1
American Youth Academy
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-12·~1,223 students
Accepts scholarshipsIslamicCo-edAffordable
Tuition$12.2K/yr
TypeIslamic
Students~1,223
TAMPA
Best Elementary Schools in Tampa under $20K
Independent rankings of Elementary schools in Tampa, built from director interviews and verified data — never from school payments.
53 schools indexed0 director-verifiedUpdated this week
Not sure which fits your child? Take the 2-minute match quiz.
Get your top 5 matches — ranked by grades, budget, location, and your child's strengths.
School type
Grade level
Affordability
Verified
Looking for the best elementary schools in Tampa? We track 53 K-12 options that serve elementary grades. Annual tuition ranges from $1.5K/yr to $19.2K/yr, with a median of $9.4K/yr across schools that publish a number. Tampa has the highest concentration with 53 schools. 49 of these schools accept Florida Step Up / FES scholarships — roughly 92% 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 53 Tampa schools
- 2Universal Academy Of Florida
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-12·~820 students
Accepts scholarshipsIslamic/muslimCo-edAffordableTuition$14.9K/yrTypeIslamic/muslimStudents~820 - 3Cambridge Christian School
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades K-12·~800 students
Accepts scholarshipsChristianCo-edAffordableTuition$15K/yrTypeChristianStudents~800 - 4Tampa Catholic High School
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades 9-12·~781 students
Accepts scholarshipsCatholicCo-edAffordableTuition$16.9K/yrTypeCatholicStudents~781 - 5St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic School
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-8·~601 students
Accepts scholarshipsCatholicCo-edAffordableTuition$11.5K/yrTypeCatholicStudents~601 - 6Corbett Preparatory School of IDS
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK3-8·~578 students
Accepts scholarshipsCo-edAffordableTuition$19.2K/yrTypePrivateStudents~578 - 7Christ the King Catholic School
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-8·~522 students
Accepts scholarshipsCatholicCo-edAffordableTuition$11K/yrTypeCatholicStudents~522 - 8Tampa Bay Christian Academy
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-12·~515 students
Accepts scholarshipsSouthern BaptistCo-edAffordableTuition$10.5K/yrTypeSouthern BaptistStudents~515 - 9Florida College
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades KG-12·~465 students
Accepts scholarshipsChurches of ChristCo-edAffordableTuition$10.5K/yrTypeChurches of ChristStudents~465 - 10Citrus Park Christian School
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-12·~434 students
Accepts scholarshipsChristianCo-edAffordableTuition$15K/yrTypeChristianStudents~434
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.
Narrow your search
Combine filters to get a tighter shortlist.
By Grade Level
By School Type
By Program / Specialty
Frequently asked questions
What's the average tuition for elementary schools in Tampa?
Across the 53 schools on this list, annual tuition ranges from $1.5K/yr to $19.2K/yr, with a median of $9.4K/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?
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?
49 of the 53 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?
St. Rita Academy Of Hope is the smallest with 16 students; American Youth Academy is the largest at 1223. 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.
Related lists
Adjacent searches families often run from here.
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.