St. Mary's School

The St. Mary’s School entrance test is the ISEE, but not every grade takes it; see the application details on this page for which grades do (the ISEE has Primary, Lower, Middle and Upper levels by entry grade).

The school publishes the following application details. For the 2027-28 school year: applications open September 1, 2026, close January 4, 2027, and decisions are released February 26, 2027. Admission information sessions are held October 22, November 12 and December 10, 2026 and January 28, 2027. Assessment: kindergarten and grade 1 applicants are assessed on campus; applicants for grades 2-8 must take the ISEE (school code 054245). Parent interviews are held over Zoom for the early childhood division and for kindergarten through grade 5; for the middle school, the website asks families to schedule a parent interview but does not say whether it is held on campus or online. Also required are teacher recommendations (sent through the admissions system), a birth certificate, immunization records, a family photo and a transcript; selected lower school applicants may be invited for a classroom visit, and middle school applicants also attend a shadow day on campus. The age cutoff is July 1: a child must be 4 for Early Kindergarten and 5 for kindergarten. (School website, Inquire & Apply page)

This school uses the ISEE. Confirm whether the entry grade requires it and which test level applies, then plan preparation backward from the application deadline. The dates the school publishes are listed in the application timeline on this page; plan materials and testing backward from the deadline.

St. Mary’s School tuition for 2026-27 is $31,300.

$31,300 a year for K-8; $28,900 a year for Early Kindergarten; Early Preschool and Preschool are priced in six tiers by number of days and length of day: 5 full days $27,300, 5 half days $24,500, 3 full days $21,400, 3 half days $19,200, 2 full days $17,100 and 2 half days $15,400 (2026-27, from the 2026-2027 Tuition Schedule linked on the school website’s Tuition & Financial Aid page)

From the school website’s 2026-2027 Tuition Schedule: a one-time new family fee of $1,000 and a new student fee of $100. A non-refundable deposit is paid at contract signing: $3,100 for K-8, $2,900 for Early Kindergarten and $1,700-$2,700 for the early childhood division depending on the day option. Payment options: paid in full on May 5; two installments (60/40, on May 5 and December 5) with a $150 service fee; or ten monthly installments beginning May 5 with a $300 service fee. Field Studies are required in grades 4-8, with estimated costs of $2,100 for the grade 4 Sacramento trip, $710 for grade 5 AstroCamp, $920 for grade 6 Catalina, $1,500 for grade 7 Yosemite and $4,200 for the grade 8 Washington, D.C. trip. Extended care is available in all divisions and is billed by hours used per month: $440 a month for more than 40 hours, $350 a month for 20-39 hours, $270 a month for 10-19 hours and $180 a month for under 10 hours; drop-in use without registration is $36 an hour.

Financial aid: All aid is need-based and is applied for through the Clarity platform; about $1.3 million was awarded last school year. The school website states explicitly that “St. Mary’s does not offer sibling discounts” - there is no sibling discount - although having more than one child enrolled at the same time in tuition-charging schools can be counted as a financial need factor in the assessment. Applications must include the prior year’s and the current year’s tax returns, W-2s, 1099s and proof of income, and the financial aid committee may request additional documents. The aid application opens October 1, 2026 and closes December 1, 2026 for current families and January 4, 2027 for new families. (School website, Tuition & Financial Aid page)

Academics and programs described on the St. Mary’s School website include:

• IB curriculum: the Primary Years Programme (early childhood through grade 5) and the Middle Years Programme (grades 6-8); the school became an IB World School in 2007 (school website, History page); the school website’s At-A-Glance page describes the school as “the only one of its kind in Orange County”
• Design Thinking: the Design Center on the second floor of the Sillers Center, which opened in the 2025-26 school year (school website, History and New Spaces pages)
• World languages: all elementary students study Spanish; all grade 5 students are introduced to three languages, Mandarin Chinese, French and Spanish, and use that experience to choose the language they will study in middle school; the language acquisition course page lists Spanish and Mandarin Chinese (school website, World Languages page)
• Field Studies (required): grade 4 Sacramento $2,100, grade 5 AstroCamp $710, grade 6 Catalina $920, grade 7 Yosemite $1,500 and grade 8 Washington, D.C. $4,200 (school website, 2026-2027 Tuition Schedule)
• Extended Care: available in all divisions at $180-$440 a month depending on hours used per month, with drop-in use at $36 an hour for students not registered (school website, 2026-2027 Tuition Schedule)
• The Center for Learning (C4L) learning support program, Intersession and Summer Session (school website, Education Model and Student Life navigation)

These are the schools nearest to St. Mary’s 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
St. Mary’s School	K-8	$31,300	ISEE	—
Aliso Viejo Christian School	K-8	$12,296	On-campus assessment	0.3 mi
VanDamme Academy	K-8	$18,000	—	0.4 mi
Anneliese Schools – Willowbrook Campus	K-6	$18,350	On-campus assessment	2.8 mi
Stoneybrooke Christian School	K-8	$12,167	On-campus assessment	3.2 mi

These are straight-line distances to St. Mary’s 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	10.1 miles
Northwood	11.0 miles
Turtle Rock	7.6 miles
Portola Springs	10.3 miles

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

When you visit St. Mary’s School, confirm these points with the admissions office:

• Diocese — the About, Faith Identity, History, Leadership, Admission and Accreditation pages all refer only to Episcopal traditions and Episcopalian values; the word Diocese appears nowhere on the site and the …
• Accrediting body — the body of the school website’s /accreditation page is empty (navigation and address only), and WASC and CAIS appear nowhere on the site; the accreditation entry is based instead on the caisca.org m…
• International students, I-20 and ESL — none of the Admission pages or Education Model pages address any of these, so this remains undetermined
• Transportation — the school website’s /site-map shows no Transportation page anywhere on the site, and no page addresses transportation
• Registration, technology, uniform and activity fees beyond tuition