Bethel Baptist School

Bethel Baptist School is a Christian private K-12 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. 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.

Bethel Baptist School does not use a 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)

This school does not use a standardized entrance test. It assesses applicants on campus, so preparation centers on the visit day and the parent interview rather than test registration. Application dates are set by the school each year; ask the admissions office for the current calendar and plan backward from it.

Bethel Baptist School tuition for 2022-23 is $5,400 to $7,510.

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 described on the Bethel Baptist School website include:

• 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)

These are the schools nearest to Bethel Baptist School at the same level, with the basic facts each school publishes. Select a name to open that school’s admissions guide:

School	Grades	Tuition	Entrance test	Distance
Bethel Baptist School	K-12	$5,400	On-campus assessment	—
Orange Crescent School	K-12	$10,900	On-campus assessment	2.0 mi
Orangewood Academy	K-12	$8,087	—	2.6 mi
Calvary Chapel Schools	K-12	Not published	—	2.9 mi
Liberty Christian School	K-12	$8,525	On-campus assessment	3.5 mi

Bethel Baptist School publishes the following on where its graduates go.

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.

Families planning to move to a different high school in grade 9 should plan backward from the target school’s entrance test and application deadline.

Bethel Baptist School tuition for 2022-23 is tiered by grade or program, from $5,400 to $7,510. Over 13 years covering grades K-12, total tuition falls between $70,200 and $97,630, depending on which tier each grade falls in; ask the school for its grade-by-grade tuition table. This uses current-year rates and excludes registration fees, deposits, uniforms and activity fees; the school sets tuition for later years annually.

These are straight-line distances to Bethel Baptist School from neighborhoods where many Irvine families live. Actual drive times will be longer; time the drive once during school hours:

Neighborhood	Straight-line distance
Woodbury	11.4 miles
Northwood	10.0 miles
Turtle Rock	9.7 miles
Portola Springs	13.0 miles

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

When you visit Bethel Baptist School, confirm these points with the admissions office:

• 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 no other section of the school website has a page introducing the principal, so the principal’s na…
• 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