1
Indian Rocks Christian School
Largo·Pinellas County·Grades PK-12·~1,280 students
Accepts scholarshipsChristianCo-edAffordable
Tuition$18.5K/yr
TypeChristian
Students~1,280
TAMPA BAY
Best Elementary Schools in Tampa Bay under $20K
Independent rankings of Elementary schools in Tampa Bay, built from director interviews and verified data — never from school payments.
187 schools indexed0 director-verifiedUpdated this week
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Looking for the best elementary schools in Tampa Bay? We track 187 K-12 options that serve elementary grades. Annual tuition ranges from $1.5K/yr to $20.0K/yr, with a median of $9.6K/yr across schools that publish a number. Tampa has the highest concentration with 53 schools, followed by Clearwater (14). 176 of these schools accept Florida Step Up / FES scholarships — roughly 94% of the list — so families using state-funded scholarships have real choice here.
Elementary admissions decisions tend to weigh family fit and developmental readiness more than test scores. Most schools assess via a play-based visit at age 4-5 and rolling interviews for K-5 transfers. 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 10 of 187 Tampa Bay schools
- 2Seffner Christian Academy
Seffner·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-12·~1,230 students
Accepts scholarshipsChristianCo-edAffordableTuition$14.5K/yrTypeChristianStudents~1,230 - 3American Youth Academy
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-12·~1,223 students
Accepts scholarshipsIslamicCo-edAffordableTuition$12.2K/yrTypeIslamicStudents~1,223 - 4Northside Christian School
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades PK-12·~900 students
Accepts scholarshipsChristianCo-edAffordableTuition$18.8K/yrTypeChristianStudents~900 - 5Calvary Christian High School
Clearwater·Pinellas County·Grades 9-12·~895 students
Accepts scholarshipsChristianCo-edAffordableTuition$18.9K/yrTypeChristianStudents~895 - 6Universal Academy Of Florida
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-12·~820 students
Accepts scholarshipsIslamic/muslimCo-edAffordableTuition$14.9K/yrTypeIslamic/muslimStudents~820 - 7Cambridge Christian School
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades K-12·~800 students
Accepts scholarshipsChristianCo-edAffordableTuition$15K/yrTypeChristianStudents~800 - 8Tampa Catholic High School
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades 9-12·~781 students
Accepts scholarshipsCatholicCo-edAffordableTuition$16.9K/yrTypeCatholicStudents~781 - 9Keswick Christian School
St. Petersburg·Pinellas County·Grades PK-12·~747 students
Accepts scholarshipsChristianCo-edAffordableTuition$18K/yrTypeChristianStudents~747 - 10Skycrest Christian School
Clearwater·Pinellas County·Grades PK-08·~603 students
Accepts scholarshipsCo-edAffordableTuition$15.7K/yrTypePrivateStudents~603
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
What's the average tuition for elementary schools in Tampa Bay?
Across the 187 schools on this list, annual tuition ranges from $1.5K/yr to $20.0K/yr, with a median of $9.6K/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 Tampa Bay?
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?
176 of the 187 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?
Faith Christian Academy - Falcon Academy is the smallest with 1 students; Indian Rocks Christian School is the largest at 1280. 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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