The Open School

Overview

The Open School is an independent, non-sectarian K-12 private school in Santa Ana, California, serving grades 1-12, founded in 2017, with about 59 students. Tuition for the current year is $6,900 to $23,000, which puts it in the lower range among Orange County private schools at this level.

Admissions

No entrance exam is required.

The school publishes the following application details. The admission process listed on the school website includes no written test or academic assessment at all: (1) submit an Admissions Inquiry; (2) the school gets in touch and schedules a visit, a video tour for the online program, and the school website asks that all guardians attend, including any non-custodial parent; (3) after the visit, submit the application with the application fee to join the queue; (4) attend an Admissions Interview, which all guardians and the student must attend; (5) once both sides agree, complete the indexed tuition application, attend an Enrollment Meeting, sign the contract, pay the first installment, and arrange the balance. One or two check-in meetings follow within the first month of enrollment. The school admits students ages 5 to 19, and a child may enroll if they turn 5 during the term; first-time applicants over 16 are considered case by case (school website, In-Person Admissions & Tuition page)

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 uses indexed tuition. For the Orange County in-person program, the range runs from a low of $6,900 to a high of $23,000, set individually according to each family’s finances, and the school website says additional assistance may be available (school website, In-Person Admissions & Tuition page). The page does not state which school year these prices apply to. Beyond tuition there is a mandatory school bond: all in-person families, as well as any family living within 30 miles of the campus, must take part in the student bond program, subscribing in units of $5,000 for a 5-year or 10-year term, refunded in full when the student graduates (school website, In-Person Admissions page, Welcome to Our New Home page)

An application fee is due when the application is submitted after the visit; the school website does not list the amount. The first payment is due at the enrollment meeting, where the balance is also scheduled. California families can receive about $3,000 a year in education funding through either of two homeschool charter programs, Epic Charter School or Taylion Charter School, and apply it toward tuition (school website, In-Person Admissions page, State-Based Funding Sources page)

Financial aid: Indexed tuition is itself the aid mechanism, set between $6,900 and $23,000 according to family circumstances. The school website also says additional assistance may be available but does not explain through what channel. It further points to roughly $3,000 per year in state funding through the Epic or Taylion homeschool charters (school website, In-Person Admissions page, State-Based Funding Sources page)

Academics and programs

• Self-directed learning and democratic governance: there are no required classes, no homework, and no tests, and students take part in governing the school and in its financial decisions (school website, Our Philosophy page, FAQ page)
• Most of the day is free play: students manage their own time and use the school’s art supplies, instruments, kitchen equipment, computers, sports equipment, and other resources (school website, In-Person Program page)
• Planned activities are entirely voluntary: art, cooking, academic classes, group games, workshops, science experiments, athletics, and more. Students can drop proposals in an idea box or ask an adult in the community to teach a class, and the school website states plainly that some students sign up for none of them (school website, In-Person Program page)
• An off-campus outing every one to two weeks, with destinations chosen around student interests, including parks, zoos, museums, beaches, and skating rinks, and occasionally an overnight camping trip; attendance is always voluntary (school website, In-Person Program page)
• Community building: all-school meals, prepared and served by students, and three hours of Community Hours each day during which everyone puts away personal electronics (school website, In-Person Program page)
• No grade levels and all ages mixed together: the school website says mixed ages let younger students learn from older ones and help teenagers be more relaxed and open (school website, FAQ 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
The Open School	Santa Ana	1-12	$6,900	None	—	—
Adelphia Classical Christian Academy	Orange	K-12	Not published	On-campus assessment	16	0.6 mi
Orangewood Academy	Garden Grove	K-12	$8,087	—	—	3.4 mi
Bethel Baptist School	Santa Ana	K-12	$5,400	On-campus assessment	—	5.6 mi
Anaheim Discovery Christian School	Anaheim	K-12	$10,490	On-campus assessment	—	5.2 mi

Where students go next

The school website FAQ page states that “The Open School is too new to have enough graduates to adequately answer this question.” The Graduates page lists, by class, the names of the 2024, 2025, and 2026 graduates and the program each attended, in-person or online, with links to their own statements, but it does not name the colleges they entered. The roughly 80% college attendance rate cited in the FAQ is data from Sudbury Valley School, the model this school is based on, not from The Open School.

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 current rate of $6,900, 12 years covering grades 1-12 come to roughly $82,800 in tuition alone. Assuming the 4% annual increase common at private schools, the figure is closer to $104,000. 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	8.0 miles
Northwood	5.1 miles
Turtle Rock	9.7 miles
Portola Springs	9.7 miles

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

Questions to ask on a campus visit

• Tuition year — the school website In-Person Admissions & Tuition page gives the $6,900-$23,000 range without stating anywhere on the page which school year it applies to. No inference is made and no placeholder is …
• Age range, stated inconsistently on the school website — the Admissions & Tuition page says “The Open School serves students between the ages of 5 and 19,” while the home page and both the In-Person and Virtual program cards say “Ages 5–18.” This entry use…
• Application fee — the school website says only to submit the application with the application fee and does not list the amount. It also does not state the minimum number of bond units required, or whether a single $5,…
• Year opened — the school website has no founding-year page, so this listing uses the opening date on file with the California Department of Education, February 22, 2017
• Registration, technology, uniform and activity fees beyond tuition

How EDUBUS helps

Our Irvine-based counselors work in both Chinese and English. We track The Open 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.