. They have a calming corner, encourage reading and emotional open communication as well many other ways of teaching emotional and academic intelligence. They teach in Spanish from day one and introduce Mandarin from 3rd grade, they also teach following the international Baccalaureate which is amazing. It teaches the children self confidence through weekly presentations and teaches them autonomy. Honestly this school is amazing and now it goes until 12th grade we are obsessed and so you will be too. But, sshh don't tell anyone about our secret slice of heaven.

My son has attended Magellan since the age of three years old-- he is now in second and we have…read morealready registered him for third grade. Hands down, my husband and I feel it is best decision we have made for his education. Although it can be a bit pricey, we have felt that it has been worth every dollar. He is growing up to be a well spoken, well thought, caring little human. I love that he is bilingual, but I really love his open minded views and his eagerness to learn. The teachers... the teachers have all been so amazing. They are loving, caring and really take each student's personalities and abilities into consideration as they grow from year to year. As I said, it's not the cheapest option and we do discuss yearly if we will be renewing his tuition-- and, with each year this answer comes easier and easier with an astounding "YES". We love the school, the community, the parents and look forward to many more years at Magellan!

I worked there for 13 years and only left because I got married and relocated. It is truly a…read morecommunity. My realtor was a former parent, our campus manager was our officiant. This place is a family and I miss it every day. Every child is known by everyone who works there.

The quality of the guides varieed drastically. Given the…read morecost of tuition I would expect all the to be top notch. Took my kid out of this. Public school was much better. Don't recommend sending your kids to here.

We couldn't be happier with The Magnolia School. Our kindergartener found public school…read moreoverwhelming, so three months into the school year, we made the decision to switch him. The small class sizes and personalized learning at The Magnolia School have truly made a world of difference. The teachers and staff foster a warm, engaging environment where kids can have fun while still learning. Our child is now thriving!

This is a special gem of a place. It's filled with kind, caring compassionate people who teach your…read morekids how they learn. They have a rigorous academic environment while having fun. What a special place to learn and grow.. Truly one of a kind. And the impact on my son and our family has been life changing. The kids learn manners, kindness, friendship, & teamwork on top of the academics.

If you get a teacher called Mr. Rerucha then run! This man convinced me and then entire class of…read moremostly boys that everyone had adhd! We all took our kids to doctors and got them on the medicine that made them zombie like. This man should not be teaching kids! He is a monster and I will never forgive myself for listening to a "teacher" and giving my child these medicines for one month. If you cannot get an entire class to pay attention then it is for sure the teacher not the children. Shame on you Mr. Rerucha and the principal you had during that time. You were a horrible teaching and shouldn't be allowed there. Like I said people, if you see this name -run!

Becker represents the best of an urban school - very diverse population, wonderful central location…read moreand a fantastic dual language program enabling kids to become bilterate and bilingual in Spanish and English, while learning all core academic material. Becker is rated EXEMPLARY by TEA! There are lots of enthusiastic and motivated parents! Becker has the Green Classroom, a chicken coop and a parent academy where parents can also learn Spanish and English as a Second Language.

Our family loves St. Francis School (SFS, a pre-K through 8th-grade private nonprofit…read moreinterdenominational school operating for 30+ years near the ACC Highland campus in north-central Austin). After a mixed but ultimately disappointing experience in 1st - 3rd grades at a crowded, overpriced, chaotic start-up foreign language immersion school, our family needed a fresh start. Our once confident and joyful learner of a child had been reduced to an overstressed student who loathed school and struggled through hours of tedious homework each night. St. Francis provided the small, truly diverse and welcoming community environment we wanted for our child, with a balance of challenging academics, ethics reinforcement, and attention to the nurturing & development of the whole child by experienced educators who really know how to differentiate instruction to many types of learners. This approach has totally turned around our child's experience of school and his learning & achievement have skyrocketed over the past 2 years. His school grades are now more in line with his always high standardized testing results, and homework no longer comes to tears! Another parent reviewer said it well when she described the diverse and "unpretentious atmosphere" at SFS. Every imaginable demographic is represented in both the student body and faculty. People are kind and friendly and welcoming, and individual differences are celebrated. Every time I'm on campus, I just feel inspired and hopeful. Because SFS keeps class size (max of 15) and total enrollment (around 400) in check and teachers love the place so much they stay for decades, the small, cohesive "neighborhood school" feel is maintained. Huge props go to the incomparable founding head of school, Barbara Porter, who has since 1985 guided SFS on its core mission of "excellence without exclusivity." SFS backs that sentiment up by supporting 25% of the student body with scholarships and charging one of the lowest private school tuition rates in the Austin area, while consistently graduating their students into the most competitive public school magnet programs and private high schools. Another wonderfully unique feature among area private schools is the SFS Learning Center, where students with special needs can receive tutoring and additional services to support their success in school. Kids with learning differences are fully integrated into SFS classrooms and are able to thrive as part of a truly diverse school community. At the same time, a large proportion of the student body would be described as "gifted & talented," demonstrating highest performance in academics, the arts, and sports. Each Friday morning, an optional hour of "chapel" is held in which the entire student body and faculty, as well as any parents & family members who wish to attend, gather together in the gym to share an uplifting community-building and/or character-building assembly or pep rally to celebrate that month's achievements. It's not actually religious (although some religious content is shared from time-to-time; the school is named for St. Francis of Assisi, after all). The 8th-grade year culminates in a transformative Spring Break trip to Italy to visit the hometown of St. Francis (among other sites), and the kids raise all of the money for the trip themselves over the course of their years at SFS. I could say much more about all the reasons we love SFS, but if you are considering private school or are just looking for a better school for your unique learner, I encourage you to take a tour and see for yourself. Curriculum and other details are available on the school website at http://www.stfrancis-school.org.

Well run institution with a great culture…read more Pro: - Long Term: with over 35 years in operation, they've had time to build a strong program that will last through economic downturns. - Culture: teachers, students and parents are fully bought-in to the schools values (see school site for details). - Student attention: lower than average student/teacher ratios plus a dedicated, free-standing tutoring building adjacent to the school. Con: - Playground: nice but not inline with the quality of the rest of the institution. - Admissions: it's a centrally located, high quality private school in a growing city, meaning demand is high Personal lessons from our school search: After spending 12 months searching for the 'best school', we realized the importance of finding the 'best school for our child'. Initially, I was too tied up in rankings to spend the time to understand what was important for our family and how that lined up with each program. In the end, we loved the goals at St. Francis of (1) excellence without exclusivity, (2) a meaningful commitment to diversity and (3) attention to the needs of every student. Covid-19 update: School is really stepping up to deliver for students in a difficult time. The teachers are really going above-and-beyond.

My ASD son has never been as happy as he is in this school....we did the public school, Catholic…read moreschool, French school. We did everything and then we found....THIS AWESOME SCHOOL . He is happy and engaged. He is growing as a person and as a productive member of society. All good.

Education is important to me. I have degrees in pure math and computer science. I have taught math…read moreat private, public, and charter schools, at universities, and in a prison. I waited three years on the wait list for my first child to attend the UT Lab School or Priscilla Pond Flawn Child and Family Research Laboratory. She thrived there. Once she was too old to attend the lab school, she enrolled in a public elementary school. She spent a month there as I watched her spirit dim. I was afraid to try something as radical as Clearview Sudbury, but it seems radical was necessary. My daughter is becoming a real person who can think her own thoughts. She decides what values are important to her. She learns about herself. She learns from other students and staff of all ages, and they learn from her. The staff at the school treat her with respect. They are able to give her their attention and to truly see her because they are not distracted and kept busy by an endless check list. She asks me how to use correct grammar, and I show her. She asks staff how to calculate taxes, and they show her. She asks me how multiplication works, and I show her. She asks staff if her friend's sketchy story about giant caterpillars is true, and they learn about caterpillars together. The girl knows more about life cycles of different species than I ever knew. I am no longer worried that she will be at a disadvantage. It is clear to me that she is on the best path I can provide her. In addition to this, I have immense trust in the staff at Clearview. I trust them with my daughter's psyche, emotions, and abilities to communicate and use logic.

After some time at this school, I can no longer -- in good faith -- say that it has been a 5-star…read moreexperience. The people are (mostly) lovely and kind, but they are surely not openminded, innovative or fully transparent.

AHB is an amazing school! My son went here for 7th and 8th grade. He made quality friendships with…read morefriends that he has managed to stay in touch with. He experienced no bullying and only kindness from his peers. The teachers are warm and loving folks that enjoy teaching. I'm very happy that we chose to send him to AHB.

We absolutely love Kirby Hall. It has been a great fit for our child, who transferred from a strong…read morepublic school that wasn't able to meet his needs academically. He came in passionate about math, art, and sports and in the time he's been at Kirby, he's grown to love history, Spanish, and drama. He's developed deeper skills as a writer and his passion for reading and discussing diverse books has expanded tremendously. His classmates are academically curious and creative: they have the opportunity to write, perform, and build for the stage each semester. Their grade-level performance yesterday was incredibly funny and sweet, definitely exceeded my expectations! Overall, Kirby Hall is academically rigorous and welcoming, the teachers and staff are kind, accessible, and open, and the athletics are inclusive, positive, competitive, and well-run by the excellent PE teacher. The teachers and staff know each child so well and work hard to bring out the best in each-- and they chat easily with parents in the hall after school. The education has inquiry-based components, and they take multiple field trips each semester. The academic offerings for upper grades are constantly evolving as they are building a thoughtful and unique middle school. Most faculty have advanced degrees. I can't imagine a better education. I'd recommend Kirby Hall to anyone looking for a well-rounded, rigorous, inspiring education for their child.

"Mom, I love Kirby Hall School! Can I go there for 3rd grade? Can I go there all the grades? How…read moremany grades to they have?" This is a direct quote from my son will doing his reading homework recently. This is the type of school experience we as parents were hopeful for, that our son would love school and enjoy his "job" as a child of learning, growing and socializing. I have never seen a school environment where the kids literally run inside in excitement to begin the day at 8:10 I may add, and have such agency and confidence walking inside. It's gratifying to see how staff support and teach kids in ways that I was petrified of or suffered through myself in school. They're on stage in front of the whole school, they make presentations to their class, they have advisory to ask for help, they are learning to read music; I didn't learn a lot of this until after college! Everyone enjoys being there and supporting one another. It's a relaxing and engaging place to be. It's only our first year and we can't believe the difference.

I attended this school some years ago, and it was, and still is, a joke. Will you get a better…read moreeducation here than in public schools? Maybe in regards to math. But will your child leave here better off and prepared for the life ahead of them? No chance. The school is a sheltered island that practices borderline cult-esque ideals of religion and tries to indoctrinate students with a perspective of 'how the world should be' but completely fails to prepare them for how the world actually is. For all the heavily religious people out there, consider this. Roughly half of the students I know who attended Hyde Park no longer believe in God and directly point to this school as one of the primary reasons. I've never been religious but if I was that would be a horrifying statistic to me. And for those who are not religious, this isn't because the school promotes open minded thinking but rather is so far down the evangelical black hole that it ruins religion for most. Oh and if you actually care about the education aspect (which most parents at this school do not and are primarily focused on religion), check where their graduates go to college. The majority of them go to small, relatively obscure colleges because the school is not focused on education, but primarily religion. Students who attend a private school and pay for an elite education should not be struggling to get into Texas A&M if they're just outside of the automatic admit percentile. Yikes. Glad I graduated from a different school.

Since Chris Coy has taken over, this school has zero stability. The turnover on principals,…read moreassistant principals, and teachers is out the roof. They cannot keep teachers on board and they are hiring teachers who are providing poor quality instruction. AP passing rates are terrible. They have continuously increased tuition while creating bogus positions at the school and investing nothing in providing high quality teaching and trying to improve AP passing rates. There are minimal dual credit options for the students. Tuition gets increased and there's zero transparency about it; you find out about the increases when you renew your student's spot at the school. By that time, it's too late to switch schools. Everybody is at a director level position. We now have an Athletic Director for the upper school, an AD for the lower school, and two assistant ADs...for a school this small. Wasted tuition funds paid by parents to fund unnecessary positions, many of which are being filled by unqualified people. There has also been a huge turnover with the coaching staff across multiple sports. They've hired on Phil Dawson as the head football coach. His wife and son are also paid hires at the school. His son is a college kid contributing very little, but on the payroll. His wife, Shannon, is unqualified for the position she was given. Her work history is being a backup singer and writing devotionals. She's now being paid to hold the Director of Athletic Advancement role, and they've even given her an assistant, both of whom are basically doing team mom roles but now getting paid for it. Shannon leads a bible study for women at that school, but she is one of the rudest and nastiest women you will ever meet. Her assistant has talked terrible about kids playing on the lacrosse team. Incredibly negative and rude about other people's kids...even a kid who had signed to play D1 sports. The Dawson clan has come on board and they are cleaning house to create what they want at that school. Total chaos, negativity, and selfish motivations. They fired the softball coach for no reason, the girls basketball coach quit with no notice, and the football staff turnover and boys basketball staff turnover is up. They fired one football/conditioning coach for drug possession and sent out a lengthy note to parents about zero tolerance. A few months later, he was walking the halls again, coaching, and teaching a conditioning class for all athletes in all sports. Zero communication by our so-called Head of School to explain how they went from "he's fired, zero tolerance" to he's back on board in a full time position with direct contact with the students. They removed the Athletic Director and put him into a made up role of Culture and Connection and handed over the reigns to Dawson as the new AD. A second director role for Culture and Connection was also created. The CFO was replaced with someone else before she was even told she was being fired. It's just a disgrace. The Christian curriculum is subpar. There is no focus on how to live in the world but not be of the world. They have gotten so caught up in building a business...they accept troubled kids who have filled that school full of drugs. I am all about accepting trouble kids but it has to be within the means of the school being able to manage, but there is no plan on how to guide these kids once they accept them. They bring them in with no oversight or plan on how to get them back on track...it's just about getting that tuition check. The ones who are relatively on the straight and narrow get pulled into the drugs and poor choices. There are a few excellent staff at that school, but that number has dwindled to hardly any over the past few years. I have never seen such a poorly run institution. Poor leadership and decision-making causes such chaos. At this point, it's all about the money. I pray they regain a focus on investing in the souls of their students and families and that their actions begin to reflect the Word of God.