Kindergarten Tuition and Admissions

Last verified: 2026-09-11 Planning horizon: Kindergarten, 2027–28 school year

Applicants must independently confirm that they satisfy each school's kindergarten age cutoff. Private-school acceptance and public-school assignment are separate from age eligibility.

At-a-glance cost and access

The private figures are annual tuition, not a complete cost of attendance. Testing, care, lunch, transportation, uniforms, activities, deposits and service/fundraising obligations may add to the total.

Public-school requirements

Cedar Trails, Grand Ridge, Cascade Ridge and Endeavour

All four are tuition-free, full-day Issaquah School District kindergarten programs. None is an open-admission school that a family can select merely because it is nearby.

For ordinary neighborhood enrollment:

1. Confirm the assigned school using the exact home address and the district boundary lookup.
2. Complete the district's online new-student registration.
3. Finish registration with the neighborhood school.
4. Provide a prospective student's immunization record.
5. Provide proof of birth date, such as a birth certificate or passport.
6. Provide parent/guardian identification.
7. Provide proof of the home address. The district lists documents such as a property-tax statement, mortgage statement, homeowners or renters insurance, current lease/rental agreement, current utility/cable bill or public-agency document.

If the address is assigned to another ISD school, request an in-district transfer. If the family moves outside ISD, submit ISD's open-enrollment application and an annual Choice Transfer Request from the resident district. Transfer students cannot displace residents and placement depends on space. The 2027–28 registration and transfer dates are not yet posted; begin checking in January 2027.

Official references: ISD kindergarten FAQ, ISD open-enrollment FAQ, and ISD school-status list.

View Ridge and Bryant

Both are tuition-free Seattle attendance-area schools.

If the family moves into the school's exact attendance area:

1. Complete SPS online registration.
2. Provide a parent/guardian photo ID or passport.
3. Provide two address-verification documents dated within the previous eight weeks. SPS accepts items such as current utility/cable bills, mortgage statements, rental insurance, other insurance documents, qualifying public-agency documents, or a recent lease with its first and signature pages.
4. Provide a prospective student's Certificate of Immunization Status or exemption documentation.
5. Provide proof of age, such as a birth certificate, hospital record, passport, DSHS record or court record.
6. Confirm the assignment through the SPS address lookup; a Seattle postal address alone does not establish the View Ridge or Bryant attendance area.

If the family lives elsewhere in Seattle, first register at the address-assigned school and then submit School Choice during open enrollment. Choice placement is capacity-dependent. For context only, the 2026–27 on-time window was January 5–31, 2026, with late requests through March 31; the 2027–28 dates are not yet posted.

Applicants who live outside Seattle cannot use resident School Choice. They must obtain a Choice Transfer Request from their resident district and submit an SPS non-resident application. SPS considers non-residents only after residents, does not place them on waitlists, rejects placements where a resident waitlist exists, and requires annual renewal. The 2026–27 non-resident window was June 1–August 31; treat that only as a historical planning pattern.

Official references: SPS enrollment requirements, SPS kindergarten, SPS non-resident students, and the 2026–27 School Choice form.

McDonald International

McDonald is tuition-free but is an SPS option school, not a neighborhood-assignment school. Moving next door does not guarantee a seat.

For a Seattle-resident kindergarten application:

1. Establish a Seattle address and complete SPS registration with the same identity, address, immunization and age documents listed above.
2. Submit McDonald as a School Choice request during the on-time window.
3. State whether a prospective student is a native/heritage Spanish or Japanese speaker. The current choice form expressly collects this information.
4. If applying for native/heritage-language priority, complete the school's language assessment when invited.
5. Wait for the lottery/assignment result. Current priorities include siblings and geography, plus a native/heritage-language set-aside; exact 2027–28 rules must be rechecked when SPS publishes the transition plan.

No prior Spanish or Japanese is required for a non-heritage kindergarten applicant. From Issaquah, the non-resident process applies and the resident waitlist makes admission especially unlikely.

Official references: McDonald information for prospective families and the SPS sources above.

Island Park, Lakeridge, Northwood and West Mercer

All four are tuition-free, full-day Mercer Island School District neighborhood schools. Elementary assignment is based on the exact home address and district boundary map. For ordinary kindergarten enrollment, a family completes MISD's online application and provides age documentation, a completed immunization record and two proofs of district residency. The child must turn five by August 31 of the entry year.

For context, 2026–27 kindergarten enrollment opened January 29, 2026. The board closed all K–5 grades to new nonresident enrollment for that school year. Choice transfer applications could still be submitted, but the published closed status means they should not be treated as a practical route. Recheck the 2027–28 board decision and registration date when published.

Lakeridge also hosts the district's unique-classroom Code 33 Highly Capable service for identified students in grades 3–5. That is a separate identification and placement process, not a way to choose Lakeridge for kindergarten.

Official references: MISD kindergarten registration, MISD open enrollment, and MISD Highly Capable services.

Private-school requirements

Open Window School

Official 2026–27 tuition: $42,880 for K–4. The live school page now confirms the figure supplied by the family. The 2027–28 tuition is pending. Tuition covers the full school-day program, technology and trips; transportation, lunch, after-school care and enrichment/sports are separate.

For a 2027–28 kindergarten application:

1. Create an Aryval account when applications open in September 2026; the live page no longer promises an exact September 1 opening.
2. Register through Aryval for and attend the required parent tour.
3. Arrange an individual IQ assessment with a licensed psychologist; the age-appropriate Wechsler instrument for most kindergarten applicants is the WPPSI-IV. The examiner sends the report directly to the school.
4. Submit the application, parent questionnaire and $70 fee unless waived.
5. Request online evaluations from both the applicant's current teacher and school administrator.
6. Request that the applicant's preschool send its current-year report or progress report directly. Prior-two-year records apply beyond kindergarten and standardized achievement tests apply to grades 4–8, so they are not ordinary kindergarten requirements.
7. Attend the assigned lower-school applicant visit, normally on a Saturday in late January or early February.

Open Window describes successful applicants as children with high intellectual potential; its published material references scores around the 95th percentile but says admission is holistic rather than based on a hard score cutoff. The current tuition page gives January 14, 2027 as the admissions deadline and January 31, 2027 as the separate Clarity tuition-assistance deadline. The exact visit and decision dates remain pending, so finish testing and evaluation requests before winter break.

Official references: How to apply, required IQ testing, and tuition/assistance.

Seattle Country Day School

2026–27 tuition: $41,756 for K–3. The 2027–28 rate is pending. Current extra-cost examples include Extended Day at $12/hour and lunch at $8.75/day; an enrollment deposit is also required.

The kindergarten file requires:

1. A Wechsler cognitive assessment, sent directly by the examiner.
2. A required parent visit: attend a tour or the Fall 2026 open house.
3. A Ravenna application by January 14, 2027.
4. A required 20-minute virtual family meeting after the application and qualifying test results arrive.
5. One evaluation from a prospective student's current teacher, not an extracurricular teacher or coach.
6. A $70 non-refundable fee unless hardship assistance is approved.
7. An assigned Student Visit Day after the file is complete.

SCDS says students for whom the program is a good fit generally score near the 97th percentile on the Wechsler FSIQ or GAI, while also reviewing curiosity, creativity, maturity, character, family information, teacher evaluation and the visit. Financial-aid materials have separate deadlines: PFS by February 12, 2027, and 2026 federal tax return/W-2 documents by February 22, 2027.

Official references: admissions process, testing, and tuition/financial aid.

UCDS

Official 2026–27 tuition: $43,875 for the full-day program. The 2027–28 rate is pending. Field trips, overnights and special programs can add costs.

For 2027–28 kindergarten:

1. Create a Ravenna account and explore UCDS when the cycle opens in early September 2026.
2. Attend the required adult small-group tour, offered on school-day mornings from October through January.
3. Submit the preliminary application and $75 fee, preferably by early December because UCDS caps the process at 300 applications.
4. Complete the parent questionnaire by January 14, 2027.
5. Request the teacher evaluation by January 14, 2027.
6. Submit cognitive testing by January 14, 2027. UCDS accepts WPPSI-IV for children under six, WISC-V for children six or older, or KABC-II, and states that it has no score threshold.
7. Attend the Early Elementary applicant visit on February 25, 26 or 27, 2027, as assigned. UCDS's page contains a year typo for the Saturday date; February 27 falls on Saturday in 2027.
8. Complete the required 15–20 minute virtual parent interview; all parents/guardians should participate.

Transcripts are requested for grades 1–5, not kindergarten. UCDS describes admission as need-blind and can include after-school programming, required curricular events and some classroom expenses in aid. Submit the 2027–28 Clarity assistance application by February 12, 2027; Clarity will pull the family's 2025 tax return and supporting W-2/1099 documents.

Official references: admission process, testing, FAQ, and tuition/assistance.

Our Lady of the Lake Catholic School

2026–27 tuition: $15,308 per student out-of-parish, or $11,364 for one child at the in-parish rate. The 2027–28 rate is pending.

The in-parish rate is not simply a Catholic-family discount. OLL requires at least one parent to be baptized Catholic, parish registration for at least six months, a stewardship commitment, regular Sunday Mass and parish participation; a qualifying transfer family may provide a pastor letter. Otherwise budget the out-of-parish rate unless OLL confirms eligibility in writing.

For a kindergarten application:

1. Visit the school or arrange a tour.
2. Submit the online application and $100 non-refundable fee by the priority deadline, December 12, 2026.
3. Submit the requested supporting records promptly. Later applications are rolling if space remains.
4. Attend the kindergarten readiness assessment in early January 2027. The small-group session observes literacy/language, social-emotional development, fine-motor skills, early math and classroom readiness.

Catholic affiliation is not required, but priority is given first to current families/siblings, then active OLL parishioners, other Catholic-parish families, baptized Catholics and finally non-Catholic applicants. Every admitted student participates in religion, prayer and Mass.

Budget beyond tuition for uniforms, supplies, care, field trips and family obligations. The current materials describe 30 volunteer hours for a two-parent household or 15 for a single-parent household, including at least four auction hours, with a $20 charge for each unmet hour; reconfirm these terms for 2027–28. Need-based aid uses Fulcrum/FACTS and is typically due December 31, but verify the 2026 date in the portal.

Official references: application process, admissions assessments, K–8 tuition, and tuition assistance.

Application planning calendar

Important unknowns to refresh

• Every private school's 2027–28 tuition and enrollment deposit.
• Open Window's exact applicant-visit and decision dates and 2027–28 tuition.
• UCDS's 2027–28 tuition and enrollment deposit.
• ISD's 2027–28 kindergarten registration and transfer calendar.
• SPS's 2027–28 registration, School Choice and non-resident calendars and McDonald priority rules.
• MISD's 2027–28 kindergarten opening date and K–5 nonresident-enrollment decision.
• The prospective home address, which determines ordinary access to the Issaquah, Seattle and Mercer Island neighborhood schools.

Archived official-source copies are indexed in resources/admissions. Tour dates remain in the separate school-tour schedule.