Irvine Hebrew Day School (IHDS)

Overview

Irvine Hebrew Day School (IHDS) is a Jewish K-8 private school in Santa Ana, California, serving grades K-6, with about 74 students. Tuition for 2026-27 is $23,000 to $23,500, which puts it in the upper range among Orange County private schools at this level. Religion classes are required, so confirm your family is comfortable with that before applying. Bus service is available.

Admissions

Entrance exam requirements are not published; contact admissions.

The school publishes the following application details. The home page of the school website notes that open enrollment is under way for both the current school year and the 2026-2027 school year, and encourages families to apply early to secure a place. The process: schedule a campus visit, where families can meet teachers and see classrooms and the school can also connect them with current parents; submit the application online with a nonrefundable $100 application fee; send the confidential Teacher Recommendation Form link to the child’s current teacher, who generally submits it within two weeks of the application; sign an Authorization to Release Confidential Information, which the school uses to contact teachers at the previous school and request records; and the school reviews transcripts, the teacher recommendation and other materials to complete its evaluation. The process described on the school website includes no written or standardized test. Families who need financial aid apply separately through FACTS.

The main entry points at a K-8 school are kindergarten and grade 6. Younger applicants are usually evaluated through an on-campus visit, while most applicants above grade 5 need an ISEE score. Start in the fall of the year before entry: visit first to confirm the school is a fit, then decide whether to register for testing.

Tuition and fees

Base tuition for the 2026-2027 school year: $23,000 for TK and kindergarten and $23,500 for grades 1-6. Both levels carry additional enrollment fees of $1,175 (school website, Tuition and Financial Aid page)

The enrollment fee is $1,175. In earlier years the school published a breakdown of a $500 materials fee, a $250 security fee and a $250 facilities fee, but only the $1,175 total could be verified on the current page of the school website. The application fee is $100 and is nonrefundable (school website, Admissions page). Lunch, transportation and after-school care are all charged separately, and the school website lists no prices. International student tuition is not listed on the school website.

Financial aid: Financial aid is administered by the school, which describes the process on the school website as standardized in the interest of fairness between families and encourages open communication with families. Applications are submitted through the FACTS platform; the Tuition and Financial Aid page on the school website has a Financial Aid Application link pointing to online.factsmgt.com/aid. Families may also contact the finance committee directly at finance@irvinehebrewday.org. The school website does not publish award ranges, the share of families receiving aid, or an application deadline.

Academics and programs

• Hebrew immersion, currently offered in TK and kindergarten, which the school website says will expand grade by grade (school website, Why IHDS page)
• Text-based Jewish education, taught primarily from the Torah and Jewish source texts in the original, paired with experiential learning around the Jewish holidays (school website, Why IHDS and Academics pages)
• Positive Discipline, with the school listed as one of the Lab Schools on positivediscipline.org (school website, Academics page and home page external link)
• General Studies covers language arts, mathematics, science, technology and social studies, integrated across disciplines (school website, Academics page)
• Reading and Writing Workshop as the approach to language arts (school website, Academics page)
• Daily classroom meetings and democratic deliberation, tied to the civics content in social studies (school website, Academics page)

How this school compares

These are the nearest schools at the same level and a comparable price. Select a name to open that school’s admissions guide:

School	City	Grades	Tuition	Entrance test	Class size	Distance
Irvine Hebrew Day School (IHDS)	Santa Ana	K-6	$23,000	—	—	—
Fairmont North Tustin (Fairmont Private Schools – North Tustin Campus)	Tustin	K-8	$27,354	On-campus assessment	—	2.4 mi
Holy Family Catholic School	Orange	K-8	$9,365	On-campus assessment	—	1.5 mi
International School of Orange County (iSchoolOC)	Orange	K-8	$18,220	—	—	4.1 mi
St. John’s Lutheran School	Orange	K-8	$9,410	On-campus assessment	—	1.9 mi

Total tuition through graduation

At the 2026-27 rate of $23,000, 7 years covering grades K-6 come to roughly $161,000 in tuition alone. Assuming the 4% annual increase common at private schools, the figure is closer to $182,000. Neither number includes registration fees, deposits, uniforms or activity fees. A California 529 plan can cover up to $10,000 per child per year of K-12 tuition.

Getting there from Irvine

These are straight-line distances from neighborhoods where many Irvine families live. Actual drive times will be longer, and a morning rush-hour trip typically takes 1.5 to 2 times as long as an off-peak one:

Neighborhood	Straight-line distance
Woodbury	7.2 miles
Northwood	4.3 miles
Turtle Rock	8.8 miles
Portola Springs	9.0 miles

The school runs bus service.

Questions to ask on a campus visit

• Accreditation — the partner and accreditation logo area in the footer of the home page on the school website links out to acswasc.org (ACS WASC) and prizmah.org (Prizmah, the center for Jewish day schools), but noth…
• Year founded — the Mission Statement, Why IHDS and Academics pages on the school website give no founding year
• Enrollment — the school website publishes no enrollment figure, so the California Department of Education filing of 74 is used; the state page does not note which school year it refers to
• Composition of the enrollment fee in the tuition note — the current Tuition page on the school website lists only the $1,175 total and gives no breakdown. An older version of the school’s page broke it into a $500 materials fee, a $250 security fee and a …
• Registration, technology, uniform and activity fees beyond tuition

How EDUBUS helps

Our Irvine-based counselors work in both Chinese and English. We track Irvine Hebrew Day School (IHDS)’s admissions calendar, prepare students for the campus visit and interview, and review application materials before they are submitted. Book a school-selection consultation or read the Chinese version of this page.