Best Independent (non-religious) Schools in Hillsborough County under $20K

34 schools match. Top 10 ranked by size, tuition fit, and freshness of our data.

Hillsborough County has 34 independent (non-religious) K-12 schools in our database, drawn from FLDOE, NCES, and direct outreach to school directors. Annual tuition ranges from $7.6K/yr to $19.2K/yr, with a median of $12.3K/yr across schools that publish a number. Tampa has the highest concentration with 15 schools, followed by Valrico (5). 28 of these schools accept Florida Step Up / FES scholarships — roughly 82% of the list — so families using state-funded scholarships have real choice here.

Admissions processes vary by school. AdmitCompass surfaces the deadlines, test requirements, and tuition for each campus on its detail page, so families can build a balanced reach / target / safety list. Every school is re-verified through direct outreach to admissions teams; data is refreshed on a 180-day cadence and timestamped on each profile.

See also: Scholarship-friendly, Tuition-Free.

  1. 1

    Corbett Preparatory School of IDS

    Tampa, Hillsborough County · Grades PK3-8

    Tuition
    $19.2K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~600 students
  2. 2

    Livingstone Academy - Seffner

    Seffner, Hillsborough County · Grades KG-12

    Tuition
    $12K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~170 students
  3. 3

    South Tampa Microschool

    Tampa, Hillsborough County · Grades KG-08

    Tuition
    $12.5K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~130 students
  4. 4

    The Riverview Montessori School At Rivercre

    Riverview, Hillsborough County · Grades PK-05

    Tuition
    $17.8K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~110 students
  5. 5

    Livingstone Academy Autism Center

    Valrico, Hillsborough County · Grades KG-08

    Tuition
    $18K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~110 students
  6. 6

    Southshore Montessori Ii

    Apollo Beach, Hillsborough County · Grades KG-06

    Tuition
    $17.8K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~90 students
  7. 7

    Center Academy-riverview

    Riverview, Hillsborough County · Grades 04-12

    Tuition
    $15.5K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~90 students
  8. 8

    Livingstone Academy - River View

    Riverview, Hillsborough County · Grades 1-8

    Tuition
    $12K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~90 students
  9. 9

    Lee Academy For Gifted Education

    Tampa, Hillsborough County · Grades PK-12

    Tuition
    $17.7K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~80 students
  10. 10

    Lutz Learning Center

    Lutz, Hillsborough County · Grades PK-06

    Tuition
    $10.5K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~80 students
How we rank these schools

Built relationships, not scrapers. AdmitCompass ranks schools using a composite score that blends four signals: enrollment size (a proxy for stability and program breadth), tuition reasonableness within the local market, freshness of our most recent verification, and a small bonus for schools with full admissions detail published on their profile.

Public data comes from the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and each school's own admissions pages. The information that actually matters to most families — acceptance rates, deadlines, what a director cares about — comes from direct interviews with school directors and admissions coaches across our active markets.

We do not publish scoring weights or per-axis thresholds. That keeps the moat intact: the rankings reflect actual conversations with people inside schools, not a formula anyone with a crawler could clone. Every profile is re-verified on a 180-day cadence, and the "last updated" date is timestamped on every school page.

Read the full methodology.

Frequently asked questions

What's the average tuition for schools in Hillsborough County?
Across the 34 schools on this list, annual tuition ranges from $7.6K/yr to $19.2K/yr, with a median of $12.3K/yr. Many schools offer financial aid, sibling discounts, or accept Florida Step Up / FES scholarships — check each school's detail page for current aid policy.
How competitive is admission in Hillsborough County?
Admissions selectivity ranges from open-enrollment (most charters and parish schools) to highly selective (top independent K-12 programs). Each school's profile page lists deadlines, test requirements, and any published acceptance rate.
Do these schools accept Step Up / FES scholarships?
28 of the 34 schools on this page accept Florida's Step Up For Students / FES-EO / FES-UA scholarships. That covers most or all of tuition for income-eligible families. Each school's detail page lists the specific scholarship programs accepted.
What's the smallest and largest school on this list?
Extraordinary Student Education Inc. is the smallest with 6 students; Corbett Preparatory School of IDS is the largest at 578. Smaller schools tend to offer more direct teacher contact and tighter community; larger schools usually have more elective and extracurricular breadth.
Is this list updated?
Yes. We re-verify school data on a 180-day cadence through direct contact with admissions teams, plus cross-checks against FLDOE, NCES, and published school sources. Each school profile shows the date of its most recent verification.

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