Montessori on the Lake

Overview

Montessori on the Lake is an independent, non-sectarian K-8 private school in Lake Forest, California, serving grades K-8, founded in 1988, with about 93 students. Tuition for 2026-27 is $20,000 to $20,735, 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. Rolling admission year-round; the school website states that “spaces are filled in the order applications are received.” There are four steps: 1) schedule a tour to see the campus and meet the staff; 2) after the tour the school provides the application form, which the family completes and submits; 3) the student spends one session in a Montessori classroom (Child Visit), which the school website describes as “letting the child experience a Montessori classroom while both sides confirm whether it is a good fit”; 4) once admitted, the family receives detailed enrollment information. The school website does not list transcript, recommendation letter, standardized testing or parent interview requirements, and it does not publish an application deadline or open house dates. The 2026-27 school year begins September 8 and ends in May or June 2027; the re-enrollment deadline for returning students for the 2027-28 school year is February 11, 2027 (school website, Admissions page; 2026-2027 school calendar PDF).

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

K-8 (Elementary + Middle School) tuition for 2026-27: $20,000 paid in full, a discounted rate that must be paid by May 1, 2026, or $20,735 paid after August 1, 2026. Families may also pay in 11 installments of $1,885 (August 1, 2026 through June 1, 2027), for a total of $20,735. The school day runs 8:30-15:30. The early childhood division charges by the month only, with rates set by the number of days and the length of the day: Infant Center full day (9:00-15:00), five days a week, $2,275 per month; Twos full day $1,695 for five days, $1,645 for four days and $1,595 for three days, half day (9:00-12:00) $1,450 for five days, $1,400 for four days and $1,350 for three days; Preschool full day $1,650 for five days, $1,600 for four days and $1,550 for three days, half day $1,400 for five days, $1,350 for four days and $1,300 for three days. All of the above appear in the 2026-2027 fee schedule PDFs linked from the “Preschool Tuition” and “Elementary Tuition” buttons on the Admissions page of the school website (page 1 of that PDF is the school calendar; the fee schedule is on pages 2-3).

K-8: book and materials fee of $350 for K-5 and $550 for grades 6-8, plus a geometry course fee of $1,260 in grade 8 depending on the student’s progress; new student enrollment fee of $750 per family and an annual re-enrollment fee of $400 per family for returning students; field trip and class T-shirt $18. Early childhood: new student registration fee $300, annual re-enrollment fee $250 for returning students, field trip and class T-shirt $18. Extended care, the same price in both divisions and billed monthly on top of tuition: morning $100 per month, afternoon $200 per month, morning plus afternoon $250 per month; drop-in care $15 per hour, pickup after 6 p.m. $15 per 15 minutes, and winter and summer break care about $15 per hour. Tuition paid late, after the 5th of the month, carries a 10% late fee. Field trips are billed separately: Catalina for Upper Elementary is about $450, Joshua Tree or Julian camping for the middle school is $150, and international trips run $1,000-$2,500 depending on fundraising. International and visiting students have a separate rate: $2,750 per month for both K-8 and early childhood, which includes lunch, snacks, the registration fee and all before-and-after-school and holiday care, with a one-month minimum enrollment. (School website, 2026-2027 Elementary and Preschool fee schedule PDFs)

Financial aid: The school website has no financial aid or scholarship page, but the fee schedules list discounts: a sibling discount of 5% off the lower tuition when two children are enrolled (in the early childhood division, off the older child’s tuition), and 20% off when three or more children are enrolled. Discounts do not apply to extended care or other incidental fees. K-8 also has an annual pay-in-full discount ($20,735 to $20,000); the school website states that families may take either the pay-in-full discount or the sibling discount, whichever is larger, but not both. (School website, 2026-2027 Elementary and Preschool fee schedule PDFs)

Academics and programs

• Mixed-age classrooms are the core structure: the school website lists “Peer Mentorship” as one of the six benefits of Montessori education, stating that mixed-age grouping lets children teach and learn from one another, building community and mutual respect (school website, Programs page and Get to Know Us page)
• Early Childhood (3 months to 4 years) is divided into three stages: infant care follows Magda Gerber’s RIE (Resources for Infant Educators) approach, while the toddler and preschool stages follow Montessori. The ratio is 3:1 for ages 3-12 months and 1:6 for the 24-36 month toddler group; children formally enter the Montessori method at 18 months (school website, Early Childhood page)
• Elementary (grades K-6): the school website states that children in the kindergarten stage, ages 4.5-6, work “beyond standard kindergarten milestones” in writing, grammar, fractions and math, including division into the thousands; the elementary years emphasize executive function (self-direction, planning, organization, focus, goal setting, delayed gratification, persistence, flexible thinking and problem solving) along with real-world collaboration skills (school website, Elementary page)
• Middle School (grades 7-8): the school website says this stage emphasizes collaboration, large projects, self-direction, community involvement and an entrepreneurial mindset; the classroom is designed like a collaborative office, with an in-class computer area, a library and conference area, table seating and desks as work-space options (school website, Middle School page)
• Extended care: the school website lists before and after school care (school website, Get to Know Us page and Admissions page)
• Summer Camp for ages 5-12 (school website, Programs page and Summer Camp 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
Montessori on the Lake	Lake Forest	K-8	$20,000	On-campus assessment	—	—
New Horizon School, Irvine — Upper Campus	Irvine	3-8	$25,580	On-campus assessment	—	1.2 mi
Stratford School – Mission Viejo	Mission Viejo	K-8	$21,080	On-campus assessment	—	2.5 mi
Abiding Savior Lutheran School	Lake Forest	K-8	$10,500	On-campus assessment	—	0.7 mi
The Camino School	Laguna Woods	K-8	$13,900	On-campus assessment	19	1.6 mi

Total tuition through graduation

At the 2026-27 rate of $20,000, 9 years covering grades K-8 come to roughly $180,000 in tuition alone. Assuming the 4% annual increase common at private schools, the figure is closer to $212,000. 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	5.3 miles
Northwood	7.8 miles
Turtle Rock	6.3 miles
Portola Springs	5.7 miles

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

Questions to ask on a campus visit

• tuitionLow / tuitionHigh — K-8 has a single price for all grades, and the school website gives two figures, the discounted pay-in-full rate of $20,000 (due by May 1, 2026) and the standard annual rate of $20,735 (after August …
• accreditation = null — a page-by-page check of the full HTML of the home page, Programs, Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle School, Get to Know Us, Admissions and Current Families found no mention of AMI, AMS, MACTE, WASC…
• The actual size of grades 7 and 8 cannot be verified — the Middle School page on the school website covers only teaching philosophy and classroom layout and gives no number of sections, enrollment count or list of dedicated teachers; CDE reports only a c…
• chineseProgram = null — the Programs, Early Childhood, Elementary and Middle School pages of the school website carry no world language course list; the Elementary and Middle School pages list specialist offerings as “Compu…
• Registration, technology, uniform and activity fees beyond tuition

How EDUBUS helps

Our Irvine-based counselors work in both Chinese and English. We track Montessori on the Lake’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.