Private Schools in Naples, Florida

Updated September 2026 · By Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar, McGreevy and Comisar at Domain Realty · More about Jesse McGreevy, Marc Comisar and our team on the McGreevy and Comisar about page.

Choosing a school is the single decision that shapes a relocating family's entire Naples home search, which is why we built the most complete guide to private schools in Collier County anywhere on the internet. Every school, every published 2026-27 tuition figure, every Florida scholarship dollar, the full admissions calendar, and the one thing no directory can give you: where the families at each school actually live.

Key Takeaways

If you only read one section, read this, these are the facts that decide most Naples private-school searches:

• Collier County has 29 private schools and programs, 27 currently registered with the Florida Department of Education, plus 2 more in the federal NCES survey, ranging from a 1,049-student flagship to micro-schools with fewer than 10 students.
• Published 2026-27 high-school tuition runs from $18,675 (First Baptist Academy) to $36,460 (Community School of Naples), and the widely quoted "average Naples private tuition" of ~$13,336 from third-party directories badly understates what the flagship schools actually charge.
• Every Florida K-12 student now qualifies for a state scholarship with no income cap. In Collier County the 2025-26 awards were $10,176 (K-3), $9,567 (4-8), and $9,367 (9-12), among the highest in Florida (2026-27 amounts publish July 2026).
• One school refuses the money: Community School of Naples accepts no state or federal funding of any kind, the area's most expensive school is precisely the one where the universal scholarship is worth $0.
• Students with unique abilities can receive far more: Collier FES-UA awards ran $12,051–$12,860 in 2025-26, rising to $23,882 at ESE Level 4 and $37,493 at Level 5.
• Marco Island has zero private K-12 schools, both Marco "academies" are tuition-free public charters; Marco families using private schools commute to Naples.
• No Collier public high school offers the IB program, Collier County Public Schools is a Cambridge AICE district (the nearest public IB programmes are in Lee County), and the district is A-rated with fewer than 1% of students switching to private school on a scholarship last year.
• Four of the county's marquee schools, CSN, First Baptist Academy, Royal Palm Academy, and The Village School, sit in one ~5-mile band of North Naples anchored on Livingston Road. That single corridor drives more private-school-family home buying than any other geographic feature in Collier County.

Table of Contents

The Landscape

• What Does the Private School Landscape in Naples Look Like in 2026?
• Every Private School in Collier County: The Complete Roster

Money

• How Much Do Private Schools in Naples Cost in 2026?
• How Do Florida's Universal School-Choice Scholarships Work in Collier County?

The Flagship Schools, In Depth

• Community School of Naples
• Seacrest Country Day School
• The Village School of Naples
• First Baptist Academy
• St. John Neumann Catholic High School
• Royal Palm Academy
• Naples Christian Academy

Every Other Category

• Catholic Schools
• Christian & Other Faith-Based Schools
• Montessori & Alternative Schools
• Special Needs & Learning Differences
• Early Childhood Feeders

The Playbook

• Admissions: Calendar, Testing & Mid-Year Moves
• How to Evaluate a Private School
• Where Do Private-School Families Live?
• How Good Are Collier Public Schools?
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Work With McGreevy and Comisar

What Does the Private School Landscape in Naples Look Like in 2026?

Collier County's private-school landscape is 29 schools and programs serving roughly 6,000 students: three secular independents, a five-school Catholic system, a deep bench of Christian schools, two Montessori programs, two dedicated special-needs schools, and a cluster of micro and umbrella schools, nearly all concentrated in Naples proper, with one classical Catholic anchor out in Ave Maria.

Three structural facts define the market in 2026, and they surprise almost every relocating family we work with.

First, the market is small and seat-constrained at the top. Only four private schools in the county run a full PreK-12 college-prep program, Community School of Naples, Seacrest Country Day, The Village School of Naples, and First Baptist Academy, plus St. John Neumann, the county's lone Catholic high school. Royal Palm Academy, Naples Christian Academy, St. Ann, and St. Elizabeth Seton all end at 8th grade. That makes the 9th-grade entry cycle the county's competitive bottleneck, and it makes mid-year seats in elementary grades at the flagships genuinely scarce.

Second, Florida changed the money completely in 2023, and most guides haven't caught up. Since House Bill 1, every Florida K-12 student is eligible for a state scholarship worth roughly $9,200–$10,000 per year in Collier County, with no income cap. Royal Palm Academy's head of school has said publicly he has scholarship families with household incomes of half a million dollars or more. Roughly 4,000 students used state scholarships at Collier private schools in the most recent reported year, with about 1,000 more Collier students using the PEP program for home education. We cover the full mechanics, and the one famous holdout, in the scholarships section.

Third, geography quietly sorts everything. Four marquee campuses sit on or beside one six-lane parkway, Livingston Road, in North Naples. Seacrest anchors East Naples on Davis Boulevard. St. Ann is walkable from the most expensive residential streets in Florida. Ave Maria Catholic Academy effectively is the town of Ave Maria. Where you buy determines which schools are a 7-minute carpool versus a 40-minute season-traffic slog, which is why this guide ends with the neighborhood-by-neighborhood map no school directory can build.

One more orientation point: 2026 has been a year of leadership movement at the top of the market. Community School of Naples is one year into the tenure of its sixth head of school, Paul Selvidio. Seacrest installs Dr. Dennis Chapman as head of school June 1, 2026. And The Village School of Naples, Chapman's former school, appointed Dr. Jeff Cavallo head of school in April 2026 after a governance dispute with its landlord church prompted 11 of 12 trustees to resign. We report each transition factually in the school profiles below; touring families in 2026-27 should simply ask every school about leadership tenure and stability.

Every Private School in Collier County: The Complete Roster

Collier County has 27 private schools registered with the Florida Department of Education as of June 2026, plus two more in the federal NCES survey, 29 in all, grouped here by category. They range from Community School of Naples (1,049 students) to micro-schools with fewer than 10, and they include several FLDOE-registered "schools" that are actually homeschool umbrellas or preschools.

Enrollment figures come from each school's most recent FLDOE annual survey (2024 or 2025 survey year), cross-checked against the NCES Private School Universe Survey (2023-24) and each school's official website. Where the sources disagree, we flag it.

Secular Independent / College-Prep

*The Village School is independent with Methodist-church roots and an explicitly Christian identity, it appears in both this tier and the faith-based grouping.

ES American School is a special case: a boarding-capable academy for student-athletes inside the 38-court Emilio Sánchez tennis academy, with a sister campus in Barcelona. The FLDOE-vs-NCES enrollment gap (6 vs. 38) likely reflects boarding and international reporting differences (inferred, not confirmed by the school).

Catholic (Diocese of Venice + Independent)

Christian (Protestant / Non-Denominational)

Montessori

Special Needs / Therapeutic

Homeschool-Umbrella / Micro / Alternative

These are FLDOE-registered "private schools" but not campus schools in the conventional sense, important context when you see them on directory lists:

Early-Learning-Dominant (Preschools, Not K-12 Options)

### These "Academies" Are NOT Private Schools, They're Free Public Charters

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Families relocating to Naples routinely mistake these tuition-free public charter schools for private schools because of their names, uniforms, and classical curricula. Per Collier County Public Schools' charter list:

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- Mason Classical Academy (Naples, K-12), Hillsdale-curriculum classical charter; Collier's most sought-after charter, with its own lottery and waitlist

- Naples Classical Academy (Naples, K-12), Optima/Hillsdale-affiliated classical charter

- Optima Classical Academy, virtual classical charter, statewide

- Marco Island Academy (9-12), the only high school on Marco Island, and it's a public charter

- Marco Island Charter Middle School (6-8), same for middle school

- Gulf Coast Charter Academy South (Naples, K-8), a charter despite the "academy" name

- RCMA Immokalee Community Academy, operated by Redlands Christian Migrant Association, but the school itself is a public charter

- Collier Charter Academy (Naples, K-8), Charter Schools USA network

- Autism Collier Charter School (Naples), a tuition-free public charter purpose-built for students with autism

- Beacon High School (Naples), a CCPS public alternative school, not a private special-needs school

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And the Marco Island headline: there are NO private K-12 schools on Marco Island (confirmed against FLDOE and NCES, 2026). Marco families using private schools commute to Naples, St. Ann, Community School, Seacrest, and Seacrest's US-41 East draw zone are the usual answers. (Island Montessori Academy on Marco closed in 2013; some stale directories still list it.)

How Much Do Private Schools in Naples Cost in 2026?

Published 2026-27 tuition at Naples private schools runs from about $6,700 for a part-time preschool program to $36,460 for grades 9-12 at Community School of Naples, the highest published tuition in Collier County. High-school tuition at the five main options spans $18,675 to $36,460; PK-8 schools run roughly $15,450 to $21,100.

The number you may have seen elsewhere, an "average Naples private school tuition" of roughly $13,336, published by third-party ranking sites, is real math on a misleading sample: it averages micro-schools and preschool programs in with the flagships. If you're comparing the schools families actually tour, use the school-published 2026-27 rates below. Every figure in this table comes from the school's own website or published rate sheet as of June 2026.

The 2026-27 Tuition Table, Every School With Published Rates

Rates shown are annual-pay basis. Royal Palm Academy's semi-annual/monthly plans cost more (up to $22,160 for grades 6-8); Village School rates are before its 3% pay-in-full discount. Ave Maria Catholic Academy's own tuition page still displays stale 2020-21 rates, do not rely on it.

The price ladder for grades 9-12, at a glance: First Baptist Academy $18,675 → St. John Neumann $20,500 (all-inclusive) → Village School $27,365 → Seacrest $32,552 → Community School of Naples $36,460. CSN's premium over FBA is roughly $17,800 per year, per child.

Tuition Is the Floor, Not the Total: The True-Cost Stack

Budget tuition plus four more layers, sophisticated Naples families plan for an all-in number of tuition + 10-20% at the flagship schools:

1. Hard fees. Application fees ($100 is typical; NCA charges $150). One-time new-student fees: CSN's "Legacy Fee" runs $1,150 (Lower School), $1,650 (Middle), $2,150 (Upper); Seacrest charges a $1,000 new-student enrollment fee plus an $875 annual campus fee per student; Village School's matriculation fee is $1,000; FBA's enrollment fee is $400 (plus a $300 continuous-enrollment fee for returning families); NCA's one-time facility fee is $325. Then: tuition-management fees (FACTS, ~$50-55/family), athletics fees (Seacrest: $100/season middle school, $200/season JV/varsity), uniforms, devices, aftercare (NCA extended day: $2,275/year), and required tuition-refund insurance on payment plans (Seacrest $255-$814 by grade; Village School $319-$465; FBA 1.5% of tuition; CSN requires it for new families' first year unless paid in full by August 1).
2. What's included varies enormously. St. John Neumann's $20,500 includes the iPad lease, tech fees, books, software, lab fees, activities fee, and daily lunch, the only add-on is a $200 senior graduation fee. FBA's tuition includes lunch, Chromebooks, music fees, and band uniforms. Royal Palm includes all student supplies, yearbook, PVO dues, and event shirts. At CSN, families separately cover supplies, yearbooks, class trips (grades 4-12), AP/college testing fees, and graduation. Compare inclusions, not sticker prices.
3. The fundraising layer. None of it is contractually required; all of it is socially expected at the top tier: Annual Fund participation (schools push for 100% parent participation, and meaningful gifts at flagship schools are four figures), the gala/auction circuit (CSN's "Angel Ball" is one of Naples' marquee charity events), and capital-campaign asks during building projects.
4. The scholarship offset, covered in the next section, which reduces the net for every school in the county except one.

Multi-Child and Payment-Plan Notes

Royal Palm Academy offers a 15% discount for third and subsequent children. St. John Neumann offers no sibling discount. Most schools run two or three payment tracks, pay-in-full (sometimes discounted: Village School takes 3% off if paid by April 15), semi-annual, and 10-month monthly plans (usually with a service charge, Seacrest's Plan B carries a $20/month fee; RPA's monthly plan adds 5%).

The 529 Change Every Naples Family Should Know About (New for 2026)

Federal law has allowed 529-plan withdrawals for K-12 tuition since 2018 at $10,000 per student per year. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA, signed July 4, 2025) doubled that limit to $20,000 per student per year effective January 1, 2026, and expanded qualified K-12 expenses beyond tuition to include curriculum materials, tutoring, standardized-test fees, dual-enrollment costs, and educational therapies for students with disabilities.

For Florida residents this is clean money: Florida has no state income tax, so there's no state-conformity complication in using Florida 529 Savings Plan funds for private school. Two planning notes families ask us about: (1) "superfunding", grandparents or parents can front-load five years of annual gift-tax exclusions into a 529 in one year, then pay tuition from the account, a common relocation-year move; and (2) Florida Prepaid is a college program, the Florida 529 Savings Plan, not Prepaid, is the K-12 vehicle. (Talk to your tax advisor; we're realtors, not CPAs.)

And on the horizon: beginning January 1, 2027, the federal ECCA scholarship tax credit (also from OBBBA) lets individuals take a dollar-for-dollar federal credit up to $1,700 for donations to qualified Scholarship Granting Organizations in states that opt in. Florida, already home to the nation's largest SGO infrastructure, opted in on January 28, 2026 by gubernatorial action and appears on the IRS's published list of participating states for 2027. Step Up For Students has said it will administer the federal program in Florida through a separate entity.

How Do Florida's Universal School-Choice Scholarships Work in Collier County?

Since Florida's House Bill 1 took effect July 1, 2023, every Florida K-12 student is eligible for a state scholarship worth $9,367 to $10,176 per year in Collier County depending on grade toward private school tuition, with no income cap. A family earning $500,000+ in Port Royal qualifies exactly the same as a family earning $50,000 in Golden Gate; income affects only priority order, never eligibility.

This is the single most misunderstood fact in the Naples private-school market, and most older guides get it wrong. Here's the complete, current picture.

The Four Programs

All four are administered primarily by Step Up For Students (AAA Scholarship Foundation is the smaller alternative funding organization):

These are the official 2026-27 figures, published by Step Up For Students and last updated 2026-08-13. Step Up posts finalized awards each July and they float upward with state education funding, so 2027-28 amounts will publish around July 2027.

Why Collier's Award Is Among the Highest in Florida

The award equals 100% of what the state would have spent on that student through the Florida Education Finance Program for that grade and district. Because Collier is a high-property-value district, Collier ranks 5th of Florida's 67 districts on the K-3 award: $10,176 for 2026-27, against $8,779 in Lee, $8,745 in Miami-Dade and $8,429 in Hillsborough. Only Monroe ($12,217), Walton ($10,331), Jefferson ($10,246) and Franklin ($10,228) pay more. On the unique-abilities award Collier ranks 2nd statewide, behind Monroe alone. A family relocating from Tampa to Naples literally receives a bigger scholarship by virtue of their new address.

The Net-Cost Math, At Real Naples Schools

Using 2026-27 Collier awards against published 2026-27 tuition (your actual 2026-27 award will likely be slightly higher):

• Naples Christian Academy, grade 2: $15,450 tuition − $10,176 scholarship ≈ $5,451 out of pocket, the scholarship covers roughly two-thirds.
• Royal Palm Academy, grade 7: $21,100 − $9,567 ≈ $11,707, roughly half covered. (82% of RPA families use a Florida School Choice scholarship; 35% also receive RPA need-based aid.)
• St. John Neumann, grade 10: $20,500 − $9,367 ≈ $11,265, more than half covered, on a tuition that already includes books, iPad, and lunch.
• Seacrest Country Day, grade 11: $32,552 − $9,367 ≈ $23,317, the scholarship knocks about 28% off the flagship-tier price.
• Community School of Naples, any grade: tuition − $0. CSN does not participate (see below).
• Four kids at an accepting school ≈ $38,000-$40,000 per year in state funds, real money even at Port Royal income levels.
• A student with Level 5 unique abilities at Educational Pathways Academy: $31,000 tuition − $37,493 FES-UA award means the scholarship can cover tuition entirely with ESA funds left for authorized therapies and services.

Schools may charge tuition above the scholarship amount, the family pays the gap. You cannot stack FTC + FES-EO + PEP (one scholarship per student), but you can stack a scholarship with a school's own need-based aid: Seacrest and Village School both require families to apply for the Florida scholarship first, then apply for institutional aid on top.

The Famous Exception: Community School of Naples Takes $0

CSN's published position: "we do not participate in Florida or federal grants of any kind… Nor do we accept federal, state or local funding of any kind." It offers only its own need-based aid (about 20% of students receive it, via the School & Student Services platform). Canterbury School in Fort Myers takes the same stance in Lee County.

For an affluent family the dollars may be minor, but the philosophical split is real differentiation: CSN's refusal preserves total independence from state requirements (scholarship schools must administer state-approved norm-referenced tests to scholarship students in grades 3-10, submit CPA reports above $250,000 in scholarship revenue, and more). It also means the area's most expensive flagship school is precisely the one where the universal scholarship is worth $0, a fact that quietly reshapes the value comparison between CSN and every other school in this guide.

How the Program Actually Works, Step by Step

1. Apply through Step Up For Students' EMA platform (Education Marketplace and Account). ⏳ The 2026-27 window is still open: new applications are accepted through November 15, 2026. It opened February 1, 2026, and the renewal priority deadline was April 30, 2026. The 2027-28 open date has not been announced. Active-duty military dependents, children in foster or out-of-home care, and documented bullying victims may apply at any time.
2. Apply to schools in parallel. The school confirms your child's enrollment in EMA after acceptance.
3. Funds flow quarterly into the student's ESA; the parent approves payment to the school each quarter. (For 2025-26, Q1 funding flowed for students whose enrollment was completed in EMA by June 15, 2025, complete EMA enrollment promptly after acceptance.)
4. Renew every year. Renewal is not automatic, missing the annual renewal window in EMA is the most common way families lose a year of funding.

Fine print worth knowing: priority tiers still exist (households below 185% of the federal poverty level are processed first, then 185%-400%), but in practice private-school FTC/FES-EO applicants have been funded without a published waitlist since universal eligibility took effect. Real caps remain on PEP (~140,000 statewide in 2026-27) and FES-UA (which has historically been the program with an actual waitlist). And these are true ESAs now, not just vouchers, beyond tuition and fees, funds can go to instructional materials, tutoring, and testing fees, which matters most for PEP families.

The Scale of It in Collier County

In the most recent reported year, roughly 4,000 students used state scholarships at Collier County private schools, with about 1,000 more using PEP for home education, across 17 accepting Collier private schools. The largest scholarship enrollments: First Baptist Academy (798 students, the most in Collier), The Village School of Naples (533), and Saint Ann School (471). Royal Palm Academy reports nearly every eligible student now uses one, and that the school added two staff positions just to manage scholarship paperwork.

The honest counterpoint, which we include because this is a guide and not a brochure: critics, including the Collier teachers' union, argue universal vouchers subsidize families who could already afford tuition. Worth noting alongside that critique: CCPS state funding has risen every year since HB 1 (roughly $473M in 2022-23 to ~$520M most recently), and fewer than 1% of Collier public-school students (288 of 47,000+) actually switched from public to private on a scholarship last year, most Collier scholarship dollars went to families already in, or headed to, private school.

Ready to talk through the tuition math before you pick a school?

The scholarship stack changes the real cost of almost every school above, and it changes what you can afford to spend on a house in the same year. Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar have been ranked among the Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, and we run the school budget and the housing budget as one number rather than two. Call or text (239) 898-6072, or start with what your current home is worth today if a sale has to fund the move.

Community School of Naples: The Academic Flagship

Community School of Naples (CSN) is Collier County's largest and most academically prominent independent school: a secular, PreK3-12 college-prep day school of roughly 1,049-1,075 students on a 77-acre Livingston Road campus, with 26 AP courses, an average SAT around 1295, 100% college acceptance, and the region's deepest National Merit history, at the county's highest tuition, $36,460 for grades 9-12.

The basics. 13275 Livingston Road, Naples 34109, just north of Pine Ridge Road, about two miles from I-75 Exit 107. Founded in 1982 by a group of Naples parents; the first class of fewer than 50 students met in two rented churches, with Sam Hazard as the first head of school. The upper school was discontinued in 1986 for financial reasons and reinstated in 1992. Today: roughly 360 Lower School, 210 Middle School, and 400 Upper School students; a 9:1 student-teacher ratio; FCIS and Cognia accredited; member of NAIS, School Year Abroad, ECIS, and GEBG.

Leadership. Paul Selvidio became the sixth head of school on July 1, 2025, succeeding Dr. David Watson, who led CSN from 2013 to 2025 and grew the school from about 700 students to over 1,000. A Strategic Plan 2024-2028 is underway.

Tuition and fees (2026-27, school-published). PreK3 $22,300 · PreK4 $27,160 · K $27,800 · Grades 1-3 $28,340 · Grades 4-5 $30,900 · Grades 6-8 $32,260 · Grades 9-12 $36,460. One-time "Legacy Fee" per new student: $1,150 (Lower), $1,650 (Middle), $2,150 (Upper). Families separately budget supplies, yearbooks, class trips (grades 4-12), AP/college testing, and graduation. Two payment plans; new families carry tuition-refund insurance in year one unless paid in full by August 1. A separate international (F-1 visa) tuition schedule exists.

Admissions. Applications open September 2; the deadline is February 1, with decisions posted in March through the school's portal. $100 non-refundable application fee. The ISEE is required for grades 6-12 (CSN school code 101206; on-campus dates run late October through early March, plus at-home online options; exam fee $100-$150). Age cutoffs: PreK3 must be 3 by September 1 (and potty trained); kindergarten must be 5 by September 1, the same cutoff as Florida public schools. Admission is need-blind; CSN lists rolling admissions for specific grades where seats exist, and itself advises applicants to apply to a backup school. Acceptance-rate data is not published.

Financial aid, and the no-voucher stance. About 20% of students receive need-based aid via SSS; aid is available for grades 6-12, limited in K-5, and none for PreK. Financial-aid deadlines run earlier than people expect: December 31 for returning families, February 1 for new applicants. And the headline covered above bears repeating in the profile: CSN accepts no Step Up For Students, FES, FTC, or government funding of any kind, unique in Collier County.

Academics and outcomes. 26 AP courses including AP Chinese, AP Capstone (Seminar/Research), and AP Physics C, plus post-AP coursework in math, computer science, art, French, Latin, and Spanish. In 2023-24, 280 students sat 815+ AP exams and 87% scored 3 or higher. Average SAT ~1295 (90th percentile nationally). 136 National Merit Finalists from 1999-2023, by far the deepest National Merit bench in Southwest Florida, including 8 semifinalists in the Class of 2025 alone. 100% college acceptance (Class of 2024). Global Exchange Program; School Year Abroad member.

Athletics and campus. The Seahawks field 16 interscholastic sports in the FHSAA's Gulf Coast Athletic Conference, including football, lacrosse, sailing, swimming/diving, and beach volleyball; since 2016 the school has produced nine individual state champions in tennis, track & field, and swimming. The 77-acre, 26-building campus (roughly a $40M plant) includes athletic fields, a pool, the AFFC fitness center, dining halls, dedicated arts facilities, and the Juliet Collier Sproul Center for Community & Global Impact.

Best fit for: the family that wants the region's most academically rigorous, best-resourced independent school and the strongest National Merit/selective-college pipeline, and is comfortable paying full freight, because the universal scholarship is worth nothing here. CSN is the default "Naples flagship" comparison point: the closest Southwest Florida analog to a top-tier metro day school.

Seacrest Country Day School: The Whole-Child Independent

Seacrest Country Day School is the progressive, project-based independent option: a secular PreK-12 college-prep school on a 40-acre tropical-preserve campus on Davis Boulevard in East Naples, known for small classes, personalized college advisory, an arts-and-innovation identity, and full participation in Florida's scholarship programs, which Community School refuses.

The basics. 7100 Davis Blvd, Naples 34104, between Santa Barbara Blvd and Collier Blvd, about 5 minutes from I-75 Exit 101. Founded in 1983 by Dr. Jane Kern. Enrollment is 332 across PS-12 and the student-teacher ratio 15:1, both per the school's own published figures (the federal NCES count shows ~365). FCIS accredited; member of NAIS and SAIS. Dr. Dennis G. Chapman became Head of School on June 1, 2026, arriving from eight years as Head of School at The Village School of Naples, whose Head of School is now Jeffrey Cavallo. Published 2026-27 tuition runs $10,175 for five half-days of preschool and $18,304 for five full days, $24,440 PreKindergarten, $24,856 Kindergarten, $25,792 Grades 1-3, $26,520 Grades 4-5, $27,976 Grades 6-8, $30,680 Grade 9 and $32,552 Grades 10-12, plus a $1,000 new-student enrollment fee and an $875 campus fee.

Leadership, the big 2026 story. Dr. Dennis G. Chapman becomes head of school June 1, 2026, hired away from The Village School of Naples, where he grew enrollment more than 60%, earned three-time AP Platinum Honor Roll recognition, and raised annual fundraising from $200K to $2M. The search was run with Carney, Sandoe & Associates. During the 2025-26 transition year, Seacrest was led by acting co-heads Dr. Kory Gallagher (Middle & Upper School) and Tyra Turner (Lower School); the board chair is Patricia Garcia. The Chapman hire signals a growth-and-AP-expansion era ahead.

Tuition and fees (2026-27, school-published). Pre-school $10,175 (5 half-days) / $18,304 (5 full days) · PK $24,440 · K $24,856 · Grades 1-3 $25,792 · Grades 4-5 $26,520 · Grades 6-8 $27,976 · Grade 9 $30,680 · Grades 10-12 $32,552. Fees: $1,000 new-student enrollment fee; $875 annual campus fee per student (non-refundable); athletics $100/season (MS) and $200/season (JV/V); tuition insurance $255-$814 by grade (required on the monthly plan). Payment: Plan A ($3,375 deposit, $250 pay-early discount, balance June 1) or Plan B monthly (May 15-February 15, $20/month service fee).

Admissions. Inquiry → campus tour (booked through admissions) → application through the school's enrollment portal. An age-appropriate admission assessment is required for PreK through Grade 12, administered by the school and individually scheduled; one recommendation is required for PreK-Grade 5 and three for Grades 6-12. Seacrest does not name a standardized test such as the ISEE or SSAT, publishes no application deadline, and states that families receive decisions in late winter, so treat it as a cycle rather than true rolling admission.

Financial aid and scholarships. Seacrest participates fully in Step Up For Students (FTC + FES-EO + FES-UA), families of any income can apply the ~$9,367-$10,176 Collier scholarship against tuition. The required sequence: apply to Step Up first, then to SSS for Seacrest's own need-based Tuition Assistance on top. That stack makes Seacrest the most scholarship-friendly of the big independents.

Academics. Project-based, experiential college prep with a distinct arts and innovation identity: the Inspiration Lab (robotics/prototyping), outdoor learning across the 40-acre preserve, the Learning Lab student-support program, an array of AP courses in the Upper School, and personalized college counseling that starts early. College matriculation lists and National Merit history are not published on the school's site.

Athletics. The Stingrays compete at the FHSAA Class 1A level (girls volleyball has made state-series appearances). A notable wrinkle: Seacrest runs an official Homeschool/Non-Traditional Athletic Program, letting homeschooled athletes compete, unusual in this tier.

Best fit for: families who want an independent-school education with smaller classes and a nurturing, progressive, project-based culture rather than a high-pressure stats race, and who value stacking the Step Up scholarship against flagship-tier tuition. Strong for arts-oriented and hands-on learners, and the natural independent choice for families buying in East Naples and the US-41 East growth corridor.

The Village School of Naples: Christian College Prep in Transition

The Village School of Naples (TVS) is the county's Christian independent: a Methodist-rooted, PreK3-12 college-prep school of 556-614 students with genuine AP horsepower, mid-tier independent pricing ($27,365 for grades 9-12), and, important for any family touring in 2026-27, a major leadership and governance transition that took place in spring 2026.

The basics. 6000 Goodlette-Frank Road N, Naples 34109, on the ~33-acre North Naples United Methodist Church campus between Pine Ridge Road and Vanderbilt Beach Road. The school began in 1985 as The Caring Place Preschool; The Village School proper opened in 2000 with K-2 and 37 students; FCIS accreditation and a separate board of trustees followed from 2006; the upper school was added in 2017. Roughly 600+ students with ~150 in the Upper School. The curriculum brand is STREAM, Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts, Math. Knights athletics.

The 2026 governance transition, reported neutrally, because families deserve the facts. Per reporting in The Naples Press (April-May 2026): after nine years of disputes between the school and North Naples United Methodist Church, which owns the campus, over governance and facility payments, 11 of 12 trustees resigned in April 2026, and head of school Dr. Dennis Chapman resigned effective May 31, 2026 (he had intended to serve through 2031; he becomes head of Seacrest). The church appointed a new board and on April 24, 2026 named Dr. Jeff Cavallo, previously head of the middle school, the new head of school. School financials for the fiscal year ending June 2024: $14.18M revenue against $14.12M expenses. None of this changes what happens in classrooms day to day, but families touring in 2026-27 should ask direct, polite questions about leadership stability, faculty retention, and the church-school governance relationship, and watch how the Cavallo era settles.

Tuition and fees (2026-27, official rate sheet updated January 16, 2026). PreK3/PreK4 $19,345 · K-5 $21,695 · Grades 6-8 $22,890 · Grades 9-12 $27,365, with a 3% discount if paid in full by April 15 (grades 9-12 drop to $26,544). New Student Matriculation Fee $1,000. Learning-support programs are priced separately: The Learning Center (TLC) $9,500; Village School Education Plan $625; The Bridge Program $8,665. Payment: 1-pay (3% off), 2-pay, or 10-pay monthly; tuition insurance $319-$465.

Admissions and aid. Inquiry, tour, and application through the school's site; re-enrollment deposits run on a February 15 cycle. Testing requirements are not published by the school. Step Up For Students is accepted, families must apply for the Florida scholarship before TVS tuition assistance, with internal need-based aid available on top. TVS had 533 scholarship students in the most recent reported year, second-most in Collier County.

Academics. The Chapman era (2018-2026) left a strong base: enrollment up 58-60%, the Upper School tripled, and three-time AP Platinum Honor Roll recognition. The QUEST college-counseling program staffs five college counselors, with AP and SAT/ACT prep built into the school day. The Class of 2025 earned $11.14M in merit-scholarship offers (school-published). Signature hands-on electives: marine biology, engineering/robotics, culinary arts, woodworking, sustainability. A homeschool program is offered.

Best fit for: families wanting an explicitly Christian college-prep school with real AP results and a warm community at a mid-tier independent price, who are also comfortable doing their own diligence on the 2026 leadership transition before committing for the long term.

First Baptist Academy: Scale, Value, and All-Inclusive Tuition

First Baptist Academy (FBA) is the value-and-scale play among Naples' full PK-12 schools: the county's second-largest private school (~888 students), a ministry of First Baptist Church Naples on a 90+-acre Orange Blossom Drive campus, with grades 9-12 tuition of $18,675 that includes lunch, Chromebooks, music fees, and band uniforms, roughly half of CSN's sticker.

The basics. 3000 Orange Blossom Drive, Naples 34109, off Airport-Pulling Road, sharing its campus with First Baptist Church Naples, and only minutes from CSN. Opened in 1996. The school publishes 878 students and 105 faculty and staff. Lions athletics. FBA does not publish its accreditations or a student-teacher ratio on its own site; third-party directories list ACSI, and one adds Cognia.

Tuition and fees (2026-27, school-published). PK3 $10,000 (half-day) / $13,340 (full) · half-day K4 $10,940 · K4-Grade 5 $16,800 · Grades 6-8 $18,010 · Grades 9-12 $18,675, unusually inclusive: the school's own 2026-27 schedule covers lunch, Chromebooks, textbooks, musical fees, elementary field-trip shirts and band uniforms, with athletics the notable exception at $500 per sport. Fees: $100 application; $400 enrollment; $300 continuous-enrollment (returning); $55 FACTS fee; tuition-refund insurance at 1.5% on payment plans; $3,500 for new international students.

Admissions and aid. Apply via FACTS; tours book online. No application deadline is published, but the posture is not simply rolling: applications are reviewed by the administration, selected families interview with the principal (parent and child both), and accepted families are placed in a waitpool until a seat opens, with waitpool status not carrying into the following year. A 2.0 cumulative GPA is required for consideration. There is no published ISEE/SSAT requirement, though standardized results from the current school plus a pastoral reference and an academic reference are. FBA accepts FTC and FES-EO scholarships only (explicitly not Hope, McKay, Gardiner, or FES-UA), and with 798 scholarship students it has the largest scholarship enrollment in Collier County. Internal need-based aid is offered for grades 6-12 only, first-come, first-served.

Academics. College prep with honors and AP tracks; the school reports 95% of AP tests earned college credit in 2024-25. The signature J-Term, a January intensive for upperclassmen, runs internships and deep-dives from computer programming to service trips. A Homeschool Extension program is offered, and FBA reports it maintained waitlists even before the 2023 scholarship expansion.

Athletics, reported factually. Football was the marquee program: 8 district titles, 6 regional titles, and the 2022 FHSAA Class 1S state championship, the first Naples-area football state title since 2007, under founding coach Billy Sparacio (127 wins). Sparacio departed in March 2025, and local commentary at the time framed it as the school de-emphasizing athletics. That framing has not aged well: FBA hired former NFL linebacker Mark Herzlich as Director of Athletic Ministries the same month, named Jason Cauley head football coach, and the Lions opened the 2026 season 4-0 in FHSAA Class 1A District 9. Basketball and the other programs remain competitive.

Best fit for: value-conscious Christian families who want a big-school feel, all-inclusive tuition under $19K (before the ~$9K scholarship), and solid AP outcomes, with the understanding that the athletics-first era has been deliberately wound down. The strongest dollars-to-program ratio in North Naples.

St. John Neumann Catholic High School: Collier's Only Catholic High School

St. John Neumann (SJN) is the county's only Catholic high school: a Diocese of Venice, grades 9-12 school in Golden Gate with a genuinely all-inclusive flat tuition of $20,500 (iPad, books, lab fees, activities, and daily lunch included), entrance-exam merit scholarships, and a county-wide draw from every parish and Catholic K-8 in Naples.

The basics. 3000 53rd Street SW, Naples 34116, Golden Gate, off Golden Gate Parkway, deliberately central to the county. Reported as founded in 1980 under the Augustinian Fathers, though the school publishes no founding year and that date traces only to an uncited secondary source. Today it describes itself plainly as a Salesian high school within the Diocese of Venice, following St. John Bosco's Preventive System. The school publishes no enrollment figure; outside counts range from 329 (federal survey, 2023-24) to 520 (a third-party directory's 2026-27 profile), so treat any single number with caution. Average class size is 17 per the school. Principal: Sr. Patricia Roche, F.M.A., still in post as of the diocesan directory's September 2026 update, with assistant principals Dr. Donna Noonan and Dr. Ben Weber. Cognia and Florida Catholic Conference accredited. Celtics athletics.

Tuition (2026-27, school-published). $20,500 flat, no sibling discount, and remarkably inclusive: iPad lease, tech fees, books, software, lab fees, student-activities fee, and daily lunch are all in. The only add-on is a $200 senior graduation fee. A $1,000 non-refundable enrollment payment applies to the balance. Tuition is set annually by the Diocese each spring.

Admissions. Application via FACTS/RenWeb. The entrance exam is the Scholastic HSPT (TACHS or ISEE accepted from out-of-area applicants, a relocation-friendly policy). Scores drive acceptance, course placement, and merit scholarships, SJN is one of the few schools in this tier with published entrance-exam merit money. Director of admissions: Kathy Sanderson.

Financial aid. Three stackable layers: Step Up For Students first (SJN accepts the universal scholarship), then SJN's FACTS Grant & Aid, then the Catholic parish aid channel, local parishes co-fund tuition for active parish families, a meaningful discount path unique to the Catholic system. Per FHSAA rules, no athletic scholarships.

Academics and student life. Three course levels (college prep / honors / AP); a Senior Reflection Project capstone; a College Advisory Program with grade-level advisors; a House Program for student life; faith formation and campus ministry with a resident chaplain. The school publishes that nearly 100% of graduates are accepted to four-year colleges and that, on average, 98% matriculate to one. Its recent college-acceptance list runs to roughly 95 institutions over five years, including Harvard, MIT, Notre Dame, Boston College, UVA, UCLA and all of the U.S. service academies. Read it as acceptances over five years, not a single-class matriculation list.

Feeder pattern. SJN is the natural destination for graduates of St. Ann School, St. Elizabeth Seton, and Royal Palm Academy, the county's Catholic K-8 bench, which is why we map its family geography county-wide in the real-estate section.

Best fit for: Catholic families, especially active parishioners, who can access parish aid, wanting a values-first high school where the all-in price is genuinely the price, and where merit scholarships are attainable via the HSPT.

Royal Palm Academy: The Independent Catholic PK-8 on the Livingston Corridor

Royal Palm Academy (RPA) is the independent Catholic PK-8 of North Naples: a 1998-founded school on Livingston Road near the Lee County line, built around "Integral Formation" (mind, heart, character), with a new $8M middle-school building opening Fall 2026, and the single most relocation-convenient location for families in Mediterra, Talis Park, and Quail West.

The basics. 16100 Livingston Road, Naples 34110, north of Immokalee Road. Founded in 1998 by Carol and Patrick Moore, opening with six students and three teachers; on its current campus since 2001. Enrollment is 321 for the 2025-26 school year with an 8:1 student-teacher ratio, per the school's own fact sheet; self-described as the only independent Catholic school in Southwest Florida, not diocesan-operated. A permanent 22,000-square-foot building for Grades 4-8 opened in Fall 2026, ending 27 years of teaching those grades in modulars. FCIS and Cognia accredited, an unusual dual independent/Catholic profile. Head of school: Michael Bussman. A smartphone-free school with a T1D-friendly designation.

Tuition (2026-27, school-published). PreK $13,600 (half-day) / $18,600 (full-day) · K-5 $19,950 · Grades 6-8 $21,100 on the annual plan (semi-annual +3%, monthly +5%, grades 6-8 up to $22,160). Includes all student supplies, yearbook, PVO dues, and event shirts; aftercare, athletics, uniforms, and lunch are extra. $1,000 enrollment deposit. 15% discount for third and subsequent children.

Admissions, with the county's most relocation-friendly policy. Application deadline March 15, rolling thereafter; PreK applications year-round. And the policy every relocating family should know: RPA accepts mid-year transfers ONLY from families relocating from outside Southwest Florida, no local mid-year poaching, but a genuine open door if you're arriving from Chicago in November.

Financial aid. 82% of RPA families use Florida School Choice scholarships, and 35% also receive RPA need-based aid (FACTS Grant & Aid; the 2026-27 aid deadline was April 30, 2026). The admissions team actively helps families navigate Step Up.

Campus and program. The "Welcome Home" Campaign, $8M for a 22,000-square-foot middle school building opening Fall 2026 (per Gulfshore Business). Catholic identity programming, service hours, a Profile of a Graduate framework, and a full middle-school sports calendar (no FHSAA varsity, it's a PK-8).

Best fit for: Catholic (and Catholic-curious) North Naples families with elementary and middle schoolers who want small-school character formation and a brand-new middle school facility, then typically matriculate to St. John Neumann, CSN, or FBA for high school. The most convenient private PK-8 to Mediterra, Talis Park, Quail West, and the south Bonita Springs corridor.

Naples Christian Academy: The Legacy Blue Ribbon PK-8

Naples Christian Academy (NCA) is the county's legacy Christian PK-8: founded in 1973, the oldest non-Catholic Christian school in Collier, a ministry of Covenant Church of Naples, and the only private school in Collier County ever recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School (2007), at the most accessible tuition of the established private tier.

The basics. 6800 Golden Gate Parkway, Naples 34105, confirmed on the school's own site; the state directory still carries a former 6926 Trail Blvd address and is stale. PK3-8, ~168-182 students, average class size ~15. Interdenominational and independent in spirit; ACSI and Cognia (formerly SACS) dual-accredited. Head of school: Dr. Phillip A. Tingle.

Tuition (2026-27, official published PDF). PK3 three half-days $6,700 / three full days $8,925 · PK 5 half-days $9,950 / 5 full days $13,725 · K-5 $15,450 · Grades 6-8 $16,925. Fees: $150 application; $400 re-enrollment; $325 one-time facility fee for new students; $50/family FACTS fee. Extended day to 5:30pm: $2,275/year or $19/day.

The signature program. Grade-level travel is built into the curriculum (trip costs separate): 4th grade St. Augustine, 5th grade Key Largo marine biology, 6th grade the Ark Encounter in Kentucky, 7th grade Washington, D.C., and an 8th-grade foreign mission trip, a progression few schools at any price run.

Financial aid. Step Up For Students is embraced, the school says "the majority of our families" use it, which against a $15,450 K-5 tuition means the Collier award (~$10,176 K-3) covers roughly two-thirds of the price. AAA Scholarships and need-based aid via FACTS Grant & Aid stack on top; tuition insurance required.

Best fit for: committed Christian families seeking an intimate, Bible-centered PK-8 with five decades of history and the county's only private-school Blue Ribbon, at a net cost, after the scholarship, that can run under $6,000 a year in the elementary grades. Graduates typically move on to FBA, Village School, St. John Neumann, or CSN for high school.

Looking to buy near one of these campuses?

Each of the flagship schools above pulls from a different set of neighborhoods, and the drive time you accept in September is the one you live with for a decade. McGreevy and Comisar, Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, map the school clusters to your budget before you tour a single house. Start with our Southwest Florida buyer guide and listing alerts, or call (239) 287-5873.

What Are the Catholic School Options in Naples?

Collier County's Catholic system is five schools: three Diocese of Venice schools (St. Ann PK-8 in Old Naples, St. Elizabeth Seton PK-8 in Golden Gate, and St. John Neumann, the only Catholic high school), the diocese's classical academy in Ave Maria (Ave Maria Catholic Academy), and one independent Catholic PK-8 (Royal Palm Academy in North Naples).

All diocesan schools are accredited by the Florida Catholic Conference, use FACTS for tuition management, and accept Step Up For Students scholarships. One administrative note that surprises some families: the Diocese of Venice does not accept religious exemptions for immunizations (stated on both the St. Ann and St. Elizabeth Seton admissions pages). St. John Neumann and Royal Palm Academy are profiled in depth above; here are the other three.

St. Ann Catholic School, the Old Naples original

The oldest private school in Collier County, founded in 1956 by Fr. Timothy Geary (the school's 2026 logo celebrates 70 years). 542 8th Avenue South, Naples 34102, in the heart of Old Naples, two blocks from 5th Avenue South and steps from the Naples Pier neighborhoods. PK-8, ~473-542 students, the parish school of Saint Ann Parish with historic ties to the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales.

Tuition for 2026-27 is $14,625 for PreK3 through 8th grade, published by the school on its admissions page, with PreK3 part-time options at $7,313 for five half-days and $8,775 for three full days, and the VPK voucher covering the PreK4 half-day program; a $100 application fee and $500 enrollment fee apply. No parishioner discount is published: parish standing affects admission priority rather than price. Also published is the admissions priority ladder: current students → siblings → registered/active Saint Ann parishioners → parishioners of neighboring Catholic parishes → Diocese employees, Catholic-school transfers, and finally non-Catholic students. Rolling admissions with a placement-exam component; TerraNova standardized testing results published on the school site; the St. Ann School Foundation provides endowment-backed scholarships on top of Step Up (471 St. Ann students used state scholarships in the most recent reported year, third-most in the county).

Best fit for: Catholic families living (or buying) in Old Naples, Port Royal, Aqualane Shores, and the coastal band, this is the only private school inside the historic downtown grid, and the walk-and-bike school culture is unlike anywhere else in the county.

St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic School, the Golden Gate parish school

First, the myth-bust: St. Elizabeth Seton is open, active, and investing. Closure/consolidation rumors that circulated around 2020 are simply wrong as of 2026, the school completed a brand-new administration and security building in early 2025, hosted its 2026 "Into the Deep" Gala, and its robotics team won the diocese-wide Lions Cup in April 2026. (The confusion may stem from a similarly named Lee County school's earlier era.)

2730 53rd Terrace SW, Naples 34116, on the campus of St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church in Golden Gate, adjacent to St. John Neumann. PK3-8, 305 students, founded 1981. Published 2026-27 tuition is $12,390 for Kindergarten through Grade 8, $10,231 for full-time PreK3 and $6,455 part-time, and $7,994 for PreK4 after a $2,437 VPK discount, with a $300 enrollment fee and a $200 early-bird discount for returning families who enrol before February 16, 2026; the school states its rates are "among the lowest of faith-based or private schools in the area." Programs: STREAM robotics (2026 diocesan Lions Cup champions), the Everglades Literacy program, band, Spanish, JV/varsity Panthers athletics, and aftercare to 5:30pm.

Best fit for: Catholic families who want the most affordable parish-school path in the county, with the Step Up scholarship, the net cost here is among the lowest of any campus private school in Collier, and a natural next-door feeder to St. John Neumann.

Ave Maria Catholic Academy (Ave Maria), the classical Catholic anchor

Ave Maria Catholic Academy, which replaced the name Rhodora J. Donahue Academy at the start of the 2026-27 academic year (the Diocese of Venice announced the change on September 4, 2026, and some pages on the school's own site still carry legacy Donahue branding), is the only classical school of any kind among Collier privates: a PK-12 Catholic school of ~413-432 students in the town of Ave Maria, founded 2007 alongside the town itself via a gift from John F. "Jack" Donahue (named for his wife Rhodora), and acquired by the Diocese of Venice in 2017.

The program is Great Books-influenced classical liberal arts with daily Mass, daily confession available, monthly Eucharistic adoration, and robust fine arts, accredited by the Middle States Association and the Florida Catholic Conference Accreditation Program, and recognised in the Cardinal Newman Society's Newman Guide. Published tuition is $10,500 for Grades K-8 plus a $375 books and supplies fee, and $12,750 for Grades 9-12 plus $550, with a $300 new-student enrollment fee and a $385 per-family fundraising fee. All families regardless of income are eligible for FTC/FES-EO through Step Up, which against a $10,500 K-8 tuition means the Collier scholarship can cover most of the price.

Best fit for: families specifically committed to classical Catholic education, and families for whom the school is the relocation destination. The academy is walkable, bikeable, and golf-cartable from most of Ave Maria's neighborhoods; it is the one school in this guide where school and neighborhood are a single purchase decision (see Cluster E). The free classical alternative is Mason Classical Academy or Naples Classical Academy, both public charters with lotteries.

Which Christian and Faith-Based Schools Serve Collier County?

Beyond the Catholic system and the big Christian academies profiled above (First Baptist Academy, The Village School, Naples Christian Academy), Collier's faith-based bench includes an Adventist PK-8, a rural Baptist micro-school, a Christian early-learning chain, an Immokalee K-12, and, notably for relocating families, no Jewish day school.

The rest of the Christian roster

• Naples Adventist Christian School, 2629 Horseshoe Drive S, Naples 34104. PK4-8 (including VPK), ~70-76 students, established 1970 with the Naples Seventh-day Adventist Church. Small multi-grade classrooms with the whole-child health emphasis typical of Adventist education. The school publishes no tuition schedule; third-party directories put it around $7,730, which would make it the budget tier of Naples faith schools, but that figure is not the school's own. Accreditation: Middle States Association CES and the Adventist Accrediting Association.
• Fellowship Academy, 1411 Lake Trafford Rd, Immokalee. K-12, ~50 students, a ministry of Fellowship Church and the only private school in Immokalee. Scholarship (FES/FTC) participant.
• Corkscrew Christian School, 22022 Immokalee Rd, rural northeast Collier. PK-10, ~13-18 students, Baptist, using the self-paced Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) curriculum. Status unconfirmed: it appears in the federal NCES survey for 2023-24 but is not listed in Florida's current private-school directory, and no current operating evidence was found either way. Confirm directly before relying on it.
• Grace Community Schools, Christian early-education chain ("College Can Begin at Two") serving Southwest Florida since 1986; the flagship Collier campus is in Golden Gate (5524 19th Ct SW), with an academic-accelerated phonics curriculum from toddlerhood, enrichment (dance, music, karate), and free meals included. Joined Step Up For Students for 2025-26, kindergarten tuition can be fully scholarship-funded. Golden Gate is now its only Collier campus: the former Naples Park location no longer appears among the company's seven campuses and its page has been removed.
• TLC Academy at ENUMC, a K-5 micro-program at East Naples United Methodist Church, 2701 Airport Road S, currently registered with the state, though the church markets the site primarily as a preschool that is restructuring; and Golden Path Academy, grades 3-5 at 3508 34th Ave SE in Golden Gate Estates, state registration current though its website is offline. Confirm either directly before relying on it.

Jewish education in Naples, the honest answer

Collier County has no Jewish K-12 day school. Jewish education in Naples is preschool-plus-supplemental: families seeking a day school commute out of county or pair a secular private (CSN and Seacrest are the two secular flagships) with supplemental Hebrew school. The nearest Jewish day school is Maimonides Hebrew Day School in Fort Myers (PK-8, a department of Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida), roughly 35 to 40 minutes north; the nearest larger option is Hershorin Schiff Community Day School in Sarasota.

What Naples does have is two well-regarded Jewish preschools:

• Temple Shalom Preschool, 4630 Pine Ridge Road, at Temple Shalom (Reform). Infants from 3 months through Pre-K/VPK, including state-funded VPK; play-based whole-child curriculum with daily enrichment rotations (fitness/yoga, music and movement, science, nature, tech, storytelling, and the "Markolit" little-market); open to all faiths while teaching Jewish values; CPR-certified faculty with 18 hours/year of training. Tuition is not published. Temple Shalom also runs supplemental religious school through its Learn programs.
• Preschool of the Arts, 1789 Mandarin Road, at the Chabad Naples Jewish Community Center (founder and director Ettie Zaklos), which also brands itself the Baker Preschool of the Arts. Classes run from roughly 12 months through Pre-K (Cheery Chagall through Pre-K Picasso), school day 9:00-3:00 with extended care. An award-winning, Reggio-influenced arts-based program with a strong Judaic foundation; feeds Chabad's supplemental Hebrew School (K through bar/bat mitzvah). Tuition is not published.

What Montessori and Alternative Schools Operate in Naples?

Collier County has exactly two substantial Montessori schools, Montessori Academy of Naples and Waves of Wonder, both in North Naples, plus one childcare-level program. There is no AMI-recognized Montessori school, no Waldorf school, and the only classical options are Ave Maria Catholic Academy (Catholic, paid) and the Mason/Naples Classical charters (public, free). Demand from relocating families outstrips supply.

• Montessori Academy of Naples, 2655 Northbrooke Drive, Naples 34119 (North Naples, off Immokalee Road near I-75). The most complete infant-through-elementary Montessori sequence in the county: Nido (infant, from 2 months), Toddler, Children's House (primary 3-6), and Elementary, in multi-age classrooms; ~80-120 students. Founded December 2007. VPK participant, and it participates in all major Florida scholarship programs including PEP. Tuition is published by school year on the school's site. The school states it serves children from 2 months to 12 years, so despite a state listing that shows a PK-12 span there is no middle or high school program here. NAMTA-listed with Montessori-certified staff.
• Waves of Wonder Montessori School, 10904 Winterview Drive, Naples 34109 (directories showing 7740 Preserve Ln are stale). Infant through Grade 8 per the state's current listing, one of the only Montessori programs in Collier running through middle school, across Infant, Toddler, Primary, Elementary, and Middle levels. Founded 1984, which makes it among the longest-running Montessori programs in Naples. Tuition is not published.
• Children's Montessori School, 2535 Northbrooke Plaza Drive, a licensed childcare-level Montessori serving infants through kindergarten. The school announced on its own site that it will close at the end of the 2026 school year and is not registering students for 2026-27, so it is no longer an option for incoming families.

Two clarifications worth repeating because stale directories keep them alive: Island Montessori Academy on Marco Island closed in 2013, and no Waldorf or Steiner school operates anywhere in Collier County. The nearest Waldorf-inspired program is Mangrove School of Sarasota, roughly two hours north; the nearest AWSNA member school is the Waldorf School of Palm Beach in Boca Raton.

Which Naples Schools Serve Special Needs and Learning Differences?

Collier County has two dedicated special-needs private schools, The ABLE Academy (autism and developmental differences, ABA-based) and Educational Pathways Academy (the county's only dedicated dyslexia school), plus a tuition-free public charter built for autism, and Florida's FES-UA scholarship, which paid Collier families $12,051-$37,493 per student in 2025-26 depending on support level.

The ABLE Academy, autism and developmental differences

5860 Golden Gate Parkway, Naples 34116. A secular 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving ages 2-22 in three programs: Early Intervention (ages 2-8, intensive individualized treatment), Primary School (K-8), and Secondary School (ages 14-22, life and vocational skills). Founder Colleen Cornwall began tutoring special-needs children in 1996 and founded the school in 2005. The model is full-time, year-round education built on Applied Behavior Analysis, BCBAs, certified teachers, and interventionists on every student's team, serving the autism spectrum and developmental delays in a deliberately neurodiverse mix where children with and without diagnoses learn together, with data-driven progress reporting and on-site clinical services. Enrollment is roughly 39 to 40 at a 3:1 student-teacher ratio. Tuition is not published as a figure: the school sets it on a sliding scale by the intensity of programming and divides it into twelve monthly payments. Note the scholarship limit, because it is easy to get wrong: ABLE participates in the Unique Abilities (FES-UA) scholarship only, not FTC or FES-EO, so there is no stacking of state scholarships here. What can sit alongside it is health insurance for early-intervention programming (Blue Cross Blue Shield and Florida Medicaid) plus a limited number of the school's own income-based scholarships. Students complete the secondary program with a certificate of completion; any student on track for a traditional diploma transitions out before middle school.

Educational Pathways Academy, the dyslexia school

1351 Pine Street, Naples 34104 (plus an Estero campus). A private Christian school for grades 1-8 built exclusively for language-based learning differences, dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia, founded in August 2017 by Molly Arthur and grown to ~150 students across its two campuses (~51-60 in Naples). Instruction is Orton-Gillingham, which the school describes as an evidence-based Structured Literacy approach, taught explicitly, systematically and multisensorily in small classes, in an explicitly Christian environment, serving greater Naples, Bonita Springs, and Immokalee.

The money math is the story here: tuition is $31,000 for 2026-27, but the offset stack is deep, FES-UA typically pays $10,000-$12,000 for students with a qualifying IEP (and up to $23,882/$37,493 at ESE Levels 4/5), FTC/FES-EO eligibility applies otherwise, and EPA runs its own need-based Scholarship Fund via SSS.

The free alternative and the adjacent options

• Autism Collier Charter School (Naples), a tuition-free public charter purpose-built for students with autism; the no-cost counterpart to ABLE's private model.
• SSKids Academy, 704 Goodlette-Frank Rd N. A K-12 private school + clinic (~29 students) combining academics with ABA, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.
• For families asking whether the big college-prep schools can accommodate: Seacrest runs its Learning Lab support program; Village School prices its support tiers transparently (The Learning Center $9,500, Education Plan $625, Bridge Program $8,665); Royal Palm publishes a real, priced Student Support program with named Launch (K-3) and Elevate (4-8) pathways, executive-functioning support and testing accommodations, though the school states plainly that it does not honor IEPs or 504 plans, does not modify curriculum, and does not guarantee services to every student. For significant language-based needs, the specialist schools above are the purpose-built answer.
• Three exclusions to save you a wrong turn: Beacon High School is a CCPS public alternative school, not a private special-needs school; "Port of the Islands" is a resort community, not a school; and ABELS Academy is in Clermont, FL, frequently confused with Naples' ABLE Academy in search results.

FES-UA in one paragraph

The Family Empowerment Scholarship, Unique Abilities (FES-UA), administered by Step Up For Students, funds students with qualifying disabilities (autism, Down syndrome, and others, via IEP matrix level or a physician/psychologist diagnosis) at private schools or through customized education accounts. Collier 2025-26 awards: $12,860 (K-3), $12,251 (4-8), $12,051 (9-12), rising to $23,882 at ESE Level 4 and $37,493 at Level 5. FES-UA is the one program that has historically carried a real waitlist, apply early. Funds can cover tuition plus authorized therapies, tutoring, and technology.

Where Does the Private School Pipeline Start? Early Childhood Feeders

The Naples private-school pipeline effectively begins at age 2-3: the surest path into a competitive K-12 is direct entry through its own PK3/PK4 division, and the county's standout independent preschools, First Presbyterian (since 1965), Vanderbilt Presbyterian CLC, Temple Shalom, Preschool of the Arts, and the Montessori programs, are the recognized on-ramps.

The budget note most families miss: VPK, Florida's free Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten, is accepted across much of this list (Temple Shalom, Naples Adventist, Grace, Montessori Academy of Naples, and the faith-school PK4 programs), meaning the 4-year-old year is partially state-funded at most non-flagship programs: 3 free hours per day during the school year, or a summer program.

Thinking of selling to fund a private-school move?

Families relocating for a seat usually have a house to sell somewhere else, and the two calendars rarely line up on their own. We sequence them together, and as Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008 we can tell you early whether the sale timeline supports the enrollment timeline. Get a free valuation at mcgreevyandcomisar.com/home-valuation.

How Do Private School Admissions Work in Naples? (Calendar, Testing & Mid-Year Moves)

Naples private-school admissions run on a fall-apply, winter-test, March-decide cycle for fall entry, applications open in September, the ISEE/HSPT testing window runs October through January, financial-aid deadlines land in December and February, and decisions post in March. But because Naples is a relocation market, rolling and mid-year admission is far more available than families from the Northeast expect.

The Unified Calendar (verified against published school calendars; typical of selective Naples schools)

Age cutoffs match Florida public schools: 5 by September 1 for kindergarten (CSN also requires PK3 students to be 3 by September 1 and potty trained).

Sibling, Legacy, and Parish Preference

Standard practice across Naples independent and parochial schools: re-enrollment of current families first, then siblings of current students and children of alumni/faculty, then new families. CSN's "Legacy Fee" branding reflects the multi-generation framing. Catholic schools tier formally: parishioners → Catholic non-parishioners → all others (St. Ann publishes its full ladder). None of this is a quota, it operates at the margin between comparable applicants.

The Relocation & Mid-Year Playbook, What to Do When You're Moving in October

This is the question no school website fully answers, and the one we field most. The honest picture:

Mid-year admission is genuinely possible in Naples, more than in most markets, because the market is relocation-driven. CSN lists rolling admissions for specific grades (i.e., where seats exist); St. Ann runs rolling admissions; FBA takes applications year-round but places accepted families in a waitpool until a seat opens; Seacrest publishes no deadline but issues decisions in late winter; and Royal Palm Academy maintains the county's most explicitly relocation-friendly policy: mid-year transfers accepted ONLY from families relocating from outside Southwest Florida.

The reality check by grade: entry-point grades (PreK/K, 6, and 9) have the most seats. The middle elementary grades (1-5) at the flagship schools are frequently full with waitlists, a January arrival may be offered a seat for August instead. High-school seats are the county's structural bottleneck: only five private high schools exist (CSN, Seacrest, Village School, FBA, SJN), so the 9th-grade entry cycle, CSN's February 1 deadline, SJN's December/January HSPT, is the most competitive gate in the county.

Waitlists are real but fluid. Naples sees significant summer churn as relocations finalize; waitlist offers commonly land June-August. FBA reports it maintained waitlists even before the 2023 scholarship expansion, and scholarship-driven demand has tightened seats at the value-priced faith schools in particular.

The "we just decided to move" sequence, five steps, in order:

1. Contact admissions the week the move becomes likely, not after closing. Get on tour calendars before you arrive; summer tours are absolutely available, though you'll see empty classrooms.
2. Apply to 2-3 schools, not one. CSN itself tells applicants to apply to a backup school. The schools don't penalize parallel applications; they expect them.
3. Gather records early: transcripts, current-year report cards, teacher recommendations, birth certificate, and any testing (ISEE/ERB scores travel well). Out-of-area applicants can often substitute tests, SJN accepts TACHS or ISEE in lieu of sitting the HSPT locally.
4. File the Step Up application in parallel (at accepting schools) the moment you have a Florida address, the scholarship follows your county of residence.
5. Pick the school cluster before the house. Seats determine the search map, not the other way around. The real-estate section below is that map, and it's why families work with us before they fly down: as agents who live this market, McGreevy and Comisar, 24031 S Tamiami Trl #101, Bonita Springs, FL 34134, (239) 898-6072, we routinely sequence the admissions calls, the season-traffic test drives, and the home search as one project.

Peak-season dynamics to plan around: inquiry volume spikes January-April (season plus spring relocations). A family touring in February for fall entry is late to the testing cycle at fixed-deadline schools (CSN) but perfectly timed at rolling ones (Seacrest, St. Ann, RPA after March 15).

How Should You Evaluate a Private School? Questions, Red Flags, and Accreditation

Evaluate a Naples private school on four things the brochure won't volunteer: multi-year outcomes (not anecdotes), people stability (teacher retention and head-of-school tenure), institutional finances (including scholarship-revenue concentration), and accreditation, because Florida itself does not accredit, license, or grade private schools at all.

Start With the Fact Most Parents Don't Know

Florida does not accredit, regulate, license, approve, or grade private schools. Under s. 1002.42, Florida Statutes, a private school's only baseline obligation to the state is to register and complete an annual database survey, and the statute explicitly says inclusion in the state's directory may not be used to imply approval or accreditation. There is no state certification requirement for private-school teachers, no state curriculum, and no A-F grades for private schools (the letter grades you see apply only to public and charter schools).

Scholarship participation adds real, but still limited, oversight: schools taking FTC/FES-EO/FES-UA/PEP dollars must administer a state-approved norm-referenced test annually to scholarship students in grades 3-10 (reported to the state's research entity, but the school is still not graded), demonstrate fiscal soundness (a surety bond or letter of credit for newer schools, plus an independent CPA agreed-upon-procedures report each year if the school receives more than $250,000 in scholarship funds), pass Level 2 background screening for owners/operators, and maintain a physical in-state campus. Note the asymmetry: non-scholarship students at the same school need not test at all, and a school like CSN that takes no state money answers to none of it (it answers to FCIS/NAIS instead).

Accreditation: The Real Quality Signal, and What Each Body Actually Certifies

Because the state is silent, voluntary accreditation is the only third-party quality assurance a Florida private school has. The bodies differ enormously:

The question to ask isn't "are you accredited?", it's "by whom, since when, and when is your next review?"

The Questions Sophisticated Parents Ask

Outcomes. Ask for the full college matriculation distribution over 3-5 years with class-size context (10 selective admits from a class of 60 is a different school than 10 from 300), and the college-counseling load (students per counselor, Village School staffs five counselors). At scholarship-accepting schools, ask how the grade 3-10 norm-referenced cohort performs against national norms, they have the data, because the state requires the testing.

People. Teacher retention rate (the annual percentage returning) and average faculty tenure; percentage of faculty with advanced degrees; how pay compares to CCPS (a district that has been raising teacher pay, a private school that underpays badly will churn). And head-of-school tenure: frequent head turnover is the most reliable leading indicator of institutional trouble, which is exactly why we report the 2026 transitions at CSN, Seacrest, and Village School plainly in this guide.

Money, the school's, not yours. Any well-run school will discuss its financial picture: enrollment trend over five years, net tuition revenue versus operating budget, endowment, debt service, deferred maintenance. The new post-HB 1 question: what percentage of revenue comes from state scholarships? A school where 80%+ of revenue is Step Up funds is exposed to a single legislative appropriation, a categorically different risk profile than CSN's zero-percent model. Also ask about annual-fund participation and whether tuition covers operating costs or the school runs a structural gap funded by giving.

Governance. Independent, self-perpetuating board versus founder/family-controlled or church-controlled (the Village School episode shows why the distinction matters in practice); board term limits; whether the board stays out of daily operations. For for-profit schools: who owns it, and what happens if the owner exits?

Capital campaigns. A campaign signals ambition (Royal Palm's $8M middle school; CSN's strategic plan), but ask: goal versus raised-to-date, whether construction is debt-financed against pledges, and whether annual-fund pressure rises during the campaign.

Red Flags

• Founded after 2023, no accreditation, and tuition set suspiciously close to the scholarship amount, a school built to harvest the voucher. Florida's funding gold rush has drawn new for-profit entrants; even Collier's school-choice-supporting school board chair has publicly warned about operators "more concerned about the dollar signs than the kids."
• Won't share matriculation data, retention numbers, or discuss finances.
• Heavy leadership turnover; a board that is all employees or one family.
• Enrollment declining while the school discounts aggressively.
• "Accredited" by a body you can't verify, check the accreditor's own published school directory (FCIS, Cognia, NIPSA, and ICAA all maintain one).

Schedule a school-corridor tour with an agent who lives here

Reading price bands is not the same as standing in the carpool line at 7:50am. Jesse and Marc, Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, will drive the corridors with you in the season that actually tests them. Call (239) 898-6072 or browse homes for sale across Southwest Florida first.

Where Do Private-School Families Live in Naples?

Private-school families in Naples cluster around five school geographies: the Livingston Road corridor of North Naples (CSN, First Baptist, Royal Palm, Village School), the Davis Boulevard/US-41 East corridor (Seacrest), Old Naples and the coast (St. Ann), Golden Gate's central draw (St. John Neumann), and the town of Ave Maria (Ave Maria Catholic Academy), and the Livingston corridor matters most.

This is the layer no school directory or ranking site can build, because it isn't school data, it's local market geography. Every price range below is the full low-to-high span of what actually closed in that community over the trailing 12 months, pulled from the Southwest Florida MLS on the date each one cites, with the number of sales shown so you can judge how thin or deep the market is. They are not list prices, not averages, and not estimates. For the broader market context, start with our Naples real estate guide.

The headline geographic fact: four of the county's marquee private schools, Community School of Naples, First Baptist Academy, Royal Palm Academy, and The Village School, sit in one roughly 5-mile north-south band of North Naples between Pine Ridge Road and the Lee County line, anchored on Livingston Road: a six-lane, signal-light parkway with no retail curb cuts, purpose-built as the county's north-south relief valve. A family that buys anywhere along or near the Livingston corridor can reach two, three, or all four of these campuses in under 15 minutes. That single fact drives more private-school-family home buying than any other geographic feature in Collier County, and it's the quiet reason the corridor commands its premium with this buyer set.

Cluster A, North Naples / Livingston Corridor (CSN · FBA · Royal Palm · Village School)

The inner ring (≤10 minutes to CSN/FBA, even in season):

• Pelican Marsh, gated golf at Airport-Pulling and Vanderbilt Beach Rd; directly between FBA (5 min) and CSN (8-10 min). One of the most kid-populated of the prestige gated communities. Single-family homes closed at $720,000 to $10,000,000 across 61 sales and condos at $430,000 to $1,600,000 across 61 (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-23).
• Monterey, gated, off Orange Blossom Drive; literally shares Orange Blossom with FBA's campus (bike-able), 7-8 min to CSN. A long-standing private-school-family neighborhood: ~430 single-family homes, tennis, low fees, big lots. Closed sales ran $275,000 to $2,825,000 across 24 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-15).
• Pine Ridge Estates, non-gated, 1+ acre horse-friendly lots, no HOA, west of Goodlette-Frank; 5-8 min to CSN straight across Pine Ridge Road, similar to Village School. The default landing spot for acreage + new construction + school proximity. Closed sales ran $1,300,000 to $16,345,000 across 31 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17), a teardown-to-new-build market.
• Grey Oaks / Estuary at Grey Oaks, Airport-Pulling at Golden Gate Parkway; 10-12 min to CSN up Livingston. The flagship in-town luxury golf community for families who also want Old Naples proximity, and a genuinely useful dual-school hedge, ~12 minutes to either CSN or Seacrest. Closed sales ran $1,200,000 to $16,500,000 across 54 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
• Tiburón, Airport-Pulling at Vanderbilt Beach Rd (Ritz-Carlton Naples golf); 6-8 min to FBA. More lock-and-leave than Pelican Marsh, but its single-family enclaves (Marsala, Serafina) draw school families. Closed sales ran $715,000 to $4,000,000 across 32 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
• Kensington Golf & Country Club, off Pine Ridge Road; quietly one of the closest gated golf communities to CSN (~5 min, same to Village School). Closed sales ran $500,000 to $3,375,000 across 43 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
• Wyndemere Country Club, on Livingston immediately south of Pine Ridge; the closest country-club gate to CSN's entrance (3-5 min). Older plant, strong renovation activity. Closed sales ran $425,000 to $4,500,000 across 46 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
• The family-priced gated band, Marbella Isles, Village Walk of Naples, Bridgewater Bay, Lakeside, along Livingston, Orange Blossom, and Vanderbilt Beach Rd. These are the communities relocating mid-career private-school parents actually close on instead of stretching to $3M, and they are four different markets rather than one band: Marbella Isles $575,000 to $1,700,000 (25 sales), Village Walk of Naples $340,000 to $1,032,500 (47 sales), Bridgewater Bay $279,000 to $620,000 (29 sales), Lakeside $215,000 to $549,000 (20 sales). All are 5-12 min to FBA/CSN. (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17; Marbella Isles and Village Walk pulled 2026-09-15.)

The north ring (best for Royal Palm Academy; 10-15 min to CSN):

• Mediterra, Livingston Road at the Lee/Collier line (the community straddles both counties, confirm parcel county per listing). 3-5 min to Royal Palm; 15-18 min to CSN off-season. Tuscan-styled estate golf and one of the strongest school-family luxury draws in the county. Closed sales ran $850,000 to $10,950,000 across 58 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
• Talis Park, Livingston at Immokalee Road; 4-6 min to RPA, 12-15 to CSN straight down Livingston. Newer, design-forward, with a younger ownership profile than the legacy clubs. Closed sales ran $700,000 to $10,000,000 across 35 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
• Quail West, west of I-75 near the county line; 6-10 min to RPA. Estate golf, two courses, big lots. Closed sales ran $2,125,000 to $11,300,000 across 47 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
• Quail Creek Estates, Valewood Drive off Immokalee Road; acre-plus golf estates, 8-10 min to RPA and CSN both, rare equidistance. Closed sales ran $524,900 to $5,117,027 across 26 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
• The Logan/Immokalee family band, Riverstone, Stonecreek, Saturnia Lakes, Logan Woods, Oakes Estates, east of I-75 along Logan Blvd. This is where the volume of private-school families actually lives, and across all five the closed range is $424,500 to $4,500,000 on 149 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-15), spanning Saturnia Lakes $424,500 to $1,300,000, Riverstone $605,000 to $2,225,000, Logan Woods $600,000 to $4,500,000, Stonecreek $660,000 to $2,075,000 and Oakes Estates $935,000 to $3,600,000: newer gated resort-amenity communities plus no-HOA acreage, 10-15 min to CSN and RPA.
• Vineyards, sub-communities at every rung, with closed sales running $250,000 to $2,800,000 across 154 sales in 30 of them (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17); 8-12 min to CSN. The workhorse choice for gates + golf without flagship pricing.

The coastal flank (10-20 min; beach lifestyle + school run):

• Pelican Bay, private beach clubs, the strongest coastal amenity package in Naples; 12-18 min to CSN/FBA, and this is the commute that feels the seasonal delta most. Single-family homes closed at $1,350,000 to $21,000,000 across 37 sales, and condos, from older mid-rise units to luxury high-rises, at $412,000 to $14,100,000 across 266 (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-22).
• Park Shore, 12-18 min to CSN via Pine Ridge/Goodlette; also a natural St. Ann option (10-12 min south on US-41). Single-family homes closed at $1,600,000 to $14,500,000 across 53 sales, condos off the Gulf at $250,000 to $3,500,000 across 84, and Gulf-front condos at $800,000 to $26,000,000 across 113 (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-22).

Cluster B, Seacrest Country Day (East Naples / Davis Corridor)

Seacrest's family geography is completely different: it draws from the East Naples growth corridor and the US-41 East/Collier Blvd communities, plus a contingent of Old Naples families driving Davis eastbound against traffic (~15 min from downtown). Seacrest is the only PreK-12 independent south of Pine Ridge Road, for families buying in the booming US-41 East corridor, it is effectively the home-team private school, and the Davis/951 road widening of the past decade has made the commute better than its dated reputation suggests, though we would still drive it yourself in February before deciding.

1. Isles of Collier Preserve, newer coastal-contemporary, kayaking, strong young-family draw; 12-15 min. Closed sales ran $470,000 to $4,250,000 across 140 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
2. Lely Resort, three golf courses, the Players Club, a huge product range; 12-15 min. Closed sales ran $250,000 to $3,500,000 across 239 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
3. Treviso Bay, TPC golf; ~15 min. Closed sales ran $372,500 to $3,100,000 across 83 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
4. Naples Reserve / Winding Cypress, newer family-amenity communities; 15-20 min. Closed sales ran $430,000 to $2,400,000 across 61 sales in Naples Reserve and $455,000 to $1,495,000 across 48 in Winding Cypress (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
5. Hacienda Lakes / Esplanade at Hacienda Lakes, 10-12 min. Closed sales ran $450,000 to $2,842,483 across 62 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
6. Fiddler's Creek, toward Marco, 20-25 min, the far edge of the realistic Seacrest run, and a natural option for Marco-adjacent families (remember: Marco itself has zero private K-12). Closed sales ran $250,000 to $3,900,000 across 192 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
7. Berkshire Lakes / Madison Park / Naples Lakes CC, the close-in Santa Barbara/Davis band, ≤10 min. Closed sales ran $205,000 to $1,100,000 across 110 sales in Berkshire Lakes, $610,000 to $840,000 across 11 in Madison Park, and $325,000 to $2,375,000 across 46 in Naples Lakes Country Club (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17; Madison Park pulled 2026-09-15).
8. Grey Oaks, see Cluster A; the luxury dual-school hedge between CSN and Seacrest.

Cluster C, St. Ann (Old Naples / Coastal)

St. Ann is the only private school inside the historic downtown grid, walkable and bikeable from the most expensive residential real estate in Florida. Its families are overwhelmingly coastal:

1. Old Naples (the grid, 5th Ave S to the Pier), walk or bike to school. Single-family homes off the Gulf closed at $1,010,000 to $24,400,000 across 59 sales, the three Gulf-front homes that sold closed at $13,000,000 to $62,500,000 (a thin sample), and condos closed at $300,000 to $3,975,000 across 89 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-22).
2. Aqualane Shores, canal-front, 3-5 min. Closed sales ran $4,300,000 to $20,925,000 across 27 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
3. Port Royal, 5-8 min; the top of the U.S. luxury market, and St. Ann is its parish school. Closed sales ran $6,300,000 to $55,000,000 across 30 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
4. Royal Harbor / Oyster Bay, boating families east of Naples Bay, 6-8 min. In Royal Harbor, single-family homes closed at $1,650,000 to $15,150,000 across 22 sales, with just four condo sales at $225,000 to $1,399,000 (a thin sample). In Oyster Bay, condos closed at $300,000 to $1,625,000 across 13 sales, alongside a single house sale, too few to state a range (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-22).
5. Coquina Sands & The Moorings, north along Gulf Shore Blvd, 8-12 min. In Coquina Sands, single-family homes closed at $1,550,000 to $17,060,000 across 9 sales and condos at $499,000 to $3,400,000 across 16. In The Moorings, single-family homes closed at $2,150,000 to $18,300,000 across 53 sales, low-rise condos at $110,000 to $2,150,000 across 46, and mid- and high-rise condos at $445,000 to $5,900,000 across 98 (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-22).
6. Lake Park, the closest "attainable" single-family neighborhood to the school (8-10 min, bike-able for older kids); mid-century cottages plus new builds. Closed sales ran $330,000 to $4,775,000 across 18 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
7. Park Shore, 10-12 min north; doubles as a CSN option.

The 9th-grade fork, the advisory point only a local team raises: St. Ann ends at 8th grade. Old Naples families face a predictable fork at 9th: St. John Neumann (~20 min east), CSN (~20 min north), or Seacrest (~15 min east). Many families pick their FIRST home knowing the 9th-grade commute changes, buy on the coast for the St. Ann years and accept the high-school drive, or position centrally from day one.

Cluster D, St. John Neumann (Golden Gate / County-Wide Draw)

SJN sits deliberately central, it's the county's only Catholic high school and draws from every parish and every Catholic K-8. The practical sweet spots: Golden Gate Estates' western blocks (acreage lifestyle 10-20 min from campus; the value play of the county on 1.14-5 acre lots, with closed sales across Golden Gate Estates as a whole running $250,000 to $3,295,000 on 729 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17); that figure covers the entire Estates, not the western blocks alone); the Vineyards/Whippoorwill corridor (~12 min via Livingston → Golden Gate Pkwy); Berkshire Lakes, Countryside, and Foxfire down Santa Barbara (≤10 min); Grey Oaks/Estuary at the parkway's west end (~10 min, the luxury Catholic-family pick); Briarwood/Glen Eagle on the Radio Road/Davis band (~10 min); and the North Naples Livingston communities, whose Royal Palm → SJN pipeline families accept a 20-30 minute run down Livingston that the parkway makes tolerable, season excepted.

Cluster E, Ave Maria Catholic Academy / Ave Maria

Ave Maria Catholic Academy is a different model entirely: a classical Catholic PreK-12 inside the master-planned town of Ave Maria, about 22 miles east of I-75 via Immokalee and Oil Well Roads. Almost all of its families live in town, this is the one cluster where school and neighborhood are the same purchase decision:

1. Maple Ridge / Avalon Park / Emerson Park (the core villages), walk, bike, or golf-cart to campus. Closed sales ran $315,000 to $1,200,000 across 47 sales in Maple Ridge, $393,390 to $946,600 across 29 in Avalon Park, and $365,000 to $459,000 across 5 in Emerson Park, a thin sample (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-15).
2. The National Golf & Country Club at Ave Maria, bundled golf; Closed sales ran $179,000 to $940,000 across 112 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
3. Del Webb Naples, 55+, so the grandparent draw rather than school families; worth knowing for multigenerational relocations following grandkids.
4. Orange Blossom Ranch / Waterways of Naples (Oil Well Road, Naples side), 15-20 min west, for families splitting the difference between Naples jobs and Ave Maria. Closed sales ran $335,000 to $780,000 across 60 sales in Orange Blossom Ranch and $400,000 to $740,000 across 22 in Waterways of Naples (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17; Orange Blossom Ranch pulled 2026-09-15).
5. Eastern Golden Gate Estates (Wilson → Everglades Blvd), 20-30 min; acreage value.

Commute honesty nobody else publishes: Ave Maria → North Naples runs 35-50 minutes each way. It is NOT a commute school from coastal Naples, it's a move-to-the-town school. Families who love the classical model but can't relocate east should look at the Mason Classical/Naples Classical charters or the Naples-side feeder communities above.

The Bonita Springs / Estero Section, Commuting South, and the Canterbury Alternative

Royal Palm Academy sits about a mile south of the Lee County line, and Livingston Road continues north into Lee County as Imperial Parkway, a six-lane commuter spine that makes south-Lee-to-North-Naples school runs genuinely practical. CSN and FBA add 10-12 minutes beyond RPA. If you're weighing this corridor, our Bonita Springs guide and Estero guide cover both markets in full.

Communities that work, north to south by commute:

1. Mediterra, already straddles the line (Cluster A); the zero-compromise option, 3-5 min to RPA.
2. Quail West, 6-10 min to RPA.
3. Palmira Golf & Country Club, ON Imperial Parkway in Bonita Springs; a straight shot south, ~10 min to RPA, 20-25 to CSN off-season. Closed sales in Lee County ran $360,000 to $2,900,000 across 44 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
4. Bonita Bay, US-41 at Bonita Beach Road; ~15 min to RPA, 25-35 min to CSN in season. In Lee County, single-family homes closed at $500,000 to $5,900,000 across 56 sales, low-rise condos at $240,000 to $1,075,000 across 82, and mid- and high-rise condos at $450,000 to $5,200,000 across 66 (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-23); our live Bonita Bay community page carries the full picture.
5. West Bay Club (Estero), ~25 min to RPA, 35-45 to CSN in season; the realistic northern edge for a Naples school run.
6. Pelican Landing / The Colony, ~20 min to RPA. Closed sales in Lee County ran $276,500 to $2,800,000 across 124 sales in Pelican Landing and $425,000 to $6,500,000 across 100 in The Colony, which Matrix records as a separate development (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).
7. Barefoot Beach / Bonita Beach gated enclaves, ~20 min to RPA via Bonita Beach Road → Imperial.
8. Shadow Wood at The Brooks / Copperleaf / Spring Run (Estero, Coconut Road), ~25-30 min to RPA; these families more often flip north to Canterbury. The Brooks is the true equilibrium point between the two school markets, our community guide covers all four of its villages.

The Canterbury alternative. Canterbury School (8141 College Pkwy, Fort Myers) is Lee County's independent PreK-12 peer to CSN/Seacrest, and like CSN, it does not accept the state scholarships. For a family buying in Estero or north Bonita, Shadow Wood, West Bay Club, Pelican Sound, Wildcat Run, Bella Terra, Miromar Lakes, Canterbury is 25-40 minutes north versus 35-55 minutes south to CSN in season. Our rule of thumb: south of Bonita Beach Road, Naples schools win the drive; north of Coconut Road, Canterbury wins; in between, the Brooks corridor and Bonita Bay, it's a coin flip families should test-drive at 7:30am in February. Families leaning north should also read our Fort Myers guide.

Commute Reality: Season vs. Off-Season

Naples traffic is bimodal: from mid-April to Thanksgiving the roads are easy; from January to Easter, arterial drive times at school-run hours inflate sharply, and season is the single biggest variable in any Naples school commute. What that means in practice:

• Livingston Road is the private-school superhighway. Six lanes, no commercial curb cuts, signals only at the mile roads. CSN and RPA front it; FBA is two minutes off it. In season it degrades far less than US-41 or Airport-Pulling, the single best "where should we live" answer for an undecided two-school family.
• The chokepoints that wreck school runs in season: US-41 at Pine Ridge and at Vanderbilt Beach Road; Pine Ridge Road at I-75 (Exit 107); Immokalee Road between US-41 and I-75 (Exit 111); Golden Gate Parkway at Airport-Pulling. Coastal-flank families (Pelican Bay, Park Shore) eat these crossings; Livingston-corridor families bypass them.
• Carpool-line geography (as of 2026): CSN's queue forms on Osceola Trail, its own access street off Livingston, it absorbs stacking without blocking the parkway. FBA shares its entrance drive with First Baptist Church off Orange Blossom Drive; Orange Blossom between Airport-Pulling and Livingston stacks at 7:45-8:05am, with the Orange Blossom/Airport light as the pinch, a pattern worth watching yourself on a weekday morning before you commit to an address. St. Ann drop-off operates on the downtown street grid (8th Ave S / 3rd St S), a golf-cart-and-bike culture, completely different vibe. Seacrest's long campus drive off Davis absorbs its own queue.
• The strategy our school families actually use: schedule house showings AROUND the school run you'd live with. Drive community → campus at 7:30am on a February weekday before going under contract. We set that drive up as a standard step of every school-driven home search.

School-First or House-First? The Decision Sequence

School-first is the dominant, and correct, sequence for PreK-12 relocators. The admissions calendars force it: the Naples independents run fall application season with winter decisions and wait-pools in popular grades, so families secure the seat before buying, and the seat determines the search map. House-first families exist, usually equity migrants who bought on a vacation impulse, and they become the families doing the 35-minute cross-county school run. Pick the school cluster, then the neighborhood, then the house. Admissions calendars move, so confirm the current year's dates with each school before you plan around them.

Two patterns worth naming from our work with relocating families (advisory experience, not statistics):

• Rent-first is common and smart. A meaningful share of relocating families lease for the first season, often in Pelican Marsh, Vineyards, or Riverstone, communities with rental inventory, while the kids settle and the family learns the season-traffic map, then buy within 12-18 months. We handle both transactions as one engagement.
• Origin-market patterns we see: Northeast (NY/NJ/CT/Boston) and Midwest (Chicago, Detroit suburbs, Twin Cities) families dominate the CSN/FBA orbit and cluster in Pelican Marsh, Pelican Bay, Quail West, Mediterra, and Grey Oaks, replicating a country-day-plus-country-club suburb pattern. California arrivals are fewer but rising and skew to new construction and design-forward communities (Talis Park, Isles of Collier Preserve, Pine Ridge Estates rebuilds). Catholic families relocating specifically for faith-centered education are the engine of Ave Maria's growth, Ave Maria Catholic Academy is the only school in the county that is itself a relocation destination. And grandparents follow grandkids: Del Webb Ave Maria for academy families; Pelican Bay and Bonita Bay condos for the North Naples cluster.

How Good Are Collier County Public Schools?

Honestly: very good. Collier County Public Schools is an A-rated district ranked among Florida's best (sixth in the state per recent reporting), and fewer than 1% of its 47,000+ students switched to private school on a scholarship last year. In Collier, the private decision is about fit, class size, and community, not escape.

That framing matters, and it's one most realtor content won't give you. The public flagships wealthy families actually shortlist against private tuition: Gulf Coast High School and Barron Collier High School (high-performing North Naples options, with Barron Collier the long-established advanced-programme flagship), Naples High School (strong AP participation), the new Aubrey Rogers High School, and Mason Classical Academy, the high-performing classical charter co-founded by the current school board chair, Collier's most sought-after charter, with its own lottery and waitlist.

One genuine structural quirk to know: no Collier public high school offers the International Baccalaureate. CCPS is a Cambridge AICE district, the Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education diploma, university-recognized for up to 45 college credit hours and a Bright Futures qualifier, runs at multiple high schools (Barron Collier is the long-established AICE flagship), alongside extensive AP and dual enrollment. The nearest public IB Diploma programmes are in Lee County (Fort Myers High and Dunbar High, both IB World Schools). If IB specifically is your family's non-negotiable, that's a Lee County public conversation or a private AP/AICE-equivalent conversation, and worth having before you pick a ZIP code. Cambridge AICE is confirmed at Naples, Barron Collier, Gulf Coast, Palmetto Ridge, Golden Gate, Immokalee, Aubrey Rogers and Lely; no CCPS high school lists an International Baccalaureate program.

The district's funding has grown every year since the 2023 scholarship expansion (roughly $473M in 2022-23 to ~$520M most recently), so the "vouchers are draining the public schools" narrative doesn't match Collier's numbers, and neither does the reverse claim that everyone is fleeing to private. Both systems here are strong. That's the real answer.

Let's talk about your move before you book flights

The families who get the seat and the house in the same year are almost always the ones who started the conversation early. McGreevy and Comisar are Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, leading Domain Realty Group in Southwest Florida. Tell us your grade levels and target timeline: call (239) 898-6072, or get a free home valuation to start the sale side.

Frequently Asked Questions About Naples Private Schools

These are the questions Naples parents, and parents moving to Naples from out of state, actually ask us, grouped by theme and answered short-form first. Every tuition figure below is a published 2026-27 rate taken from the school itself, every scholarship number is the current Florida award, and every price band is a closed MLS range with its pull date, so you can act on the answer rather than go looking for a second source.

Cost

How much do private schools cost in Naples?

Published 2026-27 rates run from ~$15,450 (Naples Christian Academy K-5) to $36,460 (CSN grades 9-12) at the campus K-12 schools; diocesan Catholic schools run lower (St. Ann $14,625, St. Elizabeth Seton $12,390 for K-8, St. John Neumann $20,500). The "$13,336 average" quoted by third-party directories includes preschools and micro-schools, it understates the flagships badly.

What is the most expensive private school in Naples?

Community School of Naples: $36,460 for grades 9-12 in 2026-27, plus a one-time Legacy Fee of up to $2,150, and it accepts no state scholarships, so the sticker is the real price unless you qualify for CSN's own need-based aid.

What is the most affordable established private school in Naples?

Among campus schools with published rates: Naples Adventist (~$7,730 average per third-party directories, the school publishes no schedule) and Ave Maria Catholic Academy ($10,500 for K-8, $12,750 for Grades 9-12). After the ~$10,176 Collier scholarship, Ave Maria Catholic Academy, St. Elizabeth Seton, and Naples Christian Academy can each net out under ~$6,000.

What fees come on top of tuition?

Plan for application fees (~$100-150), one-time new-student fees ($325-$2,150 depending on school), annual campus/tech fees, FACTS fees, athletics fees, uniforms, aftercare, and tuition-refund insurance on payment plans. A realistic flagship all-in number is tuition + 10-20%, including the social-but-real fundraising layer.

Do Naples private schools offer sibling discounts?

Mostly no. Royal Palm Academy is the notable exception: 15% off for third and subsequent children. St. John Neumann explicitly offers none. Ask each school, and remember each child carries their own ~$9,200-$10,000 scholarship at accepting schools, which functions like a per-child discount.

Do private schools in Naples offer payment plans?

Yes, virtually all of them, typically through FACTS: pay-in-full (sometimes discounted 3%), semi-annual, and 10-month monthly plans with a service charge. Monthly plans usually require tuition-refund insurance.

Is private school tuition tax-deductible in Florida?

No, tuition isn't deductible. But since January 1, 2026 you can withdraw up to $20,000 per student per year from a 529 plan for K-12 tuition and expanded expenses (up from $10,000), and Florida has no state income tax to complicate it. Talk to your CPA.

How much should I budget for K-12 private school in Naples, total?

Full-ride private at flagship pricing runs roughly $300K-$450K per child over 13 years before scholarships and aid. The common local hybrid, strong public elementary, private 6-12, cuts that dramatically, and the universal scholarship trims ~$9-10K/year at every school except CSN.

Choosing a School

What are the "big 3" private schools in Naples?

Local shorthand for the three secular-tradition independents: Community School of Naples, The Village School of Naples, and Seacrest Country Day. CSN is the academic flagship; Village School is the Christian independent; Seacrest is the progressive whole-child school.

Community School of Naples vs. Seacrest, which is better?

Wrong question; they're different schools. CSN: bigger (1,049), stats-forward (26 APs, ~1295 SAT, 136 National Merit Finalists since 1999), highest tuition, no scholarships accepted. Seacrest: smaller, project-based and arts-forward, rolling admissions, full Step Up participation. Tour both, families reliably feel the difference in a day.

What is the best Catholic school in Naples?

For high school there's exactly one: St. John Neumann. For PK-8 it's fit: St. Ann (Old Naples parish school, oldest in the county), St. Elizabeth Seton (most affordable), Royal Palm Academy (independent, North Naples, new middle school opening Fall 2026), or Ave Maria Catholic Academy for classical.

Which Naples private schools are non-religious?

Community School of Naples and Seacrest Country Day are the two secular flagships; Montessori Academy of Naples, Waves of Wonder, ES American School, and the special-needs schools (ABLE, SSKids) are also secular. Roughly 61% of Naples private schools are religiously affiliated (per third-party directory data).

Is The Village School religious?

Yes, it's an independent Christian school with Methodist roots, on the campus of North Naples United Methodist Church, with weekly chapel and a STREAM curriculum where the "R" is Religion. It's the middle path between the secular independents and the church-ministry academies.

Is Mason Classical Academy a private school?

No, Mason Classical Academy is a tuition-free public charter (Hillsdale curriculum), as are Naples Classical Academy, Marco Island Academy, and Marco Island Charter Middle School. The "academy" names and uniforms confuse everyone. The only private classical school in Collier is Ave Maria Catholic Academy in Ave Maria.

What's the best private school for athletics in Naples?

CSN fields the broadest program (16 FHSAA sports, nine individual state champions since 2016). First Baptist won the 2022 FHSAA 1S football state title but has deliberately de-emphasized athletics since 2025. St. John Neumann runs a full Celtics program. Match the sport to the school, rosters at this size vary by year.

What's the best private school for arts in Naples?

Seacrest has the strongest arts identity among the independents (project-based culture, Inspiration Lab); Preschool of the Arts owns the early-childhood arts lane; Ave Maria Catholic Academy's classical model carries robust fine arts. CSN's dedicated arts facilities are the best-resourced.

Admissions

How hard is it to get into Community School of Naples?

CSN doesn't publish acceptance rates. The practical gates: a February 1 application deadline, the ISEE for grades 6-12, need-blind review, and seat scarcity in middle elementary grades. CSN itself advises applying to a backup school, take that advice.

What test do Naples private schools require?

CSN: ISEE for grades 6-12. St. John Neumann: HSPT (TACHS/ISEE accepted from out-of-area applicants, and scores drive merit scholarships). Others use the SSAT, in-house assessments, or visit days for lower grades; many read ERB/CTP-4 results from your current school. Seacrest requires its own age-appropriate admission assessment rather than a named standardized test.

When should we apply for fall entry?

Start touring the September before; applications open in September (CSN: September 2), testing runs October-January, financial-aid files are due December-February, and decisions post in March. Rolling-admission schools (Seacrest, St. Ann, FBA) accept later, but popular grades fill.

Do private schools give preference to siblings or church members?

Yes, informally everywhere and formally at Catholic schools: current families re-enroll first, then siblings and legacy, then new families. St. Ann publishes a full priority ladder starting with active parishioners. It operates at the margin between comparable applicants, not as a quota.

Can my child start private school mid-year in Naples?

Often, yes, Naples is a relocation market and schools admit mid-year when a seat exists. Entry grades (PreK/K, 6, 9) have the most room; flagship elementary grades are tightest. Royal Palm accepts mid-year transfers ONLY from families relocating from outside Southwest Florida.

What happens if we apply and every school is full?

Get on waitlists, they're fluid here. Summer churn from finalized relocations means offers commonly land June-August. Bridge plans families use: an A-rated CCPS school for a semester, a rolling-admission school with space, or PEP-funded home education while waiting.

Scholarships & Vouchers

Does Florida really give private-school money regardless of income?

Yes. Since 2023's HB 1, every Florida K-12 student is eligible for FTC/FES-EO, in Collier, $10,176 (K-3), $9,567 (4-8), $9,367 (9-12) for 2025-26. Income affects only processing priority, never eligibility. 2026-27 amounts publish July 2026.

Which Naples private schools accept Step Up For Students?

Seventeen Collier schools accepted scholarships over the recent two-year window, including Seacrest, Village School, FBA, St. John Neumann, St. Ann, St. Elizabeth Seton, Royal Palm, NCA, Ave Maria Catholic Academy, the Montessoris, ABLE, and Educational Pathways. Checked against the state's current scholarship directory for 2026-27, Seacrest, Village School, FBA, St. John Neumann, St. Ann, St. Elizabeth Seton, Royal Palm, Naples Christian Academy, Ave Maria Catholic Academy, Educational Pathways and ABLE all still participate (ABLE on the Unique Abilities scholarship only). The one famous holdout is Community School of Naples, whose own financial-aid page states it does not participate in Florida or federal grants of any kind, which also puts it outside the new federal credit's scholarship pathway.

Does Community School of Naples accept Step Up For Students?

No. CSN accepts no Florida or federal funding of any kind, a deliberate independence stance. It offers only its own need-based aid (about 20% of students receive it). If the scholarship math matters to your decision, CSN is the school where it's worth $0.

How much will I actually pay after the scholarship?

Examples at 2026-27 tuition minus 2026-27 Collier awards: NCA grade 2 ≈ $5,451 · St. John Neumann ≈ $11,265 · Royal Palm grade 7 ≈ $11,707 · Seacrest grade 11 ≈ $23,317 · CSN = full tuition. Schools' own need-based aid can stack on top.

Can you stack the scholarship with school financial aid?

Yes, and most schools require that order: apply to Step Up first, then the school's aid (Seacrest and Village School both state this). You cannot stack two state scholarships (FTC + FES-EO + PEP = pick one per student).

What is FES-UA and how much is it worth?

The Family Empowerment Scholarship, Unique Abilities, for students with qualifying disabilities. Collier 2025-26: $12,051-$12,860 by grade, rising to $23,882 (ESE Level 4) and $37,493 (Level 5). It's the program with a historical waitlist, apply early. ABLE Academy and Educational Pathways are the local specialist schools accepting it.

Is there a waitlist for Florida vouchers?

For FTC/FES-EO private-school awards, no published waitlist since universal eligibility took effect, but priority tiers process lower-income households first. PEP and FES-UA carry real caps, and FES-UA has historically had an actual waitlist. Renewal is NOT automatic: re-apply in EMA every year.

How do I apply?

Through Step Up For Students' EMA platform; applications open late winter/spring for the following year. Apply in parallel with school admissions, have the school confirm enrollment in EMA promptly after acceptance, and approve the quarterly disbursements when they hit the account.

Special Needs

What private schools in Naples help with dyslexia?

Educational Pathways Academy (grades 1-8) is Collier's only dedicated dyslexia school, structured-literacy instruction in a Christian setting, $31,000 tuition heavily offset by FES-UA ($10,000-$12,000 typical). An Estero campus extends the reach north.

Is there a private school for autism in Naples?

Yes, The ABLE Academy (ages 2-22, ABA-based, nonprofit, 3:1 ratio) is the private option; Autism Collier Charter School is the tuition-free public charter alternative. SSKids Academy combines academics with ABA, OT, and speech therapy.

Do the big college-prep schools accommodate learning differences?

To a point: Seacrest runs its Learning Lab, Village School prices three support tiers ($625-$9,500), and most schools accommodate mild ADHD/504-style needs. For significant language-based differences, the purpose-built schools (EPA, ABLE) out-serve accommodations, that's what they're for.

Does FES-UA cover the specialist schools?

Yes, both ABLE Academy and Educational Pathways accept FES-UA, and at the Level 4/5 award tiers ($23,882/$37,493) the scholarship can cover most or all of a specialist tuition, with remaining ESA funds usable for authorized therapies.

What's the free public option for a child with autism?

Autism Collier Charter School, a tuition-free public charter purpose-built for students with autism, plus CCPS's district ESE programs. Many families pair public ESE with FES-UA-funded private therapies; the ESA structure allows authorized non-tuition uses.

Relocation

We're relocating to Naples, when should we contact schools?

The week the move becomes likely. Get on tour calendars before you arrive, apply to 2-3 schools, gather records early, and file the Step Up application as soon as you have a Florida address. Seats determine the home-search map, school first, house second.

Can we tour schools in summer before our move?

Yes, every admissions office in this guide runs summer tours; you'll just see quiet classrooms. The richer visit is during the school year, so families touring in summer often schedule a second visit day for the student in early fall.

Should we pick the school first or the neighborhood first?

School first, emphatically. Admissions calendars and seat scarcity force it, and the seat determines the geography: a CSN family and a Seacrest family should be looking at almost entirely different neighborhoods. It's the single piece of advice that saves relocating families the most regret.

Is there bus transportation to private schools in Naples?

Mostly no, plan on driving or carpools, which is why this guide spends so much ink on drive times and the Livingston corridor. A few schools offer limited transport options; ask each admissions office directly.

We're moving in October, is the year lost?

No. Rolling-admission schools place mid-year arrivals when seats exist, Royal Palm explicitly welcomes out-of-area mid-year transfers, waitlists churn, and the scholarship can be applied mid-year once enrollment is confirmed in EMA. October arrivals we've worked with have landed seats, the key is calling before the moving truck loads.

Real Estate

Where should we live for Community School of Naples?

The Livingston corridor: Pelican Marsh, Monterey, Pine Ridge Estates, Kensington, Wyndemere, and the Marbella Isles/Village Walk band, where closed sales ran $340,000 to $1,700,000 across the two (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-15; both pulled 2026-09-15). Anything on or near Livingston Road keeps the run under 15 minutes year-round.

Where do Seacrest families live?

The East Naples growth corridor: Isles of Collier Preserve, Lely Resort, Treviso Bay, Naples Reserve, Hacienda Lakes, the Berkshire Lakes band, plus Grey Oaks as the luxury dual-school hedge (~12 minutes to either Seacrest or CSN).

What's the best neighborhood for St. Ann School?

The walkable coastal band: Old Naples itself, Aqualane Shores, Port Royal (St. Ann is its parish school), Coquina Sands/The Moorings, and Lake Park as the attainable entry (8-10 min, bike-able for older kids), where closed sales ran $330,000 to $4,775,000 across 18 sales (SW Florida MLS, closed sales, trailing 12 months, pulled 2026-09-17).

Can we live in Bonita Springs or Estero and use Naples private schools?

Yes, south of Bonita Beach Road it works well (Royal Palm is ~10-15 min from Palmira and Bonita Bay via Imperial Parkway/Livingston). North of Coconut Road, Canterbury in Fort Myers usually wins the drive. In between, test-drive both at 7:30am in February before you buy.

Does living near the school really matter that much?

In season, yes. January-Easter traffic inflates school-run drive times sharply, there's no bus, and many families run the loop twice daily for a decade-plus. The carpool line is the most underrated factor in Naples home selection, and the easiest one to get right before you buy.

Why Families Relocating to Naples Work With McGreevy and Comisar

McGreevy and Comisar are among the top-reviewed real estate teams in the Naples and Bonita Springs market, with the Gulfshore Life 5 Star Award for Customer Satisfaction for 20 straight years. Because a school-driven move is two searches running on one clock, a seat and a house, and we run them as one project: admissions-calendar sequencing, the 7:30am February test drives, cluster-matched home tours, and both the first-season rental and the forever home.

Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar have ranked among the top 1% of real estate agents nationally since 2008, leading the McGreevy and Comisar team at Domain Realty from our office at 24031 S Tamiami Trl #101, Bonita Springs, FL 34134, positioned almost exactly between the Naples and Estero school markets this guide maps. Learn more about our team and approach.

What the school-corridor engagement looks like in practice:

• We sequence the move correctly. School cluster first, neighborhood second, house third, with admissions outreach starting the week your move becomes likely, not after closing. For this guide we tracked every community price band against closed MLS sales rather than list prices, because that is the number that decides what you can actually buy near a given campus.
• We tracked the carpool map, not just the listing sheet. Which Pelican Marsh gate cuts four minutes off the FBA run, where Orange Blossom stacks at 7:50am, why a Livingston-corridor address keeps every 9th-grade fork under 20 minutes, the details in this guide are the details we use in showings.
• We handle both transactions for rent-first families. Lease for the first season, buy in 12-18 months, one team, one plan.
• We tell you when public wins. If your zoned CCPS school is the better fit, we'll say so. This guide is a public resource first; the families who call us are the ones who want this level of preparation on their side.

Planning a school-driven move to Naples? Call or text (239) 898-6072, or contact McGreevy and Comisar, tell us your grade levels and target timeline, and we'll map the school clusters to your budget before you book flights.

If you are buying into one of these school corridors, start with our Southwest Florida buyer guide and listing alerts, which is where the cluster-matched search actually gets built. If the move means selling a Naples home first, start with what your home is worth today, because the seat calendar and the sale calendar have to line up, and the sale is usually the longer of the two.

About the Authors · Trust & Licensing

McGreevy and Comisar · 24031 S Tamiami Trl #101, Bonita Springs, FL 34134 · (239) 898-6072

Jesse McGreevy (FL Lic. [Jesse FREC #]) and Marc Comisar (FL Lic. [Marc FREC #]) are licensed Florida real estate agents, brokered by Domain Realty, and members of the National Association of REALTORS®, Florida Realtors®, the Naples Area Board of REALTORS® (NABOR), and the Bonita Springs-Estero REALTORS® (BSER). The McGreevy and Comisar team is part of Domain Realty Group, serving Naples, Bonita Springs, Estero, and Fort Myers. About our team.

This guide is an independent educational resource. McGreevy and Comisar has no affiliation with, and receives no compensation from, any school listed. Tuition, scholarship amounts, and policies change, verify current figures with each school and with Step Up For Students before making decisions. Nothing here is tax or legal advice.

Sources

All facts in this guide trace to the official and primary sources below, compiled June 11, 2026. Third-party ranking sites (Niche, Private School Review, US News) were consulted only for flagged data points and are deliberately not linked.

Government, State & Scholarship Sources

1. Florida DOE Private School Directory (Collier district): https://www.floridaschoolchoice.org/information/privateschooldirectory/
2. NCES Private School Universe Survey, Collier roster 2023-24: https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/privateschoolsearch/
3. Step Up For Students, 2025-26 FTC/FES-EO/PEP award table: https://go.stepupforstudents.org/hubfs/Scholarship%20Info/FTC-FES-EO-PEP-Award-Amounts.pdf
4. Step Up For Students, 2025-26 FES-UA award table: https://go.stepupforstudents.org/hubfs/Scholarship%20Info/FES-UA-Scholarship-Award-Amounts.pdf
5. Step Up For Students, Private School Scholarships: https://www.stepupforstudents.org/scholarships/private-school/
6. Step Up For Students, Unique Abilities: https://www.stepupforstudents.org/scholarships/unique-abilities/
7. Step Up For Students, PEP: https://www.stepupforstudents.org/scholarships/personalized-education-program/
8. FLDOE, Family Empowerment Scholarship: https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-choice/k-12-scholarship-programs/fes/
9. FLDOE, PEP FAQs: https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-choice/k-12-scholarship-programs/ftc/pep-faqs.stml
10. FLDOE, Private school accreditation: https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-choice/private-schools/accreditation.stml
11. FLDOE, Private school general requirements: https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-choice/private-schools/general-requirements.stml
12. FLDOE, Scholarship-program participation requirements: https://www.fldoe.org/schools/school-choice/private-schools/requirements-for-participating-in-state-scholarship-programs.stml
13. Section 1002.42, Florida Statutes: https://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=1000-1099%2F1002%2FSections%2F1002.42.html
14. Florida Senate, HB 1 (2023) summary: https://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/billsummaries/2023/html/3194
15. Governor's office, HB 1 signing release: https://www.flgov.com/eog/news/press/2023/governor-ron-desantis-signs-historic-legislation-expand-school-choice-options-all
16. Collier County Public Schools, charter school list: https://www.collierschools.com/students-families/charter-schools
17. CCPS, Cambridge AICE program: https://www.collierschools.com/Page/4464
18. CCPS, district grades: https://www.collierschools.com/students-families/testing-and-grades/school-district-grades
19. CCPS, Beacon High School (public alternative school): https://alt.collierschools.com/beacon-high-school

School Official Sites

1. Community School of Naples, tuition & financial aid: https://www.communityschoolnaples.org/admissions/tuition-financial-aid
2. CSN, admissions/apply (calendar, ISEE): https://www.communityschoolnaples.org/admissions/apply
3. CSN, admissions FAQs: https://www.communityschoolnaples.org/admissions/admissions-faqs
4. CSN, history: https://www.communityschoolnaples.org/about/csn-history
5. Seacrest Country Day, tuition: https://www.seacrest.org/admissions/tuition
6. Seacrest, leadership: https://www.seacrest.org/about/leadership
7. Seacrest, head-of-school welcome (Chapman appointment): https://www.seacrest.org/about/welcome
8. The Village School of Naples, tuition (+ 2026-27 rate sheet PDF): https://www.tvsnaples.org/admissions/tuition
9. TVS, history: https://www.tvsnaples.org/about/our-history
10. First Baptist Academy, tuition & fees: https://fbalions.org/tuition-fees/
11. FBA, academics: https://fbalions.org/academics/
12. FBA, high school (J-Term): https://fbalions.org/high-school/
13. St. John Neumann, tuition & financial aid: https://sjnceltics.org/tuition-financial-aid/
14. SJN, entrance exam & merit scholarships: https://sjnceltics.org/entrance-exam-merit-scholarships/
15. SJN, faculty & staff: https://sjnceltics.org/faculty-staff/
16. Royal Palm Academy, tuition & financial aid: https://www.royalpalmacademy.org/admissions/tuition-financial-aid
17. RPA, history: https://www.royalpalmacademy.org/about/our-history
18. RPA, Welcome Home Campaign: https://www.royalpalmacademy.org/welcome-home-campaign/campaign-overview
19. Naples Christian Academy, tuition & financial aid (+ 2026-27 PDF): https://www.napleschristianacademy.com/tuition-and-financial-aid
20. St. Ann Catholic School: https://www.stann.net/ and https://www.stann.net/admissions
21. St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic School: https://saintelizabethseton.com/ and https://saintelizabethseton.com/admissions/
22. Ave Maria Catholic Academy: https://donahueacademy.org/ and https://donahueacademy.org/admissions/
23. Ave Maria Parish, The Ave Maria Catholic Academy: https://www.avemariaparish.org/the-donahue-academy
24. Naples Adventist Christian School: https://www.naplesacs.org/
25. Grace Community Schools (Golden Gate): https://www.gracecommunityschools.com/locations/golden-gate-naples
26. Montessori Academy of Naples: https://www.naplesmontessori.org/
27. Waves of Wonder Montessori: https://wowmontessori.org/ and https://wowmontessori.org/programs/
28. The ABLE Academy: https://www.theableacademy.org/ and https://www.theableacademy.org/programs/
29. SSKids Academy: https://sskidsacademy.com/
30. Educational Pathways Academy: https://www.educationalpathwaysacademy.com/ and https://www.educationalpathwaysacademy.com/tuition-and-fees
31. Cheerful Heart Academy: https://www.cheerfulheartacademy.com/
32. ES American School / Emilio Sánchez Academy: https://emiliosanchezacademy.com/es-international-school
33. First Presbyterian Preschool: https://www.fppnaples.org/
34. Temple Shalom Preschool: https://www.templeshalompreschoolnaples.org/
35. Chabad Naples, Preschool of the Arts: https://www.chabadnaples.com/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/2473805/jewish/Programs.htm
36. Autism Collier Charter School: https://www.autismcolliercharter.org
37. Autism Collier Resource Center: https://www.autismcollier.org/education-school-based-services
38. Canterbury School (Fort Myers): https://www.canterburyfortmyers.org/

Diocese, Accreditors & Associations

1. Diocese of Venice, find a school (St. Ann): https://dioceseofvenice.org/find-a-school/st-ann-catholic-school-naples/
2. Diocese of Venice, St. Elizabeth Seton: https://dioceseofvenice.org/find-a-school/st-elizabeth-seton-catholic-school-naples/
3. Diocese of Venice, St. John Neumann: https://dioceseofvenice.org/find-a-school/st-john-neumann-catholic-high-school-naples/
4. FCIS, accreditation: https://www.fcis.org/accreditation
5. Florida Catholic Conference Accreditation Program: https://eas-ed.org/
6. Cognia: https://www.cognia.org/accreditation/
7. NIPSA: https://nipsa.org/
8. ICAA: https://icaa.us/
9. FACCS: https://faccs.org/certification-program-info/
10. NAPCIS, Ave Maria Catholic Academy member listing: https://napcis.org/member-schools/rhodora-j-donahue-academy-of-ave-maria/

News & Press (Major/Local Credible Outlets)

1. The Naples Press, "12 resignations prompt new board, head of Christian school" (TVS governance, 2026): https://www.naplespress.com/local-news/new-head-of-school-named-after-abrupt-trustee-resignations/article_df1145b7-96bf-4bf2-8e34-8adac0b2dcca.html
2. The Naples Press, "A requiem for the First Baptist Academy football program" (March 2025): https://naplespress.com
3. Gulfshore Business, "School choice law reshapes Collier education options" (Collier scholarship data, Royal Palm/FBA detail): https://www.gulfshorebusiness.com/education/school-choice-law-reshapes-collier-education-options/article_b55577a6-500b-58d3-bd94-5ef6adf2f0c6.html
4. Gulfshore Business, "Royal Palm Academy launches campaign to construct middle school building": https://gulfshorebusiness.com
5. Florida Weekly, Able Academy feature: https://fortmyers.floridaweekly.com/articles/able-academy-helps-special-needs-students-in-fort-myers/
6. Ave Herald, "Diocese of Venice taking over Ave Maria Catholic Academy" (2017): https://www.aveherald.com/news/ave-maria-news/1863-diocese-of-venice-taking-over-donahue-academy.html

Tax & Federal Policy (529 / OBBBA / ECCA)

1. Saving for College, 529 plan rule changes: https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/529-plan-new-rules-changes
2. Chase, new 529 plan rules 2026: https://www.chase.com/personal/investments/learning-and-insights/article/new-529-plan-rules-2026
3. BlackRock, 529 plans and the OBBBA: https://www.blackrock.com/us/financial-professionals/insights/529-plans-and-the-obbba-what-you-need-to-know
4. Bipartisan Policy Center, the new scholarship tax credit (ECCA): https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/the-new-scholarship-tax-credit-potential-impacts-on-the-landscape-of-federal-k-12-funding/
5. Bonadio, Section 70411 OBBBA federal tax credits: https://www.bonadio.com/article/section-70411-obbba-federal-tax-credits-scholarship-contributions/

Third-party ranking and directory sites (Niche, Private School Review, US News K-12, GreatSchools) were reviewed for context and are referenced in-text only as "third-party ranking sites", and where a figure comes from one rather than from a school it is labelled as such; per our citation standards we do not link them. Wikipedia entries for CSN, Seacrest, SJN, Ave Maria Catholic Academy, and Naples Adventist were used for cross-checking only.

Who wrote this guide

Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar are Naples and Bonita Springs real estate agents who live and work here, and they have been ranked among the Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008. The team has earned the 5 Star Award for Customer Satisfaction for 20 Straight Years, one of only 5 out of 21,000-plus licensees recognized by Gulfshore Life Magazine, and has been the #1 Team in Southwest Florida since 2012. McGreevy and Comisar and their Domain Realty Group team have sold over $2.5 Billion in Real Estate, with over $900 million in sales by McGreevy and Comisar alone, across more than 4,000 team transactions. Reach the office at 24031 S Tamiami Trl #101, Bonita Springs, FL 34134, or call (239) 898-6072. Jesse Eli McGreevy P.A., Florida licence SL3101296. Marc J Comisar P.A., Broker Associate, Florida licence BK3060671. Brokered by Domain Realty.

Selling a Naples home before the school year starts? Get a free home valuation at https://mcgreevyandcomisar.com/home-valuation or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. The seat calendar and the sale calendar have to line up, and the sale is usually the longer of the two.

Buying into a Naples school corridor? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873 for a personalized buyer consultation, or start with our Southwest Florida buyer guide and listing alerts.

Explore current listings on our home search, browse the Naples real estate guide, or reach the whole team through our contact page. McGreevy and Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, a full-service Southwest Florida real estate team. Learn more at DomainRealtyGroup.com.