Covenant Christian School

Overview

Covenant Christian School is a Christian K-8 private school in Orange, California, serving grades K-8, founded in 1985, with about 165 students. The school does not publish tuition; ask for current figures when you book a visit. Religion classes are required, so confirm your family is comfortable with that before applying. 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 lists no single deadline and suggests starting with a scheduled visit (a virtual tour is also available). Application materials: a completed application form, a student recommendation form filled out by a current or former teacher, an authorization to release school records, and the tuition and financial agreement, plus the most recent report card, recent standardized test scores (STAR, SAT 10 and the like), a birth certificate and immunization records. Kindergarten applicants must complete a Kindergarten Readiness assessment (fee $45). Once the file is complete, the final step is an interview with the principal (school website, Admissions 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

The school website’s Tuition & Fees page publishes only fees and discount rules and does not list tuition amounts for the current school year; the page states that families with questions about tuition or other fees should contact the school office. The discount rules are: 10 percent for siblings (for families not receiving another discount or financial aid); 20 percent off for parents who are active police officers, firefighters or US military personnel; 20 percent off for pastors and full-time church staff; and 15 percent off for member families of Covenant Presbyterian Church. All discounts are re-verified annually, cannot be combined with financial aid or any other discount, and require full-time enrollment. Tuition is paid through the FACTS system in 10 monthly installments from August through May (school website, Tuition & Fees page). The only tuition table with amounts anywhere on the school website is an old PDF filed under a 2016 upload directory whose contents are dated to 2018 registration ($6,150 a year at the time); it is clearly out of date and this site does not use it.

Registration fees: the school website’s Tuition & Fees page lists Early Bird Registration at $325 and a Registration Fee of $425, while the Admissions page lists a Registration Fee of $350. The two do not agree, so families should confirm with the school office before applying. The registration fee and tuition already include the yearbook fee, the technology fee and an earthquake emergency kit. Kindergarten applicants also pay a $45 Kindergarten Readiness assessment fee (paid to the assessor, Chauncy and Bruce). Before- and after-school care is $10 an hour per student. International students pay additional fees; the school website does not list the amounts and asks families to contact the school.

Financial aid: Need-based financial aid is awarded after FACTS assesses a family’s finances; applying requires submitting the required documents and paying FACTS a $45 application fee. The school website states that families receiving financial aid cannot also take the sibling, police/fire/military, pastor or church member discounts - it is one or the other. The school website does not publish the share of families receiving aid or the average award (school website, Tuition & Fees page).

Academics and programs

• The foreign language offered is Spanish, starting in the lower grades with vocabulary and grammar drawn from everyday situations and moving in grades 7-8 into systematic grammar such as articles, pronouns and verb conjugation; the school website’s foreign language page lists Spanish only, with no Chinese (school website, Foreign Language page)
• K-5 students have a science lab period once a week with hands-on work such as seed dissection, chicken leg dissection and microscope observation (school website, Science Lab page); coding and robotics (Ozobots and online coding platforms) are integrated into math and science classes (school website, Coding & Robotics page)
• Students take part in ACSI academic competitions each year: the Spelling Bee in January (K-8), the Speech Meet in spring (K-8) and the Science Fair in spring (grades 6-8), advancing from the school level up through the district and regional levels (school website, Academic Competitions page)
• Academic Coaching Program: a multisensory learning support program led by credentialed teachers, with an individually designed plan for reading, math and language arts for each student; enrolled students may attend during the school day or after school, and students from outside the school may attend after school; fees are billed with tuition through FACTS (school website, Academic Coaching Program page and Tuition & Fees page)
• Students in grades 6-8 must complete 12 hours of Christian service each trimester (the school year runs on three trimesters), which may be done at a church, in the community or at the school (school website, Christian Service page)
• All-school chapel is held Fridays from 8:10 to 8:50, and students in grades 4-8 may serve on the worship team or the sound team (school website, Chapel 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
Covenant Christian School	Orange	K-8	Not published	On-campus assessment	—	—
St. Norbert Catholic School	Orange	K-8	$8,847	On-campus assessment	25	0.2 mi
St. Paul’s Lutheran School	Orange	K-8	$8,600	—	—	1.0 mi
Minaret Academy	Anaheim	K-8	Not published	On-campus assessment	—	3.1 mi
La Purisima Catholic School	Orange	K-8	Not published	On-campus assessment	—	3.2 mi

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	10.3 miles
Northwood	7.7 miles
Turtle Rock	12.8 miles
Portola Springs	11.3 miles

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

Questions to ask on a campus visit

• Tuition amounts could not be found at all — the Tuition & Fees page (/admissions/k-8-tuition-fees/) lists only registration fees and discount rules; its subpage, K-8 Tuition and Fees, has an empty body and only links to an old PDF uploaded to …
• The registration fee is inconsistent between two pages — the Tuition & Fees page lists Early Bird $325 and a Registration Fee of $425, while the Admissions page lists a Registration Fee of $350; the school website does not explain the difference, so both a…
• The amount of the international student surcharge could not be found — the International Students page says only that there are additional fees and gives a contact, with no figures; the I-20 and short-term enrollment packets posted on that page are still marked for the …
• Enrollment and average class size — the school website’s pages say only that class sizes are limited, with no figures, so the CDE filing of 165 students is used for enrollment and no average class size is listed
• Registration, technology, uniform and activity fees beyond tuition

How EDUBUS helps

Our Irvine-based counselors work in both Chinese and English. We track Covenant Christian 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.