Bethel Baptist School

Overview

Bethel Baptist School is a Christian K-12 private school in Santa Ana, California, serving grades K-12, founded in 1967, with about 78 students. Tuition for 2022-23 is $5,400 to $7,510, 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. The school offers 4 AP courses. The school accepts F-1 international students and issues the I-20 needed for a student visa.

Admissions

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

The school publishes the following application details. The school website Elementary Admissions page states that all new students entering grades 1-8 must take an entrance test, with a $20 testing fee (cash, nonrefundable and nontransferable). K4 applicants must turn 4 by October 31 of that year and kindergarten applicants must turn 5 by October 31; applicants who do not meet the age cutoff may still be evaluated through testing. K4 and kindergarten students must be toilet trained and able to express their needs in English, and students entering grade 1 must submit a physician’s examination report before enrolling. Registration materials include a birth certificate, Social Security number, and immunization records, and the registration fee is paid in person. At enrollment, families submit the Application for Enrollment, the Registration Form, and the Statement of Commitment. The school website does not list an application opening or closing date. International students (International Admissions page) additionally need a $50 application fee, a teacher recommendation, three years of transcripts, a recent report card, test scores, a passport or birth certificate, immunization records, proof of bank deposits, and a guardian letter, and must submit an essay and interview with school administration, which may be held online. The interview must demonstrate English ability without an interpreter and without memorized answers, and the campus operates as an English-only environment. The school states that international students must attend for at least two years to meet California and school graduation requirements, that applicants for grade 11 must enroll before October, and that all tuition must be paid in full by August 10, 2026 (Check-In Day)

The main entry points at a K-12 school are kindergarten, grade 6 and grade 9; seats in other grades open only when a family leaves. Plan on a 12-month runway: visit in the fall, submit materials and test in the winter, and receive decisions in the spring. Applications for mid-year grades can be filed at any time, but availability depends on that year’s openings.

Tuition and fees

The school website’s tuition pages for domestic students are still the 2022-2023 version, titled Estimated Tuition and School Fees 2022-2023, and have not been updated for 2026-27. Annual tuition at that time: $5,940 for K4, $5,400 for K5 through grade 4, $6,130 for grades 5-8, and $7,510 for grades 9-12. The school does not have separate church-member and non-member rates (school website, Elementary Tuition & Fees, Middle School Tuition & Fees, and High School Tuition & Fees pages)

The same 2022-23 pages also list registration fees: $355 for K4, $468 for grades 1-4, $590 for grades 5-8, and $688 for grades 9-12; uniforms about $200; the grades 5-8 Outdoor Education Camp about $250 and the three-day retreat for grades 9-12 about $250; PE uniforms at $20 per set for grades 9-10; a $75 graduation fee in grade 12; and AP exam fees of about $96 for grades 10-12. Optional extended care: mornings $61 per month ($81 for K4), afternoons until 18:00 $130 per month ($150 for K4), and all day $158 per month ($178 for K4). The international student page has been updated for the 2026-2027 school year and lists tuition plus mandatory fees by division: $11,765 in total for grades 1-4 (tuition $10,950, registration $515, uniforms about $200, activity fee $100); $15,315 for grades 5-8 (tuition $13,920, registration $645, uniforms about $200, outdoor education about $350, activity fee $200); and $17,215 for grades 9-12 (tuition $15,610, registration $755, uniforms about $200, outdoor education about $350, activity fee $300). International students also pay a $50 application fee, health insurance of about $800 covering at least 10 months, AP exams at $99 each, and an $80 graduation fee in grade 12, and all mandatory fees must be paid by August 10, 2026. The school website First Year Discount page lists two additional discounts: the New Family Discount (50% off first-year tuition for new families, not available to international students holding an I-20) and the Partner Preschool Discount (for partner preschools, with neither the amount nor the list of partner schools published on the school website). Both are first-year or enrollment incentives rather than standard pricing.

Academics and programs

• Four AP courses: AP Economics, AP United States Government, AP World History, and AP United States History (school website, Course Index page)
• The high school offers college-preparatory coursework that meets UC and Cal State entrance requirements; electives include speech, journalism, drama, home economics, computers, yearbook, and SAT preparation (school website, Who We Are page, Course Index page)
• Spanish is the only foreign language, offered through Spanish 3 (school website, Course Index page)
• Bible runs throughout junior high and high school: Junior High Bible in the middle grades and one course each year in grades 9-12 (school website, Course Index page)
• Class trips to Sacramento, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. are scheduled across the six junior high and high school years (school website, Who We Are page)
• Through GSACS/AACS membership, students may enter the annual academic and fine arts competitions in speech, photography, drawing, and music; the ASB student government hosts Red Ribbon Week, Culture Day, Homecoming, the Spring Festival, and other events (school website, Who We Are 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
Bethel Baptist School	Santa Ana	K-12	$5,400	On-campus assessment	—	—
Orangewood Academy	Garden Grove	K-12	$8,087	—	—	2.6 mi
Orange Crescent School	Garden Grove	K-12	$10,900	On-campus assessment	—	2.0 mi
Calvary Chapel Schools	Santa Ana	K-12	Not published	—	—	2.9 mi
Liberty Christian School	Huntington Beach	K-12	$8,525	On-campus assessment	16	3.5 mi

Where students go next

The school website International Admissions page says of the school’s international graduates: “Many have gone on to attend top universities like UCLA, UCI, UC Davis, UC Berkley, University of Massachusetts, and Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo just to name a few” - that is, UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, University of Massachusetts, Cal Poly Pomona, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, among others. The same page notes that international students must attend school in the United States for two years to meet California and school graduation requirements. The school website College Preparation page offers only an overview of AP courses and college preparation, with no class-by-class admission list or statistics.

Students continuing internally generally do not test again, but families planning to move to a different high school in grade 9 should start preparing in the spring of grade 7.

Total tuition through graduation

At the 2022-23 rate of $5,400, 13 years covering grades K-12 come to roughly $70,200 in tuition alone. Assuming the 4% annual increase common at private schools, the figure is closer to $90,000. 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	11.4 miles
Northwood	8.5 miles
Turtle Rock	9.7 miles
Portola Springs	13.7 miles

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

Questions to ask on a campus visit

• Tuition — all three domestic tuition pages on the school website (Elementary, Middle School, and High School Tuition & Fees) are titled 2022-2023, and no updated version appears anywhere on the site. This list…
• Head of school — the school website navigation includes About > Administration, but /administration returns a 404 and sitemap.xml has no corresponding page, so the principal’s name could not be verified
• Enrollment — the school website does not publish enrollment, so the CDE 2025-26 filing figure of 78 is used
• 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 Bethel Baptist 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.