St. Barbara Catholic School

Overview

St. Barbara Catholic School is a Catholic K-8 private school in Santa Ana, California, serving grades K-8, founded in 1963, with about 183 students. Tuition for 2025-26 is $6,850, which puts it in the lower range among Orange County private schools at this level. Religion classes are required, so confirm your family is comfortable with that before applying.

Admissions

No standardized entrance exam; admission uses an on-campus assessment or visit day.

The school publishes the following application details. The school website’s Admissions Process page describes four steps: call (714) 775-9477 to schedule a tour, submit an application online, have the school review the materials and immunization records, and receive an admission decision and complete enrollment. Admission is based on “grade-level assessments, academic records and letters of recommendation.” The school website does not publish application opening or closing dates for a specific school year. The Requirements page gives the age cutoffs: TK applicants must turn 4 by September 1 and be able to use the bathroom independently, and kindergarten applicants must turn 5 by September 1; California-required immunization records are required at entry and again on entering grade 7.

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

The rates listed on the school website’s Tuition page are for the 2025-26 school year: $6,850 per year for one child, $12,600 total for two children, $18,350 for three, $24,100 for four and $29,850 for five, with the multi-child totals already reflecting discounts ranging from $1,100 to $4,400. The school does not have separate parishioner and non-parishioner rates; every TK-8 family pays the same. Families may pay in full on August 1, in two installments in August and the following January, or in 10 installments from August through May, with installment plans requiring direct debit through FACTS Tuition Management, which charges its own fee. Paying in full carries a further discount: $12,200 for two children, $400 less than the annual total; $17,750 for three, $600 less; $23,300 for four, $800 less; and $28,850 for five, $1,000 less; for one child both figures are the same, $6,850. The school website’s Tuition + Scholarships page no longer posts a rate sheet, and 2026-27 tuition must be requested from the school by phone (school website, Tuition page and Tuition + Scholarships page)

The registration and enrollment fee is $350 per student. Beyond tuition, families must complete fundraising and volunteer hours or buy out of them, with the buyout added to tuition: $500 for not fundraising, $625 for not volunteering and $1,125 for neither (school website, Tuition page). The school website does not list a rate for international students.

Financial aid: The school website states that “Scholarships are available for qualifying families through an application process,” with scholarships supported by the Orange Catholic Foundation; financial aid applications are submitted through the FACTS grant and aid platform. The school website does not publish the share of students receiving aid or the average award (school website, Tuition page and Tuition + Scholarships page).

Academics and programs

• The core instructional approach is the Station Rotation Model, in which students rotate within a single class period through direct instruction from the teacher, small-group collaboration, ability-grouped small-group instruction and online learning (school website, Academics page)
• iReady diagnostic testing and STAR Benchmark assessments are used to build a personalized learning path for each student and to adjust instruction and intervention accordingly (school website, Academics page)
• High-achieving middle school students can take advanced coursework through Arizona State University Preparatory: grade 8 students can take high-school-level math and reading, and grade 6 and 7 students can take accelerated classes (school website, Academics page)
• Catechesis of the Good Shepherd faith formation, one period a week for TK-5, taught experientially in the school’s Atrium with hands-on materials and prayer (school website, Faith Formation page)
• Education in Virtue, a character program developed by the Dominican Sisters, giving the whole school a shared “language of virtue” (school website, Faith Formation page)
• Art, music and PE each have a dedicated specialist teacher; there are also Athletics, Visual + Performing Arts, after-school programs and a Leadership & Enrichment section (school website, Faculty + Staff page and the Student Life pages)

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
St. Barbara Catholic School	Santa Ana	K-8	$6,850	On-campus assessment	—	—
Ari Guiragos Minassian Armenian School	Santa Ana	K-6	$8,500	—	—	0.0 mi
St. Columban Catholic School	Garden Grove	K-8	$7,100	On-campus assessment	—	2.8 mi
Blessed Sacrament School	Westminster	K-8	$6,400	On-campus assessment	—	3.8 mi
Christ Cathedral Academy	Garden Grove	K-8	$9,900	On-campus assessment	—	4.1 mi

Where students go next

The school website’s High School Acceptance page states that “Graduates of St. Barbara School are accepted to all Catholic high schools of their choice” and notes that some students receive academic merit scholarships; five high school crests appear at the bottom of the page, linking to materdei.org (Mater Dei, Santa Ana), cristoreyoc.org (Cristo Rey Orange County, Santa Ana), servitehs.org (Servite, Anaheim, boys), rosaryacademy.org (Rosary Academy, Fullerton, girls) and bosco.org (Don Bosco Technical Institute, Rosemead, boys, which is in Los Angeles County rather than Orange County). One caution: St. Anne and La Purisima, which belong to the same Pax Christi Academies network, carry word-for-word identical text on their own High School Acceptance pages and nearly the same set of crests, minus Don Bosco, so this reads more like a shared network template than a record of where this school’s own graduates went; the page gives no year, no number of students and no percentages (school website, High School Acceptance page)

Schools in our guide library that appear on this list: Mater Dei High School, Servite High School, Rosary Academy, Cristo Rey Orange County High School.

Applying to high school from here usually begins in the spring of grade 7: sit the ISEE or HSPT in the fall of grade 8, then submit materials between November and January. EDUBUS works backward from each target high school’s requirements to plan grades, activities and test preparation across the K-8 years.

Total tuition through graduation

At the 2025-26 rate of $6,850, 9 years covering grades K-8 come to roughly $61,650 in tuition alone. Assuming the 4% annual increase common at private schools, the figure is closer to $72,000. 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	11.5 miles
Northwood	8.6 miles
Turtle Rock	10.1 miles
Portola Springs	13.8 miles

The website does not describe bus service; confirm this during your visit.

Questions to ask on a campus visit

• Tuition year — only 2025-26 can be documented. The school website’s current Tuition + Scholarships page (/scholarship) has taken down the rate sheet and leaves only a phone number, while the Tuition page that still…
• Average class size — the Academics, Overview, Faculty + Staff and Admissions pages on the school website were all checked, and none publishes an average class size or student-teacher ratio
• International students — neither the Admissions page nor the Requirements page on the school website mentions international students or I-20s
• Feeder communities — the school website does not say which communities its students come from
• Registration, technology, uniform and activity fees beyond tuition

How EDUBUS helps

Our Irvine-based counselors work in both Chinese and English. We track St. Barbara Catholic School’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.