Stratford School – Mission Viejo

Overview

Stratford School – Mission Viejo is an independent, non-sectarian K-8 private school in Mission Viejo, California, serving grades K-8, with about 237 students. Tuition for 2026-27 is $21,080 to $28,380, which puts it in the upper range among Orange County private schools at this level.

Admissions

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

The school publishes the following application details. The Admissions page on the school website lists four steps: (1) submit a visit request, and the admissions team will schedule a campus visit; (2) after the visit, complete the online application, and the admissions team will follow up for additional materials or to arrange an interview; (3) students entering kindergarten and above meet with a teacher at the corresponding grade level for an interview and assessment to confirm grade placement, with a $75 assessment fee for new K-8 students; (4) students who pass the assessment receive an offer if space is available, and are placed on a waitlist by application date if the grade is full. Age requirements: preschool applicants must be 2 years 6 months old and toilet trained; Pre-K and above use a December 2 birthday cutoff, so a student entering kindergarten must turn 5 by December 2 of the year of entry. Enrollment is rolling year-round, and students may join whenever a space opens. The admissions phone number is (949) 751-1449.

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

Tuition for the 2026-2027 school year (school website, Mission Viejo campus tuition PDF): kindergarten $21,080; grades 1-5 $23,940; grades 6-8 $28,380. Preschool and Pre-K are full-day, five days a week, at $17,160 on the 10-month schedule and $21,500 on the 12-month schedule. There are two payment options: ONE TIME, paid in full with an additional 2.5% discount on the balance remaining after the nonrefundable portion is deducted, due June 1, 2026; and INSTALLMENT, with equal monthly payments from July 1, 2026 through April 1, 2027 on the 10-month schedule, or from July 2026 through June 2027 on the 12-month schedule. The amounts above include the nonrefundable portion paid at enrollment, $500 for preschool and Pre-K and $750 for grades K-8. Stratford prices each campus separately, and this page applies only to the Mission Viejo campus.

New Student Fee $500. The pre-enrollment assessment fee for new K-8 students is $75, paid when the assessment is scheduled. Technology fee: $400 for all grade 6 students and for new students entering in grades 7 and 8, due with the first tuition payment, which covers a one-to-one device the student uses throughout middle school. All of these fees are nonrefundable. Extended care (page 2 of the tuition PDF on the school website): the morning session starts at 7:00 a.m. and the afternoon session runs until 6:00 p.m. In the elementary grades the morning session is included in tuition at every frequency, two, three or five days a week. The elementary afternoon session is $4,445 a year, or on the monthly FLEX plan $255 for two days, $370 for three days and from $490 for five days (five days $615). Preschool and Pre-K: the annual rate for either the morning or the afternoon session is $2,640 on the 10-month schedule and $3,170 on the 12-month schedule; monthly FLEX rates are $180 for two days, $260 for three days and $350 for five days in the morning session, and $250 for two days, $365 for three days and $490 for five days in the afternoon session. Drop-in day rates are $17 for the morning session and $35 for the afternoon session. Other paid offerings such as after-school clubs and summer camp are not priced in this PDF (school website, Mission Viejo campus 2026-27 tuition PDF).

Academics and programs

• STEAM runs throughout the curriculum: the school website calls the elementary program an “accelerated STEAM curriculum” and the middle school “advanced STEAM instruction.” Engineering principles are introduced in grade 3, grade 4 completes a group science fair project and grade 5 an individual science fair project (school website, Elementary page, Our Programs page)
• Computer science begins in grade 1, taught twice a week by a dedicated specialist, with tools including Scratch, Tynker, LEGO Education, Python and Blockly, plus a robotics course (school website, Elementary page, Our School page FAQ)
• The world language is Spanish: kindergarten has it several times a week, and the middle school offers formal coursework beginning with Spanish 1, emphasizing speaking and writing in authentic contexts (school website, Elementary page, Middle School page)
• Music takes up one composer or one topic in music history each month; students sing, read notation and play drums, glockenspiel, recorder and keyboard, and perform several times over the year (school website, Only At Mission Viejo page)
• Middle school coursework: math is tracked into a standard sequence and an advanced accelerated sequence, science is aligned to the California standards and NGSS, English is divided into grammar and writing on one side and literature, spelling and vocabulary on the other, and history covers ancient civilizations in grade 6 and US and world history in grades 7-8 (school website, Middle School page)
• The middle school leadership program includes a ropes course, organizing activities for younger students and leading service projects; students run two service projects of their own, Hope Alliance and Stockings for Hope (school website, Only At Mission Viejo 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
Stratford School – Mission Viejo	Mission Viejo	K-8	$21,080	On-campus assessment	—	—
Montessori on the Lake	Lake Forest	K-8	$20,000	On-campus assessment	—	2.5 mi
Abiding Savior Lutheran School	Lake Forest	K-8	$10,500	On-campus assessment	—	1.8 mi
The Camino School	Laguna Woods	K-8	$13,900	On-campus assessment	19	2.8 mi
New Horizon School, Irvine — Upper Campus	Irvine	3-8	$25,580	On-campus assessment	—	3.7 mi

Where students go next

The About Us > Academic Outcomes page on the Stratford system website lists the high schools that middle school graduates have been admitted to; these are system-wide figures, not Mission Viejo campus data. The Orange County column lists Crean Lutheran High School, JSerra Catholic High School, Sage Hill School, St. Margaret’s Episcopal School and Santa Margarita Catholic High School. The same page separately lists the colleges attended by alumni system-wide. The school website does not break the data out by campus and gives no counts or percentages.

Schools in our guide library that appear on this list: Santa Margarita Catholic High School, JSerra Catholic High School, Crean Lutheran High School, Sage Hill School, St. Margaret’s Episcopal 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 2026-27 rate of $21,080, 9 years covering grades K-8 come to roughly $189,720 in tuition alone. Assuming the 4% annual increase common at private schools, the figure is closer to $223,000. 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	7.7 miles
Northwood	10.4 miles
Turtle Rock	8.3 miles
Portola Springs	7.6 miles

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

Questions to ask on a campus visit

• Year founded — the school website does not say when this campus was founded or when it joined Stratford. The Stratford brand was founded in Danville in 1999, while the current head of school has served as Director …
• Financial aid — the campus pages, the Admissions page and the tuition PDF on the school website make no mention of financial aid, scholarships or any channel for a needs assessment
• F-1 students — neither the campus pages nor the system-wide school website has an International Students page or any information about the I-20 or F-1, so this cannot be determined
• Average class size — the school website does not publish class sizes or a student-teacher ratio
• Registration, technology, uniform and activity fees beyond tuition

How EDUBUS helps

Our Irvine-based counselors work in both Chinese and English. We track Stratford School – Mission Viejo’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.