1
Madeira Beach Fundamental K-8
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades K-8·~1,334 students
DOE 2026 · NCES
Co-ed
TuitionFree
TypeMagnet
Students~1,334
ST. PETERSBURG
Best Pre-K Schools in St. Petersburg tuition-free
Independent rankings of Pre-K schools in St. Petersburg, built from director interviews and verified data — never from school payments.
21 schools indexedUpdated this week
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Religion
- Independent (non-religious)1A private school with no religious affiliation.
- A private school run by the Catholic Church.
- A private school rooted in the Jewish faith.
Grade level
Affordability
- Tuition-Free68
- ≈$0 with scholarship33Accepts Florida scholarships that help cover tuition.
- Under $20K list22
Verified
Director-verifiedRolling out
Looking for the best pre-k schools in St. Petersburg? We track 21 K-12 options that serve pre-k grades. St. Petersburg has the highest concentration with 20 schools, followed by St Pete Beach (1).
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: Under $20K list, ≈$0 with scholarship.
Showing 10 of 21 St. Petersburg schools
How we rank
We rank by how well each school fits your family — academics, cost, distance, and values. Never by size, popularity, or payment (schools can’t pay for rank). The coarse admission-likelihood band is always free.
- 2Pinellas Academy of Math and Science
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades K-8·~817 students
DOE 2026 · NCES
Co-edLikely · general · by school type · freeOpen-enrollment charter — most applicants are admitted when seats remain; oversubscribed grades use a lottery. General signal, not personalized.
TuitionFreeTypeCharterStudents~817 - 3Discovery Academy of Science
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades K-8·~722 students
DOE 2026 · NCES
Co-edLikely · general · by school type · freeOpen-enrollment charter — most applicants are admitted when seats remain; oversubscribed grades use a lottery. General signal, not personalized.
TuitionFreeTypeCharterStudents~722 - 4Plato Academy Clearwater
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades K-8·~616 students
DOE 2026 · NCES
Co-edLikely · general · by school type · freeOpen-enrollment charter — most applicants are admitted when seats remain; oversubscribed grades use a lottery. General signal, not personalized.
TuitionFreeTypeCharterStudents~616 - 5Bay Vista Fundamental Elementary School
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades K-5·~601 students
DOE 2026 · NCES
Co-edTuitionFreeTypeMagnetStudents~601 - 6Curtis Fundamental Elementary
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades K-5·~538 students
DOE 2026 · NCES
Co-edTuitionFreeTypeMagnetStudents~538 - 7Plato Academy Pinellas Park Charter School
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades K-8·~535 students
DOE 2026 · NCES
Co-edLikely · general · by school type · freeOpen-enrollment charter — most applicants are admitted when seats remain; oversubscribed grades use a lottery. General signal, not personalized.
TuitionFreeTypeCharterStudents~535 - 8Pasadena Fundamental Elementary School
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades K-5·~459 students
DOE 2026 · NCES
Co-edTuitionFreeTypeMagnetStudents~459 - 9Athenian Academy
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades K-8·~377 students
DOE 2026 · NCES
Co-edLikely · general · by school type · freeOpen-enrollment charter — most applicants are admitted when seats remain; oversubscribed grades use a lottery. General signal, not personalized.
TuitionFreeTypeCharterStudents~377 - 10Plato Academy of St.petersburg
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades K-8·~374 students
DOE 2026 · NCES
Co-edLikely · general · by school type · freeOpen-enrollment charter — most applicants are admitted when seats remain; oversubscribed grades use a lottery. General signal, not personalized.
TuitionFreeTypeCharterStudents~374
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.
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Frequently asked questions
Are these schools tuition-free?
Yes. Every school on this page is publicly funded — either a charter or a tuition-free public-school-of-choice option. Families pay no tuition; standard public-school district enrollment rules and lottery procedures apply.
How competitive is admission in St. Petersburg?
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?
1 of the 21 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?
Pinellas Preparatory Academy is the smallest with 10 students; Madeira Beach Fundamental K-8 is the largest at 1334. 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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