1
Country Day School
Largo·Pinellas County·Grades PK-08·~273 students
Accepts scholarshipsCo-edAffordable
Tuition$15.5K/yr
TypePrivate
Students~273
PINELLAS COUNTY
Best Independent (non-religious) Pre-K Schools in Pinellas County for Montessori under $20K
Independent rankings of Independent (non-religious) Pre-K schools in Pinellas County with Montessori programs, built from director interviews and verified data — never from school payments.
4 schools indexed0 director-verifiedUpdated this week
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AdmitCompass tracks 4 independent (non-religious) pre-k-level schools in Pinellas County. Annual tuition ranges from $11.8K/yr to $17.4K/yr, with a median of $16K/yr across schools that publish a number. 4 of these schools accept Florida Step Up / FES scholarships — roughly 100% 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.
Showing 4 of 4 Pinellas County schools
- 2Safety Harbor Montessori Academy
Clearwater·Pinellas County·Grades PK-09·~165 students
Accepts scholarshipsCo-edAffordableTuition$17.4K/yrTypePrivateStudents~165 - 3Palm Harbor Montessori Academy
Palm Harbor·Pinellas County·Grades PK-08·~129 students
Accepts scholarshipsCo-edAffordableTuition$16.5K/yrTypePrivateStudents~129 - 4Montessori By The Sea
St. Pete Beach·Pinellas County·Grades PK-06·~101 students
Accepts scholarshipsCo-edAffordableTuition$11.8K/yrTypePrivateStudents~101
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.
Frequently asked questions
What's the average tuition for pre-k schools in Pinellas County?
Across the 4 schools on this list, annual tuition ranges from $11.8K/yr to $17.4K/yr, with a median of $16K/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 Pinellas 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?
4 of the 4 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?
Montessori By The Sea is the smallest with 101 students; Country Day School is the largest at 273. Smaller schools tend to offer more direct teacher contact and tighter community; larger schools usually have more elective and extracurricular breadth.
How many schools offer Montessori programs?
4 schools on this page have documented Montessori programs. Program depth varies — some schools embed it across the curriculum, others offer dedicated tracks or after-school options. Visit each school's profile for specifics.
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.
See your child's personalized match
Our 2-minute quiz factors in grades, budget, location, and goals to surface the best-fit schools from this list.