St. Mary's School

Overview

St. Mary’s School is an Episcopal K-8 private school in Aliso Viejo, California, serving grades K-8, founded in 1994, with about 715 students. Tuition for 2026-27 is $31,300, 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. Mandarin is offered.

Admissions

The ISEE is required for applicants.

The school publishes the following application details. For the 2027-28 school year: applications open September 1, 2026, close January 4, 2027, and decisions are released February 26, 2027. Admission information sessions are held October 22, November 12 and December 10, 2026 and January 28, 2027. Assessment: kindergarten and grade 1 applicants are assessed on campus; applicants for grades 2-8 must take the ISEE (school code 054245). Parent interviews are held over Zoom for the early childhood division and on campus for the elementary and middle school divisions. Also required are teacher recommendations (sent through the admissions system), a birth certificate, immunization records, a family photo and a transcript; middle school applicants also attend a shadow day on campus. The age cutoff is July 1: a child must be 4 for Early Kindergarten and 5 for kindergarten. (School website, Inquire & Apply page)

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

$31,300 a year for K-8; $28,900 a year for Early Kindergarten; Early Preschool and Preschool are priced in six tiers by number of days and length of day: 5 full days $27,300, 5 half days $24,500, 3 full days $21,400, 3 half days $19,200, 2 full days $17,100 and 2 half days $15,400 (2026-27, from the 2026-2027 Tuition Schedule linked on the school website’s Tuition & Financial Aid page)

From the school website’s 2026-2027 Tuition Schedule: a one-time new family fee of $1,000 and a new student fee of $100. A non-refundable deposit is paid at contract signing: $3,100 for K-8, $2,900 for Early Kindergarten and $1,700-$2,700 for the early childhood division depending on the day option. Payment options: paid in full on May 5; two installments (60/40, on May 5 and December 5) with a $150 service fee; or ten monthly installments beginning May 5 with a $300 service fee. Field Studies are required in grades 4-8, with estimated costs of $2,100 for the grade 4 Sacramento trip, $710 for grade 5 AstroCamp, $920 for grade 6 Catalina, $1,500 for grade 7 Yosemite and $4,200 for the grade 8 Washington, D.C. trip. Extended care is available in all divisions and is billed by hours used per month: $440 a month for more than 40 hours, $350 a month for 20-39 hours, $270 a month for 10-19 hours and $180 a month for under 10 hours; drop-in use without registration is $36 an hour.

Financial aid: All aid is need-based and is applied for through the Clarity platform; about $1.3 million was awarded last school year. The school website states explicitly that “St. Mary’s does not offer sibling discounts” - there is no sibling discount - although having more than one child enrolled at the same time in tuition-charging schools can be counted as a financial need factor in the assessment. Applications must include the prior year’s and the current year’s tax returns, W-2s, 1099s and proof of income, and the financial aid committee may request additional documents. The aid application opens October 1, 2026 and closes December 1, 2026 for current families and January 4, 2027 for new families. (School website, Tuition & Financial Aid page)

Academics and programs

• IB curriculum: the Primary Years Programme (early childhood through grade 5) and the Middle Years Programme (grades 6-8); the school became an IB World School in 2007 (school website, History page); the school website’s At-A-Glance page describes the school as “the only one of its kind in Orange County”
• Design Thinking: the Design Center on the second floor of the Sillers Center, which opened in the 2025-26 school year (school website, History and New Spaces pages)
• World languages: all elementary students study Spanish; all grade 5 students are introduced to three languages, Mandarin Chinese, French and Spanish, and use that experience to choose the language they will study in middle school; the language acquisition course page lists Spanish and Mandarin Chinese (school website, World Languages page)
• Field Studies (required): grade 4 Sacramento $2,100, grade 5 AstroCamp $710, grade 6 Catalina $920, grade 7 Yosemite $1,500 and grade 8 Washington, D.C. $4,200 (school website, 2026-2027 Tuition Schedule)
• Extended Care: available in all divisions at $180-$440 a month depending on hours used per month, with drop-in use at $36 an hour for students not registered (school website, 2026-2027 Tuition Schedule)
• The Center for Learning (C4L) learning support program, Intersession and Summer Session (school website, Education Model and Student Life navigation)

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. Mary’s School	Aliso Viejo	K-8	$31,300	ISEE	—	—
VanDamme Academy	Aliso Viejo	K-8	$18,000	—	—	0.4 mi
Aliso Viejo Christian School	Aliso Viejo	K-8	$12,296	On-campus assessment	22	0.3 mi
Fairmont San Juan Capistrano (Fairmont Schools Inc. – San Juan Capistrano Campus)	San Juan Capistrano	K-8	$26,093	On-campus assessment	—	4.1 mi
Anneliese Schools – Willowbrook Campus	Laguna Beach	K-6	$18,350	On-campus assessment	—	2.8 mi

Total tuition through graduation

At the 2026-27 rate of $31,300, 9 years covering grades K-8 come to roughly $281,700 in tuition alone. Assuming the 4% annual increase common at private schools, the figure is closer to $331,000. 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	10.1 miles
Northwood	12.0 miles
Turtle Rock	7.6 miles
Portola Springs	11.0 miles

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

Questions to ask on a campus visit

• Diocese — the About, Faith Identity, History, Leadership, Admission and Accreditation pages all refer only to Episcopal traditions and Episcopalian values; the word Diocese appears nowhere on the site and the …
• Accrediting body — the body of the school website’s /accreditation page is empty (navigation and address only), and WASC and CAIS appear nowhere on the site; the accreditation entry is based instead on the caisca.org m…
• International students, I-20 and ESL — none of the Admission pages or Education Model pages address any of these, so this remains undetermined
• Transportation — the school website’s /site-map shows no Transportation page anywhere on the site, and no page addresses transportation
• Registration, technology, uniform and activity fees beyond tuition

How EDUBUS helps

Our Irvine-based counselors work in both Chinese and English. We track St. Mary’s School’s admissions calendar, prepare students for the ISEE, and review application materials before they are submitted. Book a school-selection consultation or read the Chinese version of this page.