Private Schools in Jacksonville, Florida

The Bolles School, Providence School, Bishop Kenny High School and Trinity Christian Academy each reported more than 1,300 students in the federal 2023-24 private school count for Jacksonville (NCES).

The count comes from the National Center for Education Statistics Private School Universe Survey, which lists each Duval County school's grades, enrollment, teachers and religious affiliation for the 2023-24 school year. The ten Jacksonville schools below each reported 400 or more students.

Faith-based schools dominate the Jacksonville list. Three of the ten are Baptist, four are Roman Catholic and one, Providence School on Hodges Boulevard, is Christian with no specific denomination (NCES). Only Bolles and Jacksonville Country Day School are nonsectarian, and Jacksonville Country Day stops at grade 6 with a student to teacher ratio of 8.6 (NCES). Bishop Kenny, on Kingman Avenue, reported 1,394 students and 74.5 full-time classroom teachers (NCES); Bishop John J. Snyder High School on Samaritan Way, the other Catholic high school in the table, reported 461 (NCES). Trinity Christian Academy on Hammond Boulevard reported 1,311 students in kindergarten through grade 12 (NCES), and University Christian School on University Boulevard West reported 762 (NCES).

The Florida Department of Education does not license or accredit a Jacksonville private school: the department says private elementary and secondary schools are not licensed, approved, accredited or regulated by the department (Florida Department of Education).

What the state does require of a Jacksonville private school is a listing. Every private school must complete an annual online survey that feeds the statewide Directory of Private Schools, which the department keeps as a public service (FDOE). Enrolling a Duval County child in one of these schools meets Florida's school attendance requirements, since section 1002.42(7) says attendance at a private, parochial, religious or denominational school satisfies the attendance requirements of sections 1003.01(16) and 1003.21(1) (Section 1002.42, Florida Statutes). The NCES records list association memberships instead, such as the National Catholic Educational Association for Bishop Kenny and the Association of Christian Schools International for Providence and Trinity Christian (NCES).

Families contact a Jacksonville private school directly about admissions, and for Catholic schools the Diocese of St. Augustine says its Office of the Superintendent is there to help families find a Catholic school, at 11625 Old St. Augustine Road, phone 904.262.3200 extension 155 (Diocese of St. Augustine).

At The Bolles School, which describes itself as an independent college preparatory school, 2026-27 day tuition runs from $14,580 for Pre-K to $34,660 for grades 9 to 12, and a boarding student pays $70,770 (The Bolles School).

The Bolles figures leave out several charges the school lists separately: a one-time $750 facilities fee for each new student, a deposit of 10 percent of tuition at enrollment, and a $65 fee to submit the Clarity financial aid application (Bolles). Bolles lists uniforms or prescribed dress, lunch and transportation as ancillary costs at every grade, and textbooks and a personal device are extra from grade 6.

The school also says it does not accept any type of federal or state funding, grants or vouchers, and offers need-based financial aid instead (Bolles).

Yes, Florida's Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options gives all K-12 students, including Jacksonville children, additional options such as attending a participating private school (Florida Department of Education).

Families do not apply to the state directly. They apply and renew every year through one of two scholarship funding organizations, and one of them, Step Up For Students, lists its mailing address as P.O. Box 54367, Jacksonville, FL 32245-4367 (FDOE). The law makes a Florida resident eligible for K-12 enrollment eligible for the scholarship, with priority first for households at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level or children in foster care, and next for households above 185 and up to 400 percent (Section 1002.394, Florida Statutes).

Step Up For Students says its private school scholarships, offered through the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship and the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options, are available regardless of household income, average $8,000 and cover tuition and fees at an eligible school, with remaining funds usable for registration, books, testing and other approved fees (Step Up For Students). In October 2026 its page invites families to sign up to be notified when applications open for the 2027-28 school year. Because Bolles takes no vouchers, a Jacksonville family checks with each school whether it accepts the scholarship.

Jacksonville's Catholic schools belong to the Diocese of St. Augustine, whose high school list includes Bishop Kenny and Bishop John J Snyder (Diocese of St. Augustine).

Bishop Kenny High School says it traces its start to 1952, when Archbishop Joseph P. Hurley consolidated three Catholic high schools; Jacksonville's Central Catholic High School opened on September 3, 1952 and was renamed that school year for Bishop William J. Kenny, the first American-born bishop of the diocese (Bishop Kenny High School). The school now describes itself as serving 1,400 students in grades 9 through 12, and it says 75 Sisters of Saint Joseph taught or led there between 1952 and 2013.

The diocesan list of elementary schools includes Assumption, Christ the King, Holy Family, Holy Spirit, San Jose Catholic and St. Matthew, plus two St. Paul Catholic Schools, one labeled Riverside and one labeled Jax Beach (DOSA). Assumption Catholic School on Atlantic Boulevard reported 558 students in kindergarten through grade 8 in 2023-24, and St Joseph Catholic School on Old St. Augustine Road reported 557 in Pre-K through grade 8 (NCES; NCES).

The federal Jacksonville figures describe the 2023-24 school year, so a school's own count can already differ: Bolles reports 1,811 students including 85 boarders, against 1,747 in the NCES survey (The Bolles School).

Some Jacksonville schools are missing numbers altogether. NCES lists the Episcopal School of Jacksonville at 4455 Atlantic Boulevard as an Episcopal school spanning Pre-K through grade 12 but shows its enrollment and teacher counts as not available for 2023-24 (NCES). Bolles also runs four campuses, a detail the single NCES address on San Jose Boulevard does not show (Bolles).

The NCES records for these Jacksonville schools carry grades, enrollment and affiliation but no tuition or scholarship participation, which each school publishes itself. Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Florida Department of Education and NCES websites.